Can i take off the moonboot when i shower and when puttiing on pants? I am on week 3

Hi Scott...30/9/24 completed 3 weeks and the start of week 4. been pwb with 2 crutches. Had appointment with hospital physio 30/9/24 was able to pwb with 1 crutch now....the physio did Thompson test but no movement... She said its still early but was happy with what she sees...can do toe points, side to side, toe crunches without any probs or pain...just wanted to ask if u had a thompson test performed at week 4 andbifbu did any movement? Thanks

My surgeon said I'll be on a boot until week 12 😭😭😭 currently on my week 6 and just got on partial weight bearing with 2 wedges on the boot and have to remove one wedge every 2 weeks. Happy to watch this kind of videos cant wait to get back on my normal days but like you said take it easy and dont rush things.

I'm hoping that in 2024 you're completely healed and better than ever man

Full snapped my left Achilles at the gym 9 years ago, went the non surgical route & couldn’t afford proper therapy so I went to KZbin for help. 2 months ago I ruptured my right Achilles at kickboxing, an am going down the non surgical route once again. I hope to find an affordable Therapist to help me get up & running. Thankyou for your informative video. If it wasn’t for your video, I’d be lost again.

Hey Scott great video just ruptured mine 4 days ago playing ball hockey. Felt like someone hit me very hard with a stick to back of ankle until I realized no one was near me after I went down and looked around. Went to hospital to get cast and broke down leaving hospital realizing how immobile or in my own words useless I was going to be to my wife and two young children. I love working and moving and doing stuff. Immediately got a knee rider and trying to help out. Do dishes and the things I can but it's difficult as you got to rest too. When were you able to actually walk with weight on your feet again ?

Hey Scott. Great videos and Hope u r well... I also ruptured my achilles on 7/9/24..full tear... Just wanted to ask if you felt pain in the middle and upper calf after you ruptured your achilles? The pain feels like you cramp and tender. Its kinda when you get off from elevating your injured leg and onto your crutches. Thanks and all the best to you

Hi, thank you very much for your video. For non-surgecial option, which is the angle of plantal flexion you had?

did your knee / hip hurt because of unbalanced daily walking ? and also curious why you chose non surgical ?

