Three weeks Post Op

My surgery, November 22, 2011, included debridement of my Achilles as well as a tendon transfer. Debridement is a procedure that removes scar tissue from the Achilles. My Achilles also had enlarged four-times its normal size near in the area of damage so my doctor reduced the size of my Achilles in that portion. The tendon that allows my big toe to bend was harvested from the bottom of my foot and placed inside my Achilles.

Since I have never had surgery, the day of surgery was actually bit of a breeze. I was home eating breakfast at 10:30am; friends were calling, and my daughters were taking care of dad. The nerve block lasted for a while and the pain medication did its job!

Day 2: By the time Tuesday night rolled around, I “hit the emotional wall” of reality. It all sunk in. Not only would it be a long time before I ran again, but I would not walk until next year, 2011. I sat at my computer and begin to search for “Recovery from Achilles Surgery”. I came across a running blog, “The running world according to Dean”. That’s Coach Dean, a very young 54, Dean who has set numerous course, track and stadium records en route to more than 100 career victories in track, cross-country and road races over 35 years of racing. He has achieved Masters All-American status. Coach Dean had entered his own 10-week post Achilles debridement surgery update on the day of my surgery. I found Coach Dean’s blog the day after he wrote the update, as my running world was darkening for me. Nothing else could have made me feel better that night than to read Coach Dean’s blog.

Anyone with Achilles problems should read Coach Dean’s blog (coachdeanhebert.wordpress.com). He provides great details regarding his Achilles injury, the surgery and prognosis of recovery. He has several books out on running and coaches all ages. Reading that Coach Dean was on an Alter-G treadmill at 10-weeks post-op running at 85% body weight was encouraging. Even the fact that he began walking 6-weeks post op was also encouraging.

By Wednesday morning, my body was buzzing to do something other than sit around. I went to the gym and actually had an excellent upper body workout. Thursday was Thanksgiving and by Friday I wanted to try cardio. My first cardio workout was on the Schwinn Windjammer, which is a cardio machine for the arms or as I like to think of it, a bicycle for the arms with adjustable resistance. It worked so well that I am riding it six days a week. My workouts on the WindJammer are between 45 minutes to an hour burning between 650 to 900 calories. Last week I managed to burn a little over 4,800 calories in six workouts.

I am also cautiously using a Multi Hip plate loaded machine that I am very familiar with for my upper legs. My doctor has warned me to be very careful. Though it is for hip flexors, it has a padded bar that can be used for knee lifts, and kick-outs. No part of the lower leg is used. I have to use extreme care to ensure the calf is not flexing, and to ensure proper clearance from the floor for my cast when working the recovering leg. I am using this machine three days a week and going through the entire stack of plates starting out with 5 sets of knee-lifts and five to seven sets of kick-outs. I have been a fitness instructor for ten years and would not be doing these exercises unless I was extremely familiar with the machines.

In addition, I continue with my regular upper body workouts and am now doing abs five to six days a week.

My biggest fear while not running was that my body fat would increase and I would lose all of my cardio endurance. At three weeks post-op, I have not had to change my prior running diet very much. I was accustomed to running 42 miles a week and lifting weights. At three weeks post op, my weight is three pounds below my race weight and my body fat is likely between 7% and 8%. Until I am able to start deep water running, and begin burning calories with my legs, I will continue my cardio workouts on the Windjammer.

The cast will come off in three weeks, and then I’ll begin the transition in a walking boot. This past August and September, all I could do was deep water run. I found that deep water running (five days a week for an hour a day) also kept my body fat pretty close to the same percent I had when running. I even found I could do long runs, recovery runs, and even a bit of a speed work in the water. I also found 12 weeks in a 25 meter lap lane got extremely old!

So what is all the fuss about maintaining race weight and body fat? I simply use it as a base to know where I am fitness wise. The whole point now of not gaining weight and maintaining some fitness is if I gain 15 pounds and try to start back, I am pretty sure other body parts (knees, ankles, hips, joints) all could end up becoming a problem running again. In my last seven years my body weight never fluctuated more than 5 pounds.

The thing for now that concerns me as far as healing, is the fact that I love to rock. So I hope I am not rocking stitches loose or anything else! My first post-op visit to get the stitches out was this past Wednesday. My doctor came in the room and sat with his nurse and asked, “Where in our post op handbook did you read, “You should change your own splint?” I felt like this was confession time more so than a doctor visit. He removed the stitches and said everything appeared to look good. I did get a sneak look at the underwater treadmill at Mississippi Sports Medicine. It looks like it will be a blast to ride. For me, new exercise machines are like an amusement park so I usually can’t wait to ride.

As I have told a couple of friends, the biggest problems so far were a reoccurring cat dream, and a tornado. The third night after surgery, around 2 a.m. I was dreaming well. I vividly remember a 25-pound cat sitting near my feet, in my front yard. As I was standing it attacked and latched on to my foot with claws sunk in and kitty wrapped tightly around my leg. I awoke with my splint tangled in the sheets and apparently I was kicking them violently to get the cat off of my leg, which in turn made my Achilles hurt.

On another night a tornado was reported to be 8 miles from my house and heading directly for it. I thought I could hop on one leg through my garage. This worked the first three steps until I landed on the electrical plug of a power saw and came crashing down.

If you are a runner, post surgery is dramatically emotional. You just don’t think you’ll ever run again, even if it's corrective surgery. I've had the opportunity to talk to Jerry Keywood who had Achilles surgery two years ago and came back strong as a runner. I also by chance got to talk to Joey Poole who dealt with a six month heart condition that he overcame in 2007 to again compete in triathlons. Both of these guys are my inspiration. No matter what you go through in life, it’s always great to talk to someone that has already been through it.

Next up is getting this cast off my leg the first week of January.