Yesterday dad had to be in Torrey Pines [ by the S.D. Temple ] at Scripps Green Hospital at 10:30 a.m. for 12:30 surgery. Dr. Rosen was the surgeon..he is young and good looking and is fascinated by what he does. { He was kind of excited that it was not a routine case.} After the surgery he came and found me in the waiting room and told me it went well though not quite as expected. There was a bone spur still attached to the top piece of the Achilles tendon...the bottom piece was sliced down the length of it by the bone spur..and there were other bone spurs he smoothed out. He had to repair the bottom piece before he could attach it to the top piece...some where in there he referred to a screw. He said there is another side tendon that is not used much except to repair fingers, so he wrapped that around the Achilles a few times and attached it at the base to support it better. Dad took over 2 hours to wake up. We go back Nov. 27th . Hopefully the surgical site will be pretty healed and not Infected {which is common in this surgery }. He has to keep it elevated at least as high as his chest until then. He is off work for 4 weeks..but we did bring his work laptop home for him to work when he can. We got a temporary disabled sign for the car, good until March 31st 2014. He is lying around in different configurations sleeping because of the pain pills... He will have several casts..each changing the angle of the foot until he can handle 90 degrees angle { normal} Dr. Rosen showed me the "housewife exam" to tell if it is an Achilles tear..dad on his stomach..good leg up, see foot at 90 degree angle, squeeze calf...foot moves...good reflex action. Then, bad leg up...foot is not up at an angle...straight across and toes slightly down...squeeze calf...the tiniest of movement ....means BAD Achilles ! Hope we can get along okay through all this ! I am the nurse.