I have to agree at around 12 - 15 weeks, the recovery process is actually slow and not as fast as I want it to be. However, the nurse told me one thing after she had taken the permanent cast off my injured leg in week 2. She stated that slow and steady wins the race. I did not want to re-injure or re-rupture the achilles tendon again. So, I took a more laid back approach to just ensure I do only as much heel raises during the 12-15 week period of recovery. My goal from the previous video, I stated that I should gain around 10-15 lbs of weight on the injured leg on the ball of my toes. And that is exactly what happened on a weekly basis. I walk with my jogging shoes on dailiy - going up and down my stairs of my 2-storey house and walking as needed in my kitchen to living room upstairs. Walking backwards also helped to get the ball of toes to heel movement correctly. I can assure anyone at around 8-15 weeks that doing less is actually doing more to help recovery. Why did I just say this - it's because most of the weight is still going through the heel instead of the ball to toes and my heel was so sore to the point that it hurts to walk. My ankles also frequently swelled up and needed to have the leg raised to reduce swelling. I tried icing and compression socks and they didn't help. Just raising the leg will do the work, especially in bed. To my surprise, the end of 15 week to 16th week, I was up to full weight bearing on the ball of my toes! Moving onto week 16 being able to walk uphill and walking normally without limping! At the end of week 15, I walked into my park in my cul-de-sac. Did a full loop and decided to do another loop with some zig-zag up and down a small hill on grass. It was tough! I wasn't sure if my achilles tendon can handle it but it was doing great. I managed to go up and down like a sine-wave graph up and down the hill and around the block once more going the other way just to make sure my legs get equal workouts. My calf muscles were sore for pretty much 2 days from lactic acid. This is a good sign because you know the muscles are being activated! So, for the weeks of 15 and 16 after 2 days rest after the first walk in the park, I did a walk up and down the hill and around my block every other day. My legs have actually gotten used to the walking and the healing legs actually feels good after the walks. My advice is just continue doing things slowly and heed the pain from the injured foot. Once your injured leg feels comfortable walking, do more only up to when you start to feel some discomfort and then ease off. I also got myself a cheap Bosu ball (half ball) and a balance board off of FBM (you don't need to spend over $40 for exercise equipment). These are great for getting the balance back. Also I have 3 types of balls to work the foot muscles: Basketball, soccer/volleyball, and a lacrosse/tennis ball. The lacrosse ball is interesting because it is hard and the curvature is more than the other larger sizes. What this ball does is it acts like acupuncture to put pressure points on the arch and the rest of the bottom of the foot. The hardness of the ball actually makes the foot feel more relax afterwards. In addition, I tried to grab the ball with the toes to lift it up. This helps to develop the toes and upper foot muscles that's necessary to do the heel raises. Heel raises are definitely essential. The earlier you put weight bearing on the ball and toes of your foot, the faster the recovery. There's one safe way I did this early on (I talked about this for other videos as well) - it is to push up against a bannister while sitting up against a wall. I did this as soon as I got the permanent cast off after 2-1/2 weeks. Because at that early stage, you won't be able to do any heel raises, the doctor(s) told me to do plantar and dorsiflexion motions with my foot. The dorsiflexion up to 95-100 degrees to the shin would be the max you'd want to go before you will feel something on the back of the heel. For the toe and ball of my foot, I would got my foot slanted up against the bannister such that my heel to the ball is around 45-degrees and the back against the wall. So, when you push your leg against the bannister, you will feel the calf muscles kick in, especially the outside one getting activated from the atrophy that took place. I kept doing this on a daily basis with every 2 weeks moving my heel closer to the bannister. However, once your heel can touch flat-footed, raise the foot and use only the toes and ball of the foot without the heel. The foot still needs to develop the necessary muscle and will try to snap the heel against the bannister. This is where raising the foot off the ground and controlling the push will help later on for walking and for heel raises. Developing the inside head of the calf muscle is way harder than the outer one. Walking up hill on the balls of the toes will help develop the inside calf muscles. I also forgot to mention that I also started biking on the recumbent stationary bike at around 5 weeks of recovery. Initially, i started the spins at 30 seconds and stopped because of how much pain it was on my ankles. However, I continued after a day's rest and got up to 2 minutes, then 5 minutes, then to 10 and 15 minutes. Eventually, after several more weeks, I got up to half hour and then 1 hour of cycling with incremental resistance of the magnetic resistance on the flywheel. You don't need to spend hundreds to dollars on a good recumbent magnetic resistance bike either. I also bought this on FBM (for like $85) for my wife initially to get her to do some exercises but I ended up using it. People are giving them away for free because most get lazy and they take up space LOL. But it's been great for my recovery. Definitely worth the $85 I spent! Any spin cycle works, especially if there's magnetic resistance that is almost noise free and smooth. Using the balls of the foot to cycle is the main thing. When I first started off, I could hardly keep the injured foot steady. Over time and keeping a conscious effort to point the toes down helped. When you see on the internet in regards to the achiiles rupture and how fast the recovery will be based on full weight bearing - just know this, it's to just full weight bearing on the whole foot. You can put full weight bearing on the heel of the foot immediately after rupture and through the whole recovery process. It's the weight bearing on the ball to the toes that's what matters. Concentrate on the ball to the toes of the foot. The bottom of your foot will feel sore for sure but if you spread that pressure with the toes, you're gonna thank yourself in the long run because all that pressure on the heel will hurt so much that you'll be sitting with the foot up to relief all that pain!

Found this video today and it was extremely grounded and helpful. I to would have chosen conventional therapy over surgery for an Achilles rupture. It will be interesting to follow this series!

Hey Scott.. Ruptured my achilles on Sat 7/9/24...went emergency that day and was put in moon boot... Saw doctor on Tues 10/9 and was put on Willitis protocol... Been watching your vids and very informative...

Knee scooter made my life a breeze during the 1st two weeks. I am single and the chores around the house were a pain, when using crutches. The rover simplified every task (other than using the stairs)

I am 13 week now after surgery

Super helpful and empathetic. Thank you. Warning about being careful at 12 weeks a great reminder.

scott i like your feet😍

你的痛苦，我能體會。加油👍👍👍

Hey Scott, can you tell me when you were able to do a single heel calf raise? I am at the 7 month mark now. My doc told me to NOT even attempt to do single heel calf raise until 6 month mark. I still don't have the power to do it. I started playing disc golf again at 5 month mark. I walk fairly normal, just a slight limp. Also, non surgical.

