Health on Evan Hoffman

One Year Later

Tue, 16 Jul 2019 07:38:13 +0000

Today marks one year since I had the Achilles’ tendon repair surgery. Life has mostly returned to normal and I can do everything I was doing before the injury. I do get stiffness in the tendon area, but I actually get that on both legs even though it was only my left tendon that ruptured. And, thinking about it now, I realize that I had had stiffness in both tendons for a while. After sitting for a while, usually an hour or more, when I first stand up I can barely walk for about 10 seconds until it loosens up, and then it’s basically fine. But I can ride my bike, walk, sprint to catch a train, take stairs two at a time, and have even gone back to the ocean a couple times - which was the real leap of faith, since that’s how I injured it in the first place.

Day 77 post-op: 11-week doctor's visit

Tue, 02 Oct 2018 08:16:58 +0000

This Monday, October 1st, marked eleven weeks since I had surgery to repair my ruptured Achilles tendon. At my follow up visit with the surgeon, he looked at the incision scar and seemed impressed at how well it’s healed. He said this is how it usually looks for patients after a year of healing. I guess there’s no way to know how much of that is just how my body heals and how much is due to my physical therapist working the scar tissue with his IASTM torture device (joking).

Day 63 post-op: back to the office

Thu, 20 Sep 2018 08:09:16 +0000

This past Monday, Sept 17th, I finally returned to the office, after almost 11 weeks being out. I was on long weekend (July 4th) when the injury occurred, and worked from home the following week. I then had the repair surgery on July 16th, and spent about two weeks just sitting on the couch recovering - WFH wasn’t really an option for that, since I had to keep my leg elevated above my heart. Since then I’ve been working from my home office.

Day 45 post-op: started physical therapy

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 12:16:26 +0000

Had my first physical therapy session today. The doctor’s prescription said nothing past 0 degrees planar flexion so there wasn’t a lot they could do, but they did a pretty good massage on the calf and worked the scar tissue a bit, and gave me some basic stretching and exercises to do. Rocking the foot front to back, side to side, and around in an orbital motion, as well as scrunching up the toes. Nothing really special, but I guess it’s progress.

Day 38 post-op: no more wedges

Wed, 22 Aug 2018 12:53:58 +0000

Had my “6 week” followup with the surgeon today. 38 days isn’t really 6 weeks, but due to some scheduling issues this is as close as I can get. He took off the last strip of tape on the incision and declared that healed. Most of the scabbing has fallen off and it there’s just a scar there right now.

He had me remove the last wedge from the boot, and also had me stand on the floor without the boot on for the first time. It felt a little weird, but no pain. It definitely felt tight if I bent my knee a bit, and he said it looked like there was noticeable loss of muscle mass in the left leg as well.

Day 25 post-op: walking again (sort of)

Tue, 14 Aug 2018 00:30:06 +0000

Had my second post-op followup today (August 10th, 2018), 25 days after having Achilles’ tendon rupture repair surgery. The doctor took the tape off the incision, said it was all closed up but there was still a part that was “soft” so he put a strip of tape back on.

He told me I could now get the area wet, as in “run water over it,” but not rub or scrub it. So showering is slightly less of an ordeal now, since I don’t need the cast protector.

Day 10 post-op: got the stitches out

Thu, 26 Jul 2018 15:55:16 +0000

Today was my first followup visit with the surgeon after the surgery. Apparently everything is going well. He took the stitches out, but said the wound isn’t completely closed at the very bottom, so no getting it wet for a while. He gave me the Thompson test again and a couple other evals and said the tension was back in the tendon. Still can’t put any weight on it for another couple weeks. He took the dressing and cast off and wrapped it in an ace bandage and then had me put the boot back on. Not much to report, but I guess it’s good news, all things considered.

Day 4 post-op for Achilles' tendon repair surgery

Fri, 20 Jul 2018 18:46:22 +0000

Today’s Friday, 7/20/2018; I had the operation on Monday. I made a couple Youtube videos before and after the operation describing it. According to the surgeon, it went well. My leg is in a dressing from just below the knee to the tips of my toes, which it will be in until my followup visit on July 26th. At that point I expect to get another full-calf dressing/cast. I can’t put any weight on the left leg at all, which has been fairly annoying so far. After ~3 weeks I should get transitioned to the boot for another 9 weeks.

Monday is the day

Sat, 14 Jul 2018 09:39:57 +0000

Today is a beautiful Saturday. My stupid injury happened a week ago today. I spent this past week visiting doctors and getting ready for the repair surgery. I worked from home as much as I could, but it was hard. I’m not really in any pain but lack of mobility has already taken a toll emotionally. I hate commuting but I like being at work.

I’m supposed to be at the hospital at 12:30 pm. The surgery will begun around 2:00 pm. It takes an hour and then there’s the recovery time, so I should be able to get home around 7 or 8 pm. I’m not too worried about the surgery itself, more the long recovery. I’ve never had a cast on my leg, and even this past week with the boot I’ve been able to hobble around and put weight on it. Post-op I’ll have a cast on for about 3 weeks where I can’t put any weight on it at all. That’s kind of terrifying at this point.

The results are in

Tue, 10 Jul 2018 18:30:22 +0000

MRI-3T LEFT ANKLE NON CONTRAST

HISTORY: M25.672 Left ankle stiffness M25.572 Left ankle pain

TECHNIQUE: MR imaging of the left ankle was performed without IV contrast on a 3.0 Tesla high-field wide-bore magnet.

COMPARISON: None

FINDINGS:

TENDONS/MUSCLES: There is moderate Achilles tendinosis with a high-grade tear at the myotendinous junction. There is no full-thickness discontinuity however fibers there is marked laxity of torn fibers at the myotendinous junction. Additionally, there is a second site of interstitial and superficial tearing comprising 30-40 percent of the total tendon surface area along the course of the distal tendon spanning a length of 4 cm up to the calcaneal insertion site. There is no muscle atrophy or intramuscular edema.

What the hell happened to my leg?

Sun, 08 Jul 2018 16:49:50 +0000

Yesterday, Saturday, July 7th, 2018, I went to Flying Point beach in Southampton. I went by myself because my son felt like he had swum enough during the week, and I didn’t feel like convincing him, and my wife also didn’t want to go. The weather was gorgeous, and I’d been in the ocean a couple days before at Tiana in Hampton Bays.

[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d15310.981614981432!2d-72.35024207593645!3d40.888837289145805!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x89e895642d44e995%3A0xd37cf181a9c35ea3!2sFlying+Point+Beach!5e0!3m2!1sen!2sus!4v1531086534669&w=600&h=450]

I got to the beach around 3 PM. All I brought with me was a towel, my phone, and a Gatorade. I dropped them off about 20 yards from the water and walked down. The only people in the water were a couple of teenage boys, despite a pretty big crowd on the sand. I figured the water must be pretty cold to keep so many people out, but when I got my feet in it felt pretty nice.