Achilles Tendon Rupture - Day 1 | Tim Keeley | Physio REHAB

#achilles #achillestendon #achillesrupture #achillesinjury

So.... this happened in the weekend - at my brother-in-law’s on a Sunday (physio never stops!) 🤣, but unfortunately it’s to diagnose an acute Achilles’ tendon rupture 😱

He was playing soccer yesterday and turned, felt (and heard) a pop in his left Achilles. It was “kind” of painful and he knew he had done something and he couldn’t walk properly on it.

ASSESSMENT

1️⃣ Visual loss of plantar flexion

Firstly to help with an initial provisional diagnosis without imaging you look for a loss of plantar flexion in prone. As you can see on his left his foot is resting in neutral, NOT plantar flexion meaning the calf tension on the heel is not there (the town of the calf doesn’t pull on the heel as the tendon is disconnected), compared to his right which is in plantar flexion.

2️⃣ Palpable thickening, swelling, bruising band tenderness

The Achilles is significantly thicker and grossly swollen compared to the other side. There is also a thicker section which is tender and sometimes you can get a feeling of a “gap” (the rupture site).

3️⃣ Calf Squeeze Test

To see the active connection integrity of the tendon, in prone slowly squeeze the upper calf and see if the foot naturally plantar flexes. As you can see on the left it doesn’t move at all, indicative of a complete rupture.

So, it’s rest, compression and ice if needed for pain - but he doesn’t have any of that really which is mostly due to the tendon fibres not being connected. So no pain it’s not really a good sign!

He is booked in for an Ultrasound tomorrow, and then into the foot and ankle surgeon for an assessment and a MRI after. To help him through that waiting period a long walker boot is perfect to stabilise him so he can get around.

I will follow his recovery and keep you updated on his outcome (Sugery Vs non-surgery)

🖥 Online Injury, Surgery, Mobility + Strength Rehab programs:

[andremiller]

That’s dedication, rupturing your Achilles for your brother in law’s video.

[danlefe]

I fully ruptured mine 10 days ago. Immediately went to ER where they casted my foot toes pointing down. Im really going through it mentally..Its verry challenging but seeing these comments gives me hope. I am in Canada where the standard is the conservative non surgical procedure. Thank you for making this video and keeping us updated on your brothers injury.

[AceGrahamJB]

I’m on day two of having my left Achilles ruptured. I’m in the exact position as your brother in law. Absolutely brutal!

[megand]

It will be great to follow this as time goes on, good idea. Look forward to it. Much appreciation to poor Phil!

[Me-uslu]

1.5 Years after my rupture I am pretty much healed. Still missing some musclestrength in that calf but I am back to sports and working on it. I did the non-surgery route and I am very happy with it. 8 weeks in the plastic boot (started rehab every day since week 4, with phisioprogram), even slept in boot. 4 weeks with 24/7 shoes with heel lift and from there on slowly getting in to normal shoes and recovering life.

[yesreneau]

I was playing soccer and thought “ohh who stepped on me?” 😭😭😭😭😭 this is so spot on

[chrisjordan]

Sucks I just ruptured mine 4 days ago, left foot playing basketball, everything you said is making my body twitchy cause that's what it felt like and sounded like, I'm to scared of surgery so I'm in a cast and praying for a recovery, I'm hoping by now dudes ankle is better, I'm 6ft so I can only imagine his pain and shock if he felt any, thanks for the video

[andycollings]

Did mine 5 weeks ago playing rugby. Honestly thought I was kicked. Felt like it, sounded like it but no one near me.
No pain at all which I now realise is a bad thing. Was in a cast for two weeks now a walker boot. I have Ultrasound results on Monday and having seen this I'm expecting it to require surgery. This is the best video I've seen explaining it and I hope this was followed up cause I'll be watching!

[andrewsmythe]

My wife has damaged to both Achilles tendons, good luck and hopefully a quick recovery

[oaghanya]

I did mine playing football (what we call soccer in Scotland) yesterday. I too thought someone had kicked me, but no one was near me. I collapsed in front of a 16 stone teammate who then kneed me painfully in the back - that hurt more than my achilles!