Thanks, Scott, for your videos on the rehab of your achilles rupture. I just went through the 12th week and basically experienced the same hardships on the heel raises at around the end of 11th week to mid-12th week periods. I was a bit more advanced as I was pushing for a quicker recovery in the earlier stages from about week 4 to week 8. I've commented on my recovery and self rehab on another KZbinr channel, Evan Brown, if anyone wants to view my long comments on his videos #1-4 (up to week 11). I like that your videos are week by week instead of videos on a segments of weeks. My experiences with week 12 was more of trying to do a bit more, like what you said with the double heel raises. Entering in week 11, I was able to do double heel raises but my injured leg was feeling pain. So, I would only do like one set of 5 raises if I can and stop. I didn't want to go too much further and risk rupturing the tendon again. My week 12 was super busy with work as I work from home maybe around 10-14 hours a day. So, my exercising did reduce. At the same time, whatever exercises I had on my injured leg, it had plenty of rest and recovery. One thing I did do at every end or start of the week is to do at least 15-30 minutes of stationary bike spin at higher resistance. On my other posts with Evan, I began the stationary recumbent bike spin as soon as week 4, which started at very low resistance (4-6 out of 20) at 30 seconds and worked up to slightly higher resistance (6-8 out of 20) to 5 minutes and then to 10 minutes and finally to 15 minutes with medium resistance (8-10) up to about 8 weeks. Now, I'm up to 30-35 minutes at a fairly high resistance (12-16 out of 20). This is to put all the pushing on the ball and toes of the foot. It really helps in stabilizing the ankles. The ankles is the first thing that hurts once you get out of the permanent cast and into the aircast and without any firm support. The cycling helps to build the muscles around the ankle in addition to the forefoot, especially if you cycle without shoes on the flat platform pedals with the straps. What happens is when you're doing it without shoes at around the 5th to 6th week with bare feet pedaling, you'd grab the top part of the pedal edges with toes. The ball of the foot will be on the flat platform. The foot initially will flip flop initially with the injured leg while the uninjured foot will be very stable. So, you'll need to focus on making sure your injured foot stay firm on the pedal like the uninjured foot. The foot will adjust quickly and get stronger the more you do it. Anyway, this strengthening technique is safe on the tendon and I hope it'll help others. It also provides cardio exercising that may be lacking especially when running and other cardio activities are basically non-existent for up to 9 months. Anyway, the way I measure my progress is by measuring how much heel lift I can bear onto the ball of my toes on the injured leg. To do this, I use my bathroom weight scale. Stand on the scale with both legs like regular weighing. Note the full weight on the scale. Then I put my injured foot on the scale and stand on it without any hand support. The flat footed injured leg on the scale should be the same as when both feet are on the scale. All that weight is transferred onto the heel of the injured leg. Now, try to do a double heel lift (with the uninjured leg off the scale and on the floor) but put more weight onto the one that's on the scale. The scale indicator will fluctuate wildly but keep at it. I set my goal to increase by 10lbs every week on the injured foot. So, my weight hovers around 145-150lbs. From week 3, it started at zero - no heel lift. Week 4, seated heel raises are at around 30lbs. Week 5 with cycling, seated heel raises at 45lbs. Week 6 with increased resistance and duration on cycling, seated heel raises at 60lbs. Week 7 continued increase in cycling resistance and 15-20 minutes duration, seated heel raises at around 75-80lbs. Week 8 was more of a rest week with lots of swelling at the ankles but the cycling does help. I tried doing more seated heel raises and started to try to do the standing heel lifts with support mostly from the uninjured leg. So, as the weeks progressed from 9-12, I did mostly a few dual heel raises and measure how much my injured leg can support on the scale. Each successive week once you can start raising the heel with support, my weight on the ball and toes of my injured leg goes up by 10 lbs. On my other posts, I pointed out the misconception of full weight bearing is a measure of how quickly the achilles rupture is. It doesn't matter if you can put full weight bearing on your injured leg while you can stand flat footed on one leg. All that weight bearing is actually on the heel of the injured leg. I can stand on my injured foot the day I ruptured the tendon and I had no balance. 5 weeks into recovery, I can stand on one foot on the injured leg and I have some balance on it for 30-seconds to one minute. However, all that weight bearing is on the heel. The real measure is when you can bear full weight on the toes and ball of the foot with single heel lift on the injured leg - that is the measure that your leg on recovery. The sooner you can bear full weight on the ball of your toes with balance, the sooner your recovery will be. To get there, it requires listening to your body and how much it can push. You definitely want to be more cautious and be more conservative through each week starting in week 3 to start pushing more and more as the weeks progress but not to go beyond pain that will re-rupture the tendon. There are days in all of weeks 5 through 12 that I just decided to raise the leg up to rest it and to minimize the swelling. I also didn't stretch the tendon with dorsiflexion as much as I would like but that is OK. The reason for this is so that the tendon can stretch later on while it gains strength. If you stretch the tendon out too early, it starts to loose strength. When it's overstretch, there will be no strength at all and the only way to correct that is to have surgery to correct the issue. This would pretty much be starting over on recovery. One last thing I like to mention is that I tried to walk on the ball and toes of my feet as early as possible at 10 weeks. It's almost impossible with the injured leg because as soon as I put weight onto the leg, the heel will sink. I just kept at it over this last couple of weeks and by week 12, I was actually able to walk almost with heel raised. This also relieves a lot of heel pains from both legs without shoes on. The amount of pressure going to the heels gets really painful. This is where a good pair of jogging shoes will a good cushioned outsole heel raised helps. Another thing I did quite a bit and because I'm forced to do daily is walking up and down my staircase at home. It's a 2-storey house. So, I need to get downstairs to get to everything and need to get back upstairs to access my work office. What I did noticed is that I can walk up the stairs flat footed with no issue - it's pretty much fairly normal. What I did do in weeks 10 thru 12 is to force heel lift or force my injured leg to plant the ball and toes onto the stairs as I go up rather than to do it flat footed and relying on the heel to push up. At first, it's very hard because my heel would drop immediately. After a week, the leg and foot muscles did get stronger and I was able to do it with almost no hand support on the railings but I keep the hands close just in case! I also make sure my injured foot is fully inside the steps. I don't want the heel to drop below each rung if the heel drops unexpectedly. Onto week 13...

