6 weeks post op Achilles tendon surgery.. experiencing a lot of pain.
Posted , 12 users are following.
Hello. As stated above, I'm 6 weeks post op. I'm a 30yr Old male. I was playing basketball, made a quick dash and next thing I know my entire leg went numb.
I went a week later in for surgery. My initial pain was not too bad. I was taking pain medal as ordered but decided to wean myself off.. they were making me feel sick.
I am now 6 weeks post op and the pain seems to have no relieve. The site itself does not work.. it's the calf and the shin that have excruciating pain. I still have a lot of swelling to my foot and simply rubbing my hand on my foot hurts the top layer of my skin on my foot. I have no clue what's normal, or what's not.. I've tried to look for symptoms online but to no avail. I mentioned the symptoms to my MD at 5 weeks and feel like he just shrugged it off. Is this normal? And if so how soon can I expect this pain to go away??.. there's been nights when I have spent the entire night suffering in pain.
0 likes, 33 replies
raven94187 Luis125
Posted
Sorry to hear that you're still experiencing pain. I'm 5 months post op. Never felt pain after, but still experiencing a lot of burning in the foot when touched by anything and that's because of nerve damage or disruption. Also my foot is still numb and swells a lot if I walk on it too much. I was told that all of these issues will subside over time.
Best of luck and prayers for 100% healing.
Luis125 raven94187
Posted
Thank you raven, up until week 4 I wasn't feeling too much pain either. Then towards the end it got really bad.. I'd say when I woke up my pain got to about a 12... it was one of the worst pain I've experienced. ( I've broken 8 bones) and nothing hurt this bad. They had to give me 3 dilaudids (I usually don't take meds) but then I had no pain for the following 3/4 weeks. The end of the 4th week up until this very day the pain will wake me up at night. I can't massage it because the whole upper leg area is so tender to touch. All I can do is taking medicine to help ease the pain and that's only temporary. I'm glad to hear ito not the case for you... I'm not even walking yet so I don't know why this pain would be there.
Heck630 Luis125
Posted
Your pain is probably from swelling or the way you walk. Elevate above heart and ice at least twice a day. I also found if you wear socks that go above incision it helps a ton. The walking is key we with Achilles injuries tend to adjust our foot we walk like a duck. Heel to toe very important and straight. I still get occasional pain more like discomfort but not uncommon from what I've been told. I've been back on my feet of course with boot since day 17 after surgery. Good luck takes times. Be patient you can plan on no sports for 6 to 9 months with full revivers in a year. Physical therapy and the home exercises are a must. Good luck again be patient.
Luis125 Heck630
Posted
Hi, and thank you for responding. I would attribute some pain to walking but my doctor hasn't even given me the green light to walk yet. I'm wearing the black boot but no ambulation on it. And I this cold compression machine I use... it helps a lot. But I can't sleep with it. I elevate the foot aso much as possible and even when it's elevated the calf pain is so bad, I feel the pain of the pillows pushing against the calf muscle and the shin hurts just as bad. If I don't take meds the pain eventually gets so bad it radiates to my lower back of the leg that was operated on only. I just don't feel like it's normal. I'm a nurse and this just doesn't make sense to me.
Heck630 Luis125
Posted
Wow sounds like surgeon didn't do such a good job. Being a nurse I too am in the medical field if your surgeon brushes you off nag the hell out of him or her and get ultrasound make sure it's no a clot. I was on aspirin daily for 4-6 weeks
Luis125 Heck630
Posted
I'm going to call him tomorrow and try to get a sooner date in to see him. I was going to ask my therapist on Wednesday if they thought it was normal. Since I'm sure they see those injuries often. I'm just glad to see that my suspicions aren't farfetched or crazy.
Rob9700 Luis125
Posted
Hi Luis,
Sorry to hear about your injury and especially the level of pain and discomfort you are experiencing. I am about 20 weeks post op.
