Elation (and anxiety) to be on the automatic belay again
(Dec 22nd-28th: 15min read)
Monday: First day of my Christmas holidays -> no work stress; wandered over to my partner’s to pick up our little doggo (she’s staying with me for the day again 😁 🕺) as my partner has a busy working day today … and I don’t 🥳.
On returning to my appartment, I did my ankle mobility exercises, made a few vids for Chris the US Achilles expert:
I re-measured both my calves – I like to do this with a picture, rather than ‘just’ writing down values as ‘a picture doesn’t lie’ (at least my non-AI-generated ones don’t!); Fini kept me company, lying on my jumper that my eldest daughter made for me 🥰:
Milestone(s): Weighted calf raises 9.5kg / 20lbs.
Tuesday: Actually clean forgot about bouldering this morning 😅 🙈 ! ‘Twas only thanks to my partner calling me up around 9:30am and wondering why I wasn’t going bouldering that reminded me. Fortunately, a bus was going in the right direction an hour later – better late than never … particularly as I’d decided today was going to be – dun dun duuun – “Return to the Wall”-day.
Two of my bouldering friends were there … they’d begun to wonder whether something had happened to me after we’d agreed on Sunday that we’d all be there 🥹 🙈 … really should have messaged. Next time! I’d missed the coffee break … goldarn it 😅 … but we spent some time in the small boulder hall – I actually did a complete boulder, too, but don’t tell anyone 😬 😅 … was a low overhang grade 3, was never more than a few cms over the mat, so I say: “Safe!” 😎 🕺. My Achilles. My decision.
With zero time pressure (same for one of my friends), we took our time; I got her to film my first post-injury climb – see right. I was a little apprehensive, it has to be said … but it was just a grade IV / 4a ‘ladder’, part of the training wall for beginners. My head said: no problem. Nevertheless, I took it easy – if you look carefully you’ll see I hardly load my affected foot at all … mostly it’s flagging with almost no pressure, or I’m using my knee … my arms are working on ‘overtime’; on the odd occasion, I’m ‘feathering’ the affected foot on a hold … but never even close to the loading it sees if I walk FWB.
I also took delivery of the 24kg ‘smart dumbbell’. It wasn’t the best-value one, but it had good reviews; feels pretty sturdy too … and one advantage of the ‘dual rotating selectors’ means I can choose any selection of left and right weights – with the ones with the ‘single-hand selection’ you don’t have this possibility. It’s probably not a major thing, but it does mean at least the theoretical option to (relatively) precisely take an actual kg weight instead of the brutally rounded lbs-to-kilos numbers (11kg actually equals 11.5kg or 25lbs) … the chinese made it for the American market, I guess 🤷.
Positive Moment(s) / Milestone(s): Of course the first post-injury auto-belay climb; on top of that, today marked the permanent change to 5° – having ‘warmed up’ on the way over to my partner’s place on the 10° setting, taking both crutches with me, I dialled the boot into 5° and it stayed there.
Wednesday: One thing is bugging me about the VACOped … when to change to the flat sole (and how big of a change is this going to be)? My Netherland redditor friend’s experience was another example of how varied protocols can be: start of week 7, move to 0°; start of week 8, move to flat sole. That’s one combination I hadn’t seen yet … but it made a lot of sense to me that the change to 0° AND the flat sole at the same time would most likely be a big change and this protocol would break that down into two smaller changes.
Oddly, the original Oped instructions call for a wedge sole only between +30° and +15°; on the other hand, the more detailed protocol from the Windsor Foot & Ankle Clinic instructs to change to the flat sole at 0°; a search on reddit leads to a massive long list of hits – only just scratched the surface on reading THAT stuff.
At any rate, I’ve decided I’m definitely waiting until I hit 0° … and then a little longer. Well, I may try it at some point in the next few days at 5° just to get a better idea of what the difference is going to be – it looks like it’s around 15° of wedge sole already, so it really ought to make a big difference; at least the height difference between the two legs will be smaller!
