Achilles tendon recovery: 8 weeks post surgery

Here’s an update about my progress and trials 8 weeks after Achilles tendon surgery.

February 12, 2025

I know that 8 weeks is a fraction of time when it comes to Achilles tendon recovery. I’ve made great strides (pun intended) in that time. In the same breath, I realize just how far I have to go to get back to my normal. 

Mornings and evenings are hardest. When I wake up, the ankle is stiff, sore, and hard to walk on. It takes all morning to warm everything up make it somewhat comfortable to walk. The first step I take stretches the incision and burns. At night, after a full day of teaching dance and walking around a large school building, the ankle is tired. When I sit and rest for a while, it stiffens up and the burn happens all over again. 

It’s like a catch-22. Moving it helps to keep it warm and less painful, but it gets tired. Resting it makes it stiff and sore. ​ 

There are times when I do question whether normal will ever come. I see people’s posts one year out and they are running and playing their sports with little to no pain. Being where I am now, it seems remarkable that that kind of healing is possible. It does give me hope, and fuels my efforts to heal stronger.

Fortunately, I am at the point where I can do many of my regular activities in some limited capacity. Here’s where I am now:

At work

I stopped wearing the boot to work at 6.5 weeks. I started carefully teaching my dance classes in my Apolla compression socks. I felt secure enough not to need to protect the ankle in the boot.

Teaching dance class

Every movement I make is planned and modified: I don’t jump or do anything solely on my injured side. Relevés (heel raises) and other tricky dance movements are done deliberately, slowly and modified. I use my more skilled students to demonstrate the things I can’t do safely. I’ve found a balance between demonstrating and sitting in a chair.

By the third class of the day, the ankle is starting to really feel tired. I intersperse more sitting after I do a modified demonstration. It actually gives the kids more personal responsibility for the work. It’s a hidden benefit of a tough situation, I suppose.

I think the dynamic movement of dancing has been helpful. Once I’ve warmed up and demonstrated things slowly, I don’t feel any pain. The pain returns when I sit idly for a while and then try to move again. It’s astonishing how quickly the tendon stiffens up. That’s why I don’t like sitting still for too long. I have to start all over again every time I sit down. Grrr…

Walking in the halls

Walking the school halls is both mentally and physically challenging. In order to normalize my gait, I have to go through the proper movement pattern of walking. Especially in the beginning of non-boot walking, I have had to take slow, small steps. It is hard to walk heel-toe without a limp.

My default pace is “must go faster.” The faster I go, I start to limp, which I’m trying to train out of my brain. I still feel a painful pull behind the ankle when I walk which my brain wants to avoid. It’s improving, but not completely better.

So, I must slow down my brain and thus, my pace of living. Suddenly, I am noticing much more around me. It’s like I’m almost gliding through space, or swimming in a fish tank. My brain almost doesn’t know what to do with itself and I sense it trying to speed things up. I have to literally tell myself, “no, slow down, small steps.” Sometimes, out loud. My brain is really rebelling. 

Coaching at the gym

How I miss bouncing on the trampoline! Alas, I refrain and I coach others from the deck. It’s quite the challenge to have to explain to others how to do a front flip. The only thing I can really demonstrate on the trampoline are back bounces, which require no feet.

Even so, I have been concentrating on maintaining the fundamentals, strengthening and stretching. At least the rest of my body can stay in shape as my tendon progresses. I’m getting more confident pushing into handstands from my left leg. At least it’s something.

Physical therapy

In my down time, wherever I am, I do my stretching and strengthening exercises. Range of motion in every direction. Double heel raises. Achilles and calf stretches. One foot balance. The PT had me do a two-foot balance on an upside down Bosu ball. I handled that just fine.

Below is another exercise I got for this week:

My Mount Everest is the single heel raise. I try to press into a tiny version, but my ankle is extremely weak and I need significant support. It’s like the back of my leg forgot what it is supposed to do. It also burns when I try to contract the tendon under my full weight. Sometimes, just pressing into my toes on the floor is enough to make me wince.

Talking about pain

I know that pushing through discomfort is the path to progress, but man, this injury hurts. It doesn’t matter how much research you do about it. Nothing prepares you for the amount of regular pain you will feel. Sure, it’s manageable, and it’s not the worst pain I’ve ever felt. Heck, I’ve endured Pitocin contractions without an epidural. Been there, done that.

Nevertheless, when you are healing from an Achilles surgery, there’s some degree of pain everyday. Every step I take either hurts, or I’m anticipating it hurting. Ibuprofen sometimes helps a bit, but it doesn’t prevent the pain altogether. It’s just a part of the process that you must accept and find ways to cope with.

Rest is required

As hard as it is for me to stop moving, I do value rest time. It is required for better healing outcomes.

It is exhausting to compensate (consciously or subconsciously) for the injury all day long. When I get home from work, I am completely wrecked. On PT days, it’s even worse, because I’m usually quite sore afterwards. This is why I have been prioritizing rest at home.

Getting good sleep is really crucial to healing. Do a Google search about the benefits of quality sleep and the results are clear. Sleep is when the body has a chance to repair itself. It is the time when the body does not need to spend excess energy on active life things.

According to Physiology of Sleep (2023), these restorative functions occur during sleep:

• muscle repair
• tissue growth
• protein synthesis
• release of many of the important growth hormones

In this light, I don’t care if my young adult children make fun of me for going upstairs at 8:30. Mama has got to get her healing sleep.

I’ve noticed that I feel about 1% better each day when I wake up. I can walk and do heel raises a little more comfortably. I get more confident in my movement patterns. Single leg balances are more stable. Progress is always moving forward.

Some of the issues

Even with all of the progress 8 weeks in, I am dealing with new challenges. (As if I need more challenges…)

The incision

The skin at the bottom of my incision is still very sensitive. For a while, it was red from rubbing the back of my sneaker. My PT suggested wearing a Bandaid on that area to minimize the friction, which I think helped. It’s less red now, even though the sensitivity is still significant. 

Front of ankle

I’ve also noticed some considerable difficulty with the front of my ankle as I’ve been walking and stretching more. The joint gets painful and inhibits the dorsiflexion in the ankle more than the Achilles tendon does. This was actually an issue before the injury. To be honest, I do wonder if the limited range was attributable to the Achilles snapping.

Shin

As I increase the walking, my tibialis anterior (the muscle that causes dorsiflexion) is getting more irritated and sore. When the PT works on it with deep tissue massage and ultrasound, it HURTS. A lot.

Hips

Despite my best efforts to walk normally, I do sense some strain in the back of my right hip. I work on range of motion and do gluteal exercises regularly. I’m hoping that will help stave off any worsening stiffness and pain.

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Overall, I cannot complain too much about my progress. While the pain is frustrating, I know it is all part of the healing process. I accept that varying degrees of discomfort is going to be a part of my life for the foreseeable future. Fortunately, it’s not enough to stop me from living my life. I just have to take it one step at a time.

I’ll keep posting the progress. Subscribe for notifications when I post new articles!