Minimally-Invasive Achilles Surgery Repair Patient Experience

I had Achilles tendon problems for about two and a half years, saw a podiatrist, had MRIs and lots of physical therapy, lots and lots and lots, and nothing was helping. I saw first one surgeon who also just looked at the MRI and said, yes, I would do this radical sort of, they would take and detach the tendon and then go in there and clean up whatever was the problem. Moved on and saw a second surgeon. And he immediately said, where's your x-ray? And I said, x-ray, I don't have an xray. And he was like, what? And then he marched me downstairs, took an X Ray, and then sure enough, he said, well, here's what your problem is. It's a, it's deformity in the bone in your heel. And it had become sharp and pointy, but then had broken off and speared the inside of the tendon.

And hence was never going to get better at all. With any amount of physical therapy, it was a bone fragment lodged in the Achilles. And then he suggested also the more radical, like I'm going to do this, I'm going to detach your tendon. And, and then frantically, I started searching after seeing him, I started searching and found Dr. Stone online came and saw him. He said, when I described him what the other surgeons had suggested in terms of procedure, you said, no, you do something very sort of elegant. And you kind of go through you, open it, go through, get in there and then come back out. And it doesn't sort of weakened your tendon and further by detaching and reattaching. So I was in, and, uh, we went ahead and did the surgery, the PT here is HERE. So you see him, if you need to, you see a nurse, if the incisions looking funky, but they're all here.

And the PT and everything is sort working in a kind of harmony. And that was sort of incredibly soothing to me and kind of calming. PT loves that you have a goal. So we had the goal of going on vacation. It was going to be five months out after the surgery. And they kind of helped me work towards it. And sure enough, I'm standing on a mountain in Maine and I made it up all on my own and nothing hurt. Nothing hurt. And that is... I'm going to start to cry. Okay. It's when you have had chronic pain for such a long time, in my case, it was two and a half years, and then it's gone and you're doing the things you love to do, and it doesn't hurt. It's it's beyond thrilling. It's beyond thrilling. It's your life...is kind of... you get it back. So thanks Dr. Stone. That is a gift. I'm very appreciative.