Peroneal tendon surgery recovery

Hi Renee,

You had four surgeries on your foot at once, that's pretty major. I hope your healing is going great.

So, I've noticed many of us foot patients seem to opt in for more follow-up or remedial ankle surgeries (ligaments and tendons, etc.) Many of these invasive procedures may be necessary, or not, depending on individual circumstances.

We all seem to be in a hurry to get a quick fix to our problems, and surgery may sometimes seem a quicker and 'easier' solution rather than a lot of hard physiotherapy over a long period of time, or using less popular or less-proven techniques like PRP and prolotherapy, for example.

By all means listen to your doctor if you trust him or her when elective surgery comes up in discussion. But folks it is your body, so listen to your gut and if you are doubtful remember that you can always get a second opinion.

As you know, any surgery extends recovery time, and because it is invasive it may lead to complications. And there is no guarantee your foot will return to normal after the procedure.

You are always free to ask your health care provider if non-surgical interventions available for some cases.

Good luck to all of you struggling with your feet. Remember, the informed and aware patient will always do better in reclaiming health.

Hi I've been having a lot of problems with my right foot and ankle for over 3 years. I've tried everything before surgery to fix it but nothing worked. So when they were finally fixing my tendonitis in my ankle they also had an internal ankle brace in along with releasing my chronic plantar fasciitis. So unfortunately after years of pain I gave in and did the surgery.

I've been out of the splint and into a walking cast for 2 days now and I can walk without crutches and very little pain. It's been great

When you had PRP, did it help? I dont have a tear that shows up on MRI but still have peroneal tendon pain 6 months after rolling my ankle. meeting with a physiatrist to try PRP.

Agreed. Conservative measures can fix a lot but when you have totally torn tendons and ligaments etc it's not going to work.

I had my repair for my left foot three weeks ago after having my right done too. Had a brostrum done this time too. Started partial weight bearing at around 9-10 days with two crutches, then down to one crutch around 12-14 days, and have been using boot alone or boot + cane for long walking since. No issues at all. Early weight bearing is always the key.

I saw many different surgeons too and it seemed the three podiatrists I saw were using 4-6 week of casting and no weight bearing and the orthopedic foot and ankle surgeons I saw were early weight bearing early ROM etc. Not in the medical field or anything but that's just my observation from both feet and 5 different foot and ankle specialists (2 orthopedic foot and ankle fellowship MDs 3 podiatrists)

i am new to this group and looking at possible peroneal tendon surgery. i wanted to see how you healed up and if your nerve pain got better?

I am two years post surgery now and i am basically back to normal. I participate in a lot of athletic activities and can compete nearly as well as i always have. It does take a good year before most stiffness goes away, but i would go through the surgery all over again rather than deal with a subflexing peronial tendon for my whole life. I had a pretty complex surgery but never had the nerve pain afterwards. The pain medication is a must though to sleep and whatnot otherwise it would be unbearable.

You need to just push through it. After about 10-14 days nothing is going to go wrong with the repair with weight bearing. Just push through it and it'll slowly get better. Surgeons taking way too long with allowing weight bearing. Ridiculous and hurts your recovery. Been through two of thrse on each foot.

I can't imagine doing this again. I never want another surgery of any kind on my feet. The immobility has driven me crazy. It also didn't help doing it 2 days after my son got married and moved out. This has left me way too much time to sit and think about him being out of the house, getting older and my mother getting older. Just really bad timing.

I have been up on crutches off and on today with 25% weight bearing and I have not had any pain. It swells and my toes turn dark red/purple but no pain. I hope this is a good sign.

Yeah. I recommend starting PT early too. I started it at about 10 days on my right side and 6 days on my left. Makes all the difference. Just slowly progress; 25% for two days then go to 50 etc. You'll get there and pain is totally normal when you start weight bearing; you'll be dealing wit weight bearing pain for at least two weeks in the boot.

Don't forget to work extra hard on your toes; mistake I made was ignoring them in my rehab exercises. Ended up having trouble walking when I came out of the boot since the toes weren't moving and weren't grabbing the bottom of my shoe. You'll get there don't worry! Massage the hell out of that wound too to get rid of the scar tissue that built up from being non weight bearing for so long.

I started wiggling my toes a couple days post op. As soon as they took the wrapping off my toe area I started touching them and moving them around some. It made me feel better at least moving my toes when I couldn't move anything else. As soon as I got in the boot I started scrunching them up like trying to pick something up with them on the bottom of the boot. Pt also had me doing an exercise flexing my foot towards my head and scrunching my toes at 2 wks post op. This wk they had me do the wobble board which I could control well but could not make edges touch floor. They also put a towel on floor and had me grab it with my toes and slide it back and forth while putting pressure down with my foot. Then he rolled a towel up and put ball of foot on it and try to put heel all the way on floor and back up. These were all new exercises along with walking with crutches with 25%weight bearing. I go back Friday and hopefully will have even more ROM and strength. Maybe next week I can increase weight bearing.

Right now I only walk a few minutes in my house before I can feel the swelling starting and toes get really dark. In your experience how long before I can go an hour or two before swelling etc? I really want to take my daughter school clothes shopping like we do every year but I want to be able to do it with her not have to go sit down every 10 minutes.

The swelling gets really bad. I wish surgeons were more accessible so you didn't have to ask people on the internet; medicine needs a bit of a revolution I think.

Anyway, one thing you can do is mess with the amount of air in your boot. If you jam pack it full sometimes that makes the swelling sensation go away. There's also a way to wrap ace bandages in a figure 8 form that you can google up which will help push the fluid up away from your foot.

Another idea is to get some NSAIDs My surgeon the second time around put me on Naproxen 375 mg 2-3 times a day which is just a stronger version of Aleve. It really helps with the swelling if you stick with it around the clock for the weeeks you are transitioning off the crutches.  Of course I'm not remotely medically qualified or a doctor so you'd have to talk to the surgeon's office, but hey it worked for me. Obviously icing it and elevating it makes a big difference too.

I think they intentionally leave the details out sometimes so patients won't chicken out before sugery. I also think it's better getting actual medical advice from the doctor but there's something to be said for personal experience. I think this is one of those things that you really have to experience for yourself to understand all the various pains etc. It helps some to talk to others who have been through it or are going through it and know what there experience was.

Thanks for taking the time to give me some information.