👍🏻

how long did it take you to lift up on your tip toe on the bad foot

Im on my 95 day

I cant do it at all ☹️

Yes im interested in what to do about the spelling when I’m trying to walk the best that I can

Day 25 for me, off with the cast and in a boot, I am still so afraid to move my foot, still very bruised. Very athletic and my calf muscle is basically gone and jello ! Such a weird injury .

I was put into a boot on day 2. Day 1 i instantly went home and elevated it and rested on ice. Am I not supposed to walk in the boot for 2 weeks? I didnt receive crutches so Im wondering if I need to stop walking on the boot.

I’m 6 weeks in. And still in a cast. They are putting me in a boot this week.

So my ppdiatrist only wants me to do heel taps for rhe whole month til the foot gets to 90° and take off the boot at the end of the month. Is it safe to do some of those exercises you demonstrated?

I feel you bro, I ruptured my right Achilles two years ago and had surgery so recovery was horrible to learn again. Rupture my left in June this year so I went non surgical route this time and it’s been a struggle so I feel ya pain. But I’m hanging in there learning to walk again.

Better late than never! How are you doing now? How was your return to work?

Im at 5.5 weeks (non op) and cant raise mine at all for the seated heel raise (have no power from the ball of my foot)

Tra l'altro riesco ad alzarmi di pochissimo solo con un piede malato e solo per pochi istanti, tu quando ci sei riuscito?

Ciao, sono alla settimana 14 e se cammino piano cammino bene mentre se provo ad accellerare zoppico ancora un pó, dici che devo insistere con gli esercizi?

Thanks for doing the video journey Scott. Did the same as you skateboarding last Sunday. It's a bit scary first week with limited knowledge and information. On track now. Cheers.

hey how are you doing now?

Thanks Scott! 4 weeks in.

Thank you Brother, I have my Achilles surgery in 4 days and pretty nervous and understand it's gonna be tough. Appreciate your video 💯👍

Thank you for these videos. I’m on day 8. This is super helpful

Thanks for sharing, day 68 myself with an appointment on day 70. Out of the boot for almost 2 weeks now, your rehab here is a bit ahead of mine though. I look forward to the day where I can do what you just showed with the calf raises.

Best video thank you

I'm Australian too, it's a bit rich to complain about your free treatment. I found the public health system amazing. Great caring people. It could have been a day or two quicker but you should be thankful. I blew my tendon while trekking in Vietnam, there was zero help there, i had to get on a plane and fly back to Australia for treatment.

One more r u able to do snow boarding or karate now ?

Wanted to do martial arts. now I cant .. wil take time .. cause of archives tendon damage. .And I am in cast but its 5% down .. 2 weeks has passed will try to get cast to 20%....

Enjoyed thanks ..

2 months in and it’s super hard

Ciao, dopo quanto tempo hai cominciato a sentire il ritorno di forza nella spinta per camminare?

What was the gap size ?? How many cm ?

I ruptured mine a few days ago. Currently wearing a boot with a few layers inserted. Love the positivity at the end. Some to be had during this journey.

Hi mate, thanks for the videos, lots of helpfull info. I wanted to ask if you recall how thick the space was between the rupture when and if you got a scan? I also wanted to ask how far up from the heal bone your rupture was? Thanks again

Hi, Scott. How are you? From your experience, have you regretted your decision to go non-op? In my country, Costa Rica, orthopedists saying that the only route for this injury is surgery. Do you evaluate your progress at this point good or would you have chosen a surgery if you were in day 1?