Still have a little swelling and numbness around the ankle, and some discomfort associated with PT exercises intended to strengthen closer leg and fort muscles, which atrophied from immobility in boot surprisingly quickly.
But my recollection of pain is that it was not nearly as intense as yours. Similar response to opioid pain meds: made me nauseous too. I was off those after a couple days and took Tylenol for the next week or two.
A lot of reports of post op experience as well as from those who opted not to have surgery. Quite a wide range of experiences. I'm not a doc or PT, but your level of intense pain does seem at the very high end. .
Swelling can affect the sural nerve which results in tingling and numbness mostly on heel and small toes. I was having shooters (intense but short duration shots of pain mostly at heel), but those have largely subsided at this point.
Most have reported that some swelling can persist for many months--8 to a year or more. But eventually the symptoms fade.
Have you discussed with PT? Is the MD you spoke to the surgeon?
Man, what a bummer. I hope you can get some relief soon. Let us know how it goes.
Luis125 Rob9700
Posted
Hi Rob. I will be seeing therapy this coming Wednesday. I'm a nurse myself, so I understand how swelling can increase the pain on the foot itself and decrease sensitivity. But what continues to baffle me is why my calf, area and shin are both hurting so much. My MD was my surgeon and I told him last week and he said it was normal. I was taking tramadol at the time and it literally didn't help one bit. I felt really bad calling the doctor to beg him for something stronger because I didnt want him to think i was drug seeking but like I stated before the pain was so bad I wasn't sleeping at night and the pain would bring me to tears. I've watched YouTube videos of people recovering and none of them have complained of this magnitude of pain this far along in their process. Im definitely very concerned.
Rob9700 Luis125
Posted
I can see why you are concerned. I don't understand shin pain either. Didn't have that. Ice helped a lot with swelling. Maybe nerve pain?? If tramadol doesn't touch it...
Hope you can find relief. As a medical pro you have more knowledge than the rest of us out here in blogosphere. Trade between pain and risks associated with heavy duty pain meds. Seems that recovery REALLY slow first few weeks, then gets a little more noticeable.
Luis125 Rob9700
Posted
SgtMaj58 Luis125
Posted
Hi Luis,
Merry Christmas.... I'm sorry to hear about your incident, I'm 52 and tore mine playing football. Concerning your pain at six weeks, are you in a cast or splint? If it's former, (cast) they are put on tight with little to no give. If your doctor is not paying attention to your comments, reiterate that your pain is not associated with the surgery i.e. your shin. Swelling is to be expected and may last up to 14-15 months post surgery in some form. Your repaired tendon is still weak and must stretch back to normal working length (physical therapy ). I'm at 7 weeks post surgery and in PT. Still swelling when wear walking boot all day, but almost gone when boot off 8+ hours. Hang in there. ...
Luis125 SgtMaj58
Posted
Merry Christmas to you as well 😊😊. I'm currently on my waking boot.. but don't have the green light to walk until next week when i see therapy. I had to call him twice last week because of the pain. And I made sure to say that it wasn't the surgical site that was hurting but my shiname and calf and still he didn't seem to question the why. I still have a pretty good amount of swelling which I attribute the tingling on my foot to, but it shouldn't affect my calf and definitely not my shin.
Heck630 Luis125
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I don't understand how your are not walking even in boot yet. I resumed boot and walking 17 days after surgery. Started PT at 3 weeks exact. Bug your surgeon something isn't right.
Luis125 Heck630
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I had my surgery on the 11/23. I had the cast removed on 12/7 and given the black boot and I was told to set up and appt with therapy 2-3 weeks out and no walking on the boot. Yeah. I figure at this point I'm going to have to change my appt date.. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't something everyone else was also going through.
karen_04673 Heck630
Posted
Yes, I agree, bug your dr. I have been very lucky, mine gave me his cell phone number and has told me to text if I had questions. I have behaved and only done it three times since October.