Achilles Surgery A Year and a Half Ago, runner afraid to get back on the road

by Lisa
(Naperville, IL , USA)

I had surgery on my frayed achilles January 2011. The surgeon cut the achilles and reattached it to the bone. I also had some bursitis and a Haglund's Deformity. The doctor said my recovery seemed to be going well.

I am a runner and was very frustrated that I really didn't start running again until late September 2011, over nine months post-surgery.

The surgeon was also surprised that I wasn't even attempting to run sooner, since he knows I'm pretty stubborn and determined when it comes to my runs, and he had given me the green light.... But things just didn't feel "right." He said it was probably still scar tissue.... I gave it time, ran on the treadmill sporadically throughout the winter.

Now, June 2012-- I've been running pretty regulary since the spring, but not comfortably. Being pretty attuned to my body, I felt like my muscles had just lost a lot of strength, so with a vengeance, I did some squats, lunges and calf raises.

Now, for the past 4 days or so, I feel a strange weekness... It's not a pain, but just feeling like I can't put to much weight on that right side around the achilles. A physical therapist suggested that perhaps the achilles has detached b/c I've pushed to hard.

Now, I'm concerned. Thoughts???



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Joshua Answers:

Hi Lisa.

Well to be fair, you -did- have your achilles tendon SEVERED and reattached to the bone.

The body doesn't particularly like that, even though surgeons consider it a 'no big deal of course it'll heal good as new and you can run as if there was never a problem' kind of thing.

It's not.

Did you do any rehab, other than immobilization?

Haglund's Deformity is essentially a function of the tendonitis dynamic.

Achilles Tendonitis consists of to tight muscles, too tight connective tissue, inflammation, and nutritional insufficiency.

The tighter a muscle is, the less optimally it functions. Too much pressure gets put on the bone, and the body shapes the bone to the forces placed upon it.

Did the reattachment surgery attach the tendon somewhere other than it's original location?

How badly was the Achilles tendon frayed? Did they cut off/shorten the tendon? If so, how much?

Or did they just 'clean it up', and if so, how much?

Surgery doesn't get rid of too tight muscles, too tight connective tissue, inflammation, nor nutritional insufficiency.

Surgery doesn't fix Tendonitis. It can't. Though it can certainly help, or make things better for some amount of time (after the trauma of surgery heals).

See: What Is Tendonitis


So all the factors that caused the fraying are still in place. I suspect you sense of what your body is doing is pretty correct, and you're probably making the right decision not to push it on the road.


So. What have you done for self care? What have you done to combat the Process of Inflammation?

What have you done for rehab?

To save a step, I'm going to suggest my Reversing Achilles Tendonitis ebook and check out The ARPwave System.







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Joshua Tucker, B.A., C.M.T.
The Tendonitis Expert
www.TendonitisExpert.com