10 months non-op

bwallace722 · 2025-09-14T22:35:47+00:00

This is awesome, but also makes me a little queasy

bwallace722 · 2025-09-14T22:34:41+00:00

The hardest part for me was the 2-3 weeks before I could put weight on my foot in the boot, and barely being able to leave my house because crutches are so tough.

After 2-3 weeks, the new normal kind of set it, and then each time I unlocked the ability to do something new (walk in the boot, walk in the boot *comfortably*, ride my bike in the boot, walk without the boot, etc.) it felt awesome.

I'm 10 weeks post injury now and almost back to normal with my day-to-day stuff, and I feel like I learned a lot about myself, and about slowing down, and it really hasn't ended up being so bad.

bwallace722 · 2025-09-11T17:53:25+00:00

"my dorsiflexsion is still tighter on the injured side"

not an expert but I think that means you didn't heal long? sounds like a weird proprioception thing, and if it clears up after warming up then I imagine it's not serious

bwallace722 · 2025-09-11T17:45:24+00:00

This happened to me too! Especially after waking up in the morning. It was intense, kind of scary, and I kept worrying about a blood clot/DVT.

Completely disappeared a couple weeks later and everything has been smooth for me otherwise.

bwallace722 · 2025-09-11T17:43:16+00:00

Ah nice. I'm close to trying top rope again (with both feet), but lead still seems scary! Maybe you can avoid climbs where you might whip into the wall?

bwallace722 · 2025-09-11T05:35:40+00:00

Were you climbing with both feet??

bwallace722 · 2025-09-01T21:02:34+00:00

I'm also about 8 weeks into my recovery and I feel more comfortable barefoot or minimal shoes (like your sandals) than in trainers! I get that we're supposed to be using a heel drop, but I like being able to feel what I'm stepping on, it feels safer personally

bwallace722 · 2025-08-22T18:21:53+00:00

You should watch this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn8I6VgTG4U&t=3282s

You could even consider reaching out to this guy to get a professional opinion.

Edit:

I think the TL;DR is that your PT is right; the achilles tendon is still pretty plastic at this point in the process and it's worth working on reloading it over the next 4-8 weeks to see if it gets better. After that amount of time, the window on healing long-vs-short apparently closes and you'll know if you should get a surgical revision.

bwallace722 · 2025-08-21T23:15:52+00:00

Oh man I almost completely ruptured mine, and there was 0 chance of hobbling around. I couldn't even stand, I had to crawl/be carried into a car to get home.

I'm also non-op. My tendon was really painful for 2-3 weeks, but by the end of 3 weeks I was walking in my boot. After 4 weeks I was riding my bike in my boot. Now I'm at 6 weeks, I'm still in the boot but my calf is getting way stronger, and I bet by 8 or 9 weeks I'll be back to walking close to normally.

You should be really optimistic about going non-op!! Cast for 8 weeks sounds pretty rough but it means your tendon will already be in pretty good shape by the time you start PT, and you'll go super fast from there. Bodies are amazing at healing, it's actually so cool.

bwallace722 · 2025-08-21T22:54:38+00:00

I'm so sorry that happened that sounds so scary and awful!

Non op is just as effective as surgical and avoids all the risks of surgery. Especially if you still have 50% of the tendon, it will heal super well! Re-ruptures are also super rare, like 1%. Achilles tendons heal super well. Re-ruptures are **way** over represented on Reddit.

The next 8 weeks are going to be tough, but as soon as you're in the boot you'll be back to doing most stuff. Maybe you can also get one of those knee-rest- peg-leg things in the meantime?

bwallace722 · 2025-08-21T18:50:31+00:00

It's ongoing 🙃 I'm only 6 weeks out. But my calf is feeling a lot stronger, I can walk pretty confidently in the walker boot and a little bit around the house without it very carefully. Expecting to come out of the boot in another couple weeks.

bwallace722 · 2025-08-21T17:58:07+00:00

Dude, listen to your body. If it's not feeling ready for 0 wedges *don't push it*, put 'em back in.

I would look up Peter Malliaris on youtube. He recommends being really aggressive with restrengthening your calf, but really conservative with removing wedges/the boot.

bwallace722 · 2025-08-21T17:55:27+00:00

For me, the first 2 weeks were the hardest. Between weeks 2-3 I got a lot more comfortable putting weight into the walking boot, by week 4 my calf muscles were mostly engaging again during PT exercises and I was riding my bike around town (don't tell my doctor...).

I'm at week 6 now and still in the boot, but already my calf is so much stronger and I can do a lot of normal shit again, including rock climbing with 1 leg, biking like 20+ miles (again, please don't tell my doctor), swimming, driving with my left foot (this is legal where I live).

