Hips great but ruptured my achilles tendon

[toby]

Hi all my old hip buddies and newer ones.
Had a big blow-on holiday in Kenya-went back into the squash court after about 20 years-hip responded superbly-managed to get down to all low shots etc Second day of playing-got more confident and competitive-went for it-BANG-ruptured achilles tendon. Real shame as planning Triathlon as mentioned in my post a couple of months ago! My stupid fault really- didn't warm up at all-behaved like I was 20 again cos hip's so strong and generally feeling great. Didn't want surgery in Kenya, so put in plaster cast to finish final week of holiday.
Now back in UK-surgery tomorrow.
So my friends I hope others will learn from my mistake.
Best
Toby

[daylily]

Hi Toby so sorry you've had this set back but great that the hips doing well.
I used to live in Uganda, next to Kenya. Beautiful countries.
Hope the tendon heals quickly and you can get back to normal
take care
daylily

[JMS]

Sorry to hear that Toby.   Best of luck with the surgery, and hope you get back on your feet quickly.
JMS

[halfdone]

Oh c**p!  Bad luck Toby.  Sorry to say this, but Squash + over 50 + haven't played in 20 years = s****p.  Glad to hear the hips are great.  Get well soon.  At least you're now super proficient at rehab 

[toby]

Daylily, JMS and HD,
Thanks for your support.
I had the surgery on Monday(pretty sore) and came home on Tuesday.
Gotta say this is way harder than the HR. I'm in a special boot and have to keep leg elevated for next two weeks-only time I'm allowed to get up is for the loo. No weight bearing for 6 weeks. Boot to stay on for 3 months. Not even swimming for 3 months. Impact Sport can't start for 6 months. As a result of the inactivity(prevention of DVT) I'll be taking blood thining injections for 6 weeks (didn't take any for my HR-infact I was even off pain killers by day 4). So yeah I'm feeling quite annoyed with myself for being so obviously stupid.
With HR you progress every day-here I'm in limbo having to take it so easy to avoid any mishaps to this intricate surgery.
Hippies be sensible
Toby
ps Some good news though, my oldest daughter achieved superbly in her A levels and secured her place to study veterinary science at Bristol University.
 

[hernanu]

Sorry to hear that Toby... always wary of that since a friend tore both achilles tendons playing basketball. Hope you have a good recovery.

[ScubaDuck]

Toby-

I am sorry you have to go through this.  Best wishes on your recovery.

I have had some Achilles pain during my recovery.  After reading your story I have made sure I am stretching and taking it easy.  So if it is any consolation, you are helping us.

Dan

[toby]

Dan,
Glad to be of assistance.
But you're only just over a few weeks so you must build slowly. I read back over some of your previous posts and see that your pre-op experiences were very similar to mine(my problems went back about 10-15 years and continued with all sport despite the pain and ever decreasing rom). Let me tell you, you're going to get a great outcome from HR. Biking, swimming and eventually running again (despite the 13 year absence). Just remember to do all the conditioning work first!
Best
Toby

[toby]

Well Hippy friends it's been a long time since I posted but I've been meaning to update my old (and new friends) for quite a while-just needed the right time to face the challenge! Since, my last post life's been one hell of an adventure! Sorry but it's going to be a long post-but will hopefully help others.
After the achilles tendon op last August(same leg as resurf) around the one week mark I was feeling really awfull, but with the usual determination tried to remain positive and pull myself together. I just couldn't believe that after such a beautiful hip resurfacing surgery that something less major was making me freel so dreadful.
Anyway, to cut a long story short (12 day mark) just had to contact my surgeon explained the situation-he asked me to get to hospital immediately and that he will arrange for his plastic surgeon to be present look at wound too.
On their inspection they indicated it was serious and would organise emergency surgery.
I had a deep tissue and systemic infection(virulent and unknown bacteria at this time) which had destroyed the Achilles Tendon and the other concerns were the metal hip and even more seriously my life. Swabs from surgery came back with ecoli and other virulent bowel bugs! These probably got there from my trip to Kenya, into a graze on the ankle and being in plaster for 2 weeks prior to returning home for surgery they had time to colonise and despite surgical cleaning, opportuntistically entered the surgical site. Again to cut long story short-had 3 further debridement surgeries, IV drip/pic line/vac pump-eventually at the end of November, confident that I was infection free-my surgeon closed the wound and placed a skin graft over the lower section. Luckily, the hip (despite stiffening up from such a period of immobility) remained infection and trouble free!
I made a good recovery despite learning to walk without a tendon (it's like a ball which doesn't bounce) I returned to work in January and by April could walk ok but used crutches for long distances-I was back on the mountain bike and was doing the usual 2.3k swim every Saturday and worked hard to regain hip flexibilty.
OK now I'm at home recovering from surgery last week.The original surgical plan was to do a tendon transfer (FHL) and free up the scar tissue and cover the wound with a vascularised free flap. Instead, my surgeons made the intra operative decision to resect and recreate a tendon using the scar tissue which had miraculously filled the gap between the proximal and distal tendon and to carefully close the existing skin graft-much less invasive and will be a real result if it works!
So feeling good and positive at the 9 day mark and whilst I've a long road ahead a triathlon remains my eventual goal (which I was working on post hip resurfacing). Throughout all this my Prof Cobb hip resurfacing has been me with tremendous loyalty!
Best
Toby
ps Still be keeping up to date on Pat's wonderful site enjoying the successes of my UK friends and those across the pond.

