Today Dad
and I went to doctor Van Boerum (the foot doctor). We both had xrays
done and when he came in he said ladies first I presume, to Mark, and
Mark said yes. So we talked about my foot. I told him it will have
been a year since I started wearing the boot, the first week of May,
before everything else started... I told him I had tried to go
without the boot but I could only go without it around the house any
more than that I would have to wear the boot. If I didn't then I
would pay for it the next day. I told him I had been getting shooting
pains in my foot. I also told him I had the heel lift and my orthotic
in the boot to make it more comfortable, but that I still got the
shooting pains. Sometimes they were really intense. He looked at my foot touched it and about sent me through the roof. He looked at
me and said how opposed to surgery are you? I told him I was ready
anytime, that I'd been in the boot long enough that I knew it wasn't
going to get better without the surgery. He replied well I don't have
time this afternoon....(funny guy) but we can get you in within the next couple
of weeks. We talked about the chemo being done since the end of
December and that I wasn't on any other meds that would interfere
with the healing process. So he was ok with doing the surgery. In the
surgery he said they go in and cut the tendon, shave away the pointed
piece of bone on my heel (under the Achilles tendon, called a Haglunds deformity) & then
re-attach the tendon to the bone, in the heel, with an anchor (that
will stay permanently). My calf muscle is tight which makes the whole
tendon tight. The tight tendon rubbing along the bone causes the Haglunds deformity (a bone spur) with a pointy peak. So as you walk on it the tendon rubs against the pointy part causing little micro tears, which then adds up to scar tissue etc. So he is also going to lengthen the calf muscle by making an incision under my calf muscle, cutting the tendon bending my foot to see how much they need to lengthen it, then they re-attach to tendon to the fascia. When he has the tendon pulled back (by the heel) he will have to
debride (to
remove dead, contaminated, or adherent tissue and/or foreign
material) it.
He says your tendon is supposed to be about ½ “ wide but mine is
like an 1” due to the built up scar tissue from all the micro tears
& inflammation. Here are a few random pictures of my foot condition and a similar surgery.
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| My xray of my Haglund's Deformity; the pointy part of the bone between the dotted lines. |
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| Similar to my surgery but without the tendon tear. |
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| How the micro tears look |
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| A normal heel compared to the Haglund's deformity like mine |
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| An open look at the calf lengthening |
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| The screw they re-attach the tendon to in the heel A training video of a similar surgery. |
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| An open look at a torn tendon repair |
