Guys - let me take a moment to testify.
Open Achilles Tendon Repair surgery SUCKS!!!!
I knew this would be frustrating when it happened. I knew it would slow me down, yada yada...but to be honest, I went to the hospital on Tuesday expecting a minor outpatient surgery procedure...let me just say that I was not prepared for what followed.
A quick bit of history, until now, the most serious injury/illness I've ever had was a sprained ankle.
They numbed my leg, knocked me out, cut me open and fixed my tendon. I work up and had to pee in a major way so they let me off onto my crutches and I'm off to the can. I'm about to finish my business and BANG - down I went...fell right there in the bathroom floor..in storms a nurse who helps me up and assures me that we'll just tell everyone the wetness on the front of my shorts is 'just water'.
Anyway, I go home and really I didn't feel that bad...the nerve block they put on my leg was to give me relief for "16-20 hours". I get home, prob the leg up and eat a chicken sandwich...then I go to sleep. My wife wakes me up every 4 hours to take my meds and drink some water...and then, about midnight (10 hours post-op) I got to feel what I pray is the "10" on that pain scale they ask you about at the doctor. Let me just say that what I once thought was a 7 is now a 2!!! Oh, I just cut my finger off...yeah, it's throbbing a little, I'd say it's about a 6 now doc!! seriously, it was that bad.
So I'm alternating Percocet and Meprazine every 3 hours (taking the max dosage of each) for the next 12 hours before the pain gets back down to about an 8 where it stayed for about 24 hours...then it just faded to about a 3 and it has hovered between 2-3 since....with one spike back to about a 7 today that lasted for 30 mins or so after re-wrapping my leg to tighten the wrap back up (which is done to help prevent blood clots in the leg which is pretty much the 1 really bad thing I have to look out for).
Anyway, I'm still not right...I'm getting closer...have been off the narcotics for 2 full days now and using advil.
I don't go back to the doc until tuesday...in the meantime I'll do my best to take it easy and keep my foot elevated.
I won't say that I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy (because I can think of some pretty bad things to do with those guys) but, I certainly would not wish this on anyone not on the "worst enemy" list.
My advice, stretch well before any exercise...and take care of your achilles tendon...if this ever hits you, it sucks.