[hernanu]

Wow Toby... what a journey. Really glad things improved and healed so far. A tendon from scar tissue that had already formed?!?!? Amazing.

That kind of thing can happen anywhere, I guess. So good you're back on track and the hip wasn't compromised.

[bilateralbliss]

So pleased Toby all is well at last, such a terrible thing to have to go through. Thanks for sharing- good news for the hip!!

[halfdone]

Hi Toby
I have not been on the board for quite a while and was not aware of your achilles saga, which must have been scary and unpleasant.  I was pleased to read that you seem to have been taken care of well.  I hope things have continued to improve and that you are now in a good place, tendons, hips, and otherwise.
Best wishes

[hernanu]

How's things, halfdone?

[halfdone]

All good thanks Hernan, how about you?  Coincidentally I will be in for my annual ortho visit early next month - 7 years on left, 2 on right.  Found some helpful links on the site about the latest thinking on metal ions etc.

[hernanu]

I'm doing great on the hips front. Two and a smidgen on the right, two and a quarter on the left.  Good that you're doing well. I had my metal ions test a bit back, came back fine for a bi hippy.

Good luck on the ortho visit, I was told not to come back for two years.

I am pretty sure I had taken a shower and brushed the odd teeth, so it's probably not me... so pretty sure they just don't feel the need to have me harangue them and ask them to pull up different views of my x rays.

BTW - should change that handle to fullydone... 

[halfdone]

That's great Hernan, particularly as I know you are very active.  BTW, I appreciate your posting your ions level test results on the board, and the other posters who have posted links to the latest thinking on "acceptable" ion levels for hippies.  My results came back at pretty much the same levels as yours, so it's good to have all that context and data to understand the results.  I have not yet heard my ortho's official opinion, which I expect he will give me at the appointment in light of the X-rays also, but given my hips are working well and being worked fairly hard, I'm hoping the visit will be routine.

Thought about changing the handle, but I got attached to the old one.   

[toby]

HDx2, Guy, (apologies in advance for a lengthy post)
Great to hear from hear from you, thanks for asking about me.
Following my post op July update where my achilles was reconstructed using the scar tissue all was going well over August. I returned to work(teacher) first week in September for the start of term, mobile on crutches and in a Vacoped boot. Unfortunately, after 2 days leg was very red swollen and sore, in my true idiotic style I didn't take heed of the signs, I guess I didn't want to let my colleagues or students down and so continued to teach. Anyway by the end of the week I was back in hospital leg resembling elephantitis (maybe I should post some pic's if there's the interest and Pat's approves)-it was actually severe Cellulitis! I/V antibiotics, special potassium baths, creams etc and fortunately things improved but this was a major setback which put me back a couple of months. Cellulitis is pretty horrendous particularly when it affects post op healing tissue1
Anyway, fast forward to now-6 months post op. I am able to walk normally(very swiftly) without a limp, I've been back on the exercise bike for past 2 months and now that the wound has been healed for a month I'm ready for swimming. Still have quite a lot of stiffness, mainly start up stiffness and internal inflamation (some of which remnants of Cellulitis), ROM slowly but surely improving. My surgeons (orthopaedic and plastic) are amazed by my recovery and put it down to my determination and desire to continue with sport. They indicate that it will take 18 months for the maximum recovery I'm likely to achieve.
So all in all, to use the old British phrase-mustn't grumble. This time last year I was hoping to be able to walk again-now my future goal is to be able to achieve a jog (I'll never see 6 or 7 minute mile pace again-I'd be grateful for 10 even slower but would love to experience something resembling slow running). Hence, I've been pretty lucky I guess.
BTW today is the 3rd anniversary of my HR and throughout all this with huge periods of immobility the hip has been great!
Best
Toby
ps How's your progress? Where are you at re-sport?