hey ya zipp by the sounds of things your injury has been around 6months old and you're getting back into badi. and am i right that its a complete tear? if so 6months in and back into badi thats pretty fast in my opinion, you shouldnt expect to feel awesome just yet. probably take a few more months in rehab before you get anywhere close to your old performance. umms also i think you should try stretches. after a tear complete or partial matters not, you get inflamation, and fibres trying to grow back. the thing is when they grow back they dont grow in a parallel manner with the lines of stress. what you get is a lot of adhesions to skin, blood vessels and what not...and just messy fibre growth. this is called scar tissue, scar tissue is not just on the top layer of the skin but a lot of it is under too. when scar tissue forms the fibres are not as elastic as the normal tissues, as a result you get less movement. thus your TIGHTNESS. Also contracture is a process which occurs with scar tissue, when ever you scar tissue, after some months contracture occurs where the skin/etc.. everything there shrinks, shortens. you must stretch to prevent it !!!! it doesnt matter if your on your feet all day at work, if you do not intervene and forcibly stretch your tissues around your achilles the length does not change. what you should do is do regular and i mean as much as you can. 15-30second stretches where you hold the stretch. 15seconds allows enough time for you to deform/lengthen the tissue and have it stay lengthened. any lower the muscle/tendon/etc.. will revert back to its short length. so do those stretches. 10 lots of 15second holds/stretch, minimum 3times a day. the more often you do the more your body adapts. for your shoes you might need orthotics, becuase when you snapped/damaged your achilles there is no longer tension pulling your back of your foot. as a result during that rehab time your body adapts to a loss of tension and now that your back on court and playing your body needs to once again adapt to the new loads and stresses on the foot. your foot has many arches which position your foot to allow good force transmission, etc... so you might need orthotics to help support your arches and therefore have less forces going through your ankle and tendons. itch = i say possibly due to the changes in your foot position due to damage to your ahcilles and it might be scratching against your shoes (explains your uncomfort too) and getting some sort of irritation feels like its tearing may be because it actually is. you cant just heal tendon and jump into sports, while your achilles was damaged you would had had a lot of time off sports, standing etc... and just weight bearing on that leg, the muscles and bones everything ! will have gotten weaker, you need to progressively load your leg again. and strentehn the structures hope that informs you a bit zipp and @ Happy Cdn, your leg will never feel 100% ever although that sounds kinda harsh, its just the way we heal, sporting atheletes who undergo insane surgeries, physio everything, if they can get 90% its really good already, and for the avg joe if your feeling anything near 90% you're doing awesome already.
Great post from bckeen.He sums it up very well .I had a total rupture of my achilles tendon(right foot) in 2002 whilst playing and after surgery and rehab i started playing again a year later and still do.My achilles has grown thicker with the scar tissue and my calf muscle has not got back to the size it was before the injury.I definitely have lost some strength in my right leg and am slightly slower into action but i have no inhibitions whatsoever to move around the court .The hardest thing is to take the fear away out of one's mind and avoid being paralysed on court by the thought that it could happen again
I tore my achilles (90%) about 5 years ago. I was in a cast for 2 months, then an adjustable brace for another 2 months. It was another 4 months after I was out of the brace before I could run normally and another 2 months after that before I trusted both the tendon and my calf to play badminton again. I now play at pretty much the same level I did 5 years ago. I can also recommend the vitamin e but beyond that I also recommend a massage therapist at least once a month for the next year. Having that area massaged for 15-20 minutes will help break up forming scar tissue and also increase blood flow to the area. The calf and foot muscles will also be tight from unaccustomed excersise and a massage helps there. Keep in mind I'm not talking about a massage at the spa, I'm talking about a licensed massage therapist who understands muscle groupings and how they affect each other. The first time I ever went to a massage therapist it was for lower back pain. She started massaging my hips and I was like "wth?" but after twice a month for 2 months my back pain completely vanished.
Had a partial tear of my Achilles tendon happen about 3 years ago. Worst still it was in a final of a competition which I was winning at the time. Was out a total of 9 months. Went to my doctor how wrongly informed me just to rest for 6-8 weeks and I should be fine. The usual anti inflammatory/pain killers crap. 2 months later no better so went to a physio that was recommended. He told me the waiting around made the situation worse and had I gone to a physio immediately I would not be looking at such a long recovery. Several months of work and rehab finally got back playing. Unfortunately it happened to my other ankle a few months later but this time was back playing light games within 2 months. The physio made me soak my ankle twice a day in as hot water (as hot as I could bear), it was uncomfortable at first but did seem to aid the healing. So the moral of the story ignore a doctor and see a specialist won't make that mistake again. Not to bad mouth doctors but it is always best to see a person who specifically deals with sport injuries even if the cost is a bit more. The hardest thing I found was the fear of going back playing not knowing if this was going to happen again. Only now I realize it hurts far more not playing than worrying about injury.
Keep in mind that GPs are exactly that, General Practitioners. They are so used to proscribing rest and liquids for the cold/flu (which is 50 percent of what they see) that they do it for everything...
I can walk and play but noticed there is a muscles that is tighten up in the achilles that's shaped just smaller than a ping pong ball bulging out. Is that due to lack of exercise to loosen up tendon or should I do some jogging which I hear will work.
Hi Zipperat I agree with other posters that you appear to be commencing badminton a bit too soon. However surgeons often have their own criteria for recovery and some are more pro-active or aggressive in their management than others. But in general I've not seen many post TA repairs return to competitive/high impact loading sports within such a short space of time as yours. I've worked with these injuries before in my NHS physio work and have also diagnosed TA ruptures that have been missed by GPs. I agree with the observation that GPs are by definition and training 'general' practitioners and therefore have a huge medical caseload from cardiology, neurology, orthopaedics, paediatrics, internal medicine etc, etc...so it's not surprising that they can't be experts in everything. But of concern is your new report of the small lump that is developing alongside your TA. I would advise that you see your GP/physio/consultant for a review to investigate if this is just soft tissue thickening/scarring or it has developed a partial rupture. I hope it isn't, but it needs a review as soon as you can. Best to stop the badminton for now and forget the running, cycling, gym exs too till you've been seen. If you're swimming then keep it gentle. Best wishes and let us know how things develop.