No surgery, but moon boot for 6 to 8 weeks! Good luck to your brother in law.

[tomfitton]

Subscribed. I did mine 2 days ago, waiting for a scan and full diagnosis (praying it's not a full rupture, but the pop sound was so loud people heard it 10 feet away...).

[TheMacBallister]

Happened to me a few days ago playing football, already went through surgery and currently recovering at home (still trying to figure out who was the bastard that shoot me in the leg 😅). They did the same test to me, squeezing the leg, as a first diagnose. Thanks to portuguese NHS it costed me zero euros. Thanks for the explanation, it’s really enlightening. Cheers!

[youngcruz]

Tore my Achilles back in 2017 playing ball when I was 18.I went the non surgical way which took a little longer to heal but now I’m back to normal.I didn’t do the surgery way because risk of infection

[dr.dhruvpalan]

Thank you so much sir! Really helpful video, please keep us updated regarding this tear🙏

[nkzaz]

My Achilles is so bad that I can’t walk when my body has rested. When I’m walking it running, it still hurts but it’s manageable ( some what). It’s one of the worst pains ever!

[rosslewicki]

Poor fella. Hope he recovered well and got back to kicking a baw. Just out the vaco boot, going to check your channel for any advise on initial movement excersises. Cheers for the video ma man.

[Smithy]

I did mine today 😩 I’m in walking boot awaiting an ultrasound! I’ve got no real pain which worries me even more 😩😩

[fiktrip]

exactly what happen to me on fine afternoon August 24 2022, I have my surgery on September 2nd, on the way to fully recovery for back in recreation football now.

[bradleyk]

I blacked out for a moment when I did mine playing basketball. Felt like someone knocked me with a sledgehammer in the back of the leg, woke up, looked around, tried to step forward and couldn't. Wouldn't wish that pain on anyone.

[Dan-yhve]

Just joined the club 🥲
Some kind of rupture while playing my second game of Pickleball (2nd day). The day before, I had played for the first time, and we were there for a few hours. I was sore in some little areas the next day but I didn’t think it was much of anything knowing we would play again. I’m 30 years old, strong and healthy. For example, I’ve gotten my deadlifts up to 455, I can hit 50 pushups in one go, close to 20 pull-ups in on go, throw heavy kettlebells around, I’ve been running 5-6 miles once or twice weekly, I’ve even worked up to run 12 miles straight at a low running pace, several times. I’ve competed in two 10ks this year a few months apart. The most recent was Memorial Day weekend.

Since then I had barely worked out much or did any running. Just a variety of upperbody exercises and movements. So I can’t say it was strained because of all that prior training. But the inactivity and then partaking in a new type of lowerbody exertion, then once more without properly allowing my body (tendon) to fully recover, then allowed that one foot placement to rupture my Achilles.

I can’t say I really warmed up specifically, we kinda just eased into playing a lightly competitive game. Then the second game right after, like 5 minutes in…. It felt like what I imagined to be a high speed baseball hitting me between my heel and calve.

This is wild! For my overall strength and ability to move the way I can, I’m rather flexible, all around good movement. It’s funny and so annoying to accept that this happened but it can make sense too.

I think this was one of those “freak accidents” mostly. I’m not necessarily use to the type of movement that I exerted yesterday for those few hours or the first two games played today before the injury. So it’s possible the new activity recently could have caused unknown strain that was then completely exposed by an improper movement, weight distribution, and flexion of my right Achilles on that 2nd day of Pickleball. I’ve had a knee and ankle injury before but this seems much more debilitating, it’s almost unbelievable to think that it actually happened during frickin Pickleball of all things 😂

LONG STORY SHORTER… I’ll be back! And I’m going to use this as a learning experience in so many ways. Things happen as they do. We cannot control everything in our life, but we can live in its presence. Life isn’t controlled it lives.

Get knocked on your ass 5 times…
GET UP 6!