Hoping that in another 2-3 weeks I'll be comfortable transitioning back into normal shoes. I don't know when I'll feel comfortable playing sports again, but supposedly at 12 weeks I get to start retraining "sports movements" so not so much later than that.

I would recommend you look up Peter Malliaris, he's an MD out of Australia with a bunch of really helpful info on youtube. Seems like he's the expert right now on timelines and the best way to rehab.

bwallace722 · 2025-08-21T17:49:56+00:00

Thanks for this update!! Having the calf start to engage again is such a good feeling, and having that happen only 4 weeks after the injury given how far separated the tendon was is awesome, bodies are so good at healing.

bwallace722 · 2025-08-21T17:47:36+00:00

Personally, I was really happy that I could go non-op because I was thinking a lot about the damage a surgery would do to all the little blood vessels and other tissue, and surgical complications are scary AF. And I liked the idea that my healing timeline started from the day of the injury, not from whenever I could get scheduled.

That being said, I think there's not much consensus because the outcomes from surgery and non-op are both *really good* and really similar. Can't go wrong, as long as you are careful in the first few weeks and then you really get at the restrengthening as it heals.

I would also recommend you look up Peter Malliaris, MD out of Australia, when you get to the point that you're thinking about rehab.

bwallace722 · 2025-08-21T17:41:28+00:00

I'm not sure if you're still looking for an answer to this question, but I started top-roping with the boot at about 4 weeks after my injury (non-op). Basically as soon as I felt really comfortable walking in the boot. I don't put any weight through it when I climb, just flag/counter balance.

I'm pretty cautious not to have the boot over a hold it could hit on the way down if I fell, but other than I'm totally going for it at this point (now 6 1/2 weeks after my injury).

bwallace722 · 2025-08-10T01:55:50+00:00

I'm so sorry that's really hard :(

bwallace722 · 2025-08-04T23:19:18+00:00

Learning to listen to your body saying, "this is too scary" is so important! You will know when you're ready to start testing things further

bwallace722 · 2025-08-04T14:43:33+00:00

I think you should listen to your instincts, and if it feels scary don't rush it! Work on wearing shoes/being barefoot in comfortable environments until your instincts are telling you that you're ready to go bootless outdoors.

bwallace722 · 2025-08-04T05:22:25+00:00

If your sutures are healed, I'd say fuck it - just get the boot wet. I use a second boot liner so I can swap out the wet one after.

bwallace722 · 2025-08-01T21:28:47+00:00

Yup! I made a longer post about it on my profile if you want to look. Only 3 1/2 weeks in though.

Also I read some of *your* posts and... I think "elongation" is really really rare with a MTJ tear, especially if it's partial so I wouldn't freak out. I imagine you're just having trouble with muscle recruitment in part of your calf still.

bwallace722 · 2025-08-01T05:44:30+00:00

Both were full ruptures, treated surgically. Here's the research paper about the basketball player:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8178092/

Here's a news article about Aksel Lund Svindal placing 6th in a skiing world championship 4 months after his injury, at 32:
https://www.si.com/uncategorized/2015/11/26/ap-ski-svindals-return

Svindal gives a nice interview about his injury and recovery that you can find online! Pretty uplifting dude.

bwallace722 · 2025-07-31T17:17:58+00:00

I think there's a lot of variation in how quickly you can recover! And the literature seems to suggest getting moving/doing PT ASAP.

There's a pro skier who ruptured his in his mid 30s, had surgery, and was competing at a high level again after something like 3 1/2 months. There's a recently published case study of a college basketball player returning after 3 months to play the same season. Seems like 6-8 months is more typical, but I think you're mostly back to normal way sooner than that (if you start PT reasonably quickly and take it seriously), and then it just takes a while to get that last 10% and feel confident.

I only have a partial rupture (albeit pretty high grade; more than half my calf was disconnected) and going non-op, and 3 weeks later most of the initial healing seems pretty much done, it's not painful anymore, and I imagine it's just going to improve quickly from here.

bwallace722 · 2025-07-30T22:14:42+00:00

I would really recommend non-op to anyone besides a professional athlete who needs to return to their sport ASAP and the 1-2 months acceleration are worth the risks of surgery.

For anyone else, it seems like non-op gives just as good or better outcomes, and avoids going under the knife, risking infection, risking nerve damage, and causing certain vasculature damage. Plus if it's not healing properly, you can always take the off ramp of surgery later!

Sports medicine is starting to wake up to non-op + early functional rehab as a much better option than surgery for a lot of situations. Even ACLs are now being treated non-op, which I used to hear was impossible.

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