Positive Moment(s): Some pleasant messaging with my fellow redditors; a wonderful Christmas Eve (‘Heiligabend’ in German) dinner with four of my kids and one of their partners – all my kids pitched in to cook with me being spoiled to bits (and having to do diddly 😁) 🥰 : my middle son (27) created an amazing Beef Wellington with help from his elder brother (29); my eldest daughter (30) and youngest son (15) made an absolute MOUNTAIN of various butter cookies (‘Plätzchen’ in German) 🤤.
Milestone(s): < none >
Thursday: I’m more or less sticking to delivering feedback to the US achilles rebuild guy on Mondays and Thursdays – that puts enough time between each update that there’s some new development. The change today was using the smart dumbbell for the first time to go over the 9.5kg limit I had with my existing small set of weights – really feeling a muscle ‘burn’ now … Chris confirmed this previously as being what we were looking for which was comforting (quite apart from the fact that it was well away from the injury site).
Something else completely different had been going through my head since Tuesday … whether I should upload a video post to r/AchillesRupture/. I was questioning my motives for doing so; I certainly didn’t want it to come over as a boasting ‘flex’, that’s for sure; I decided I had minimum one valid reason for posting: connecting to other climbers on Reddit. I mean, I’d already found a couple by chance, but I figured a video very obviously featuring a climbing wall was fairly likely to attract the attention of climbers. So I edited the video down from the original 4mins to a more watchable 40s. The text I wrote painstakingly; then, with the help of Google Gemini, I shortened it, removed a few bits which might be misunderstood / act as triggers, generally cleaned it up and then off it went 🤞 .
Positive Moment(s): A great Christmas Day dinner with four of my kids and two of their partners.
Milestone(s): Seated calf raise weight up to 11.5kg / 25lbs with the new smart dumbbell; iso plantar up to 14kg / 30lbs.
Friday: Woke up sometime before 3am, for whatever reasons (well, at least one of them was a typical “Old Man Reason” 🙄). Felt the ‘draw’ of Reddit … and after a short moment of resolute steadfastness, caved and picked up my mobile. Sure enough, there had been a few more responses to my video post from yesterday. Of course not all were as positive as the replies from my new-found redditor friends in the Netherlands and the Black Forest … but surprisingly, there was actually only one that got close to a put-down and I think even that one was well meant.
Wasn’t long before I’d made a coffee, gotten out my laptop and started composing replies. I decided to give Gemini another go, carrying on from where I left off on the video post ‘chat’ yesterday … and yet again: gobsmacked: https://gemini.google.com/share/c32b6a1ac8c2
I’m not a “Copy’n’Paster” by any means – the text is supposed to be mine; I’m also aware that the prompt you give it is going to have a massive effect on what comes out of it (and the last thing I want is some fawning ‘mirror’ that just says everything I do is wonderful). Nevertheless … gobsmacked. It is making me a lot more aware of concrete things I can do to ‘curb’ my writing style, both in unnecessary length and inadvertent over-the-top complexity; it’s also helping me to avoid inserting any ‘nasty’ stuff without realising what might trigger others … which I seem to have done quite a bit in the past 😬. Basically making me much more aware of what I’m writing, which has to be a good thing. Right?
The video post really seems to have ‘worked’ anyway … got a whole bunch of mainly positive responses from other climbers 🥳 ! Not only that, but I got a bunch of info including:
- an ‘introduction’ to Tommy Caldwell and his multiple ruptures
- kneepads – similar to the backpack idea, was a bit of a ‘duuuh!’ moment that I didn’t think of it myself
- training ideas for during the recovery process
- the weeks 9-13 ‘danger zone’ (as the tendon remodels it’s particularly vulnerable, more so than in the earlier weeks 😮)
All in all, I’m REALLY glad I made that post – that last point was worth its weight in gold alone, I reckon!
It also made me actively go look at the current Lattice Training website wrt seeing if I can find a good solution to training during my recovery process … and it wasn’t long before I’d decided that my Christmas present to myself this year was going to be the on-line training course / app. At nearly 190€ definitely not cheap … but when I think of the injuries I’ve given myself over the years (independent of this latest whopper of an injury!), such as 3 ‘doses’ of golfer’s elbow, I think it’s going to be a significant investment. Particularly as I get older, if I want to keep climbing, I’m going to have to learn to be more mindful, more deliberate; getting the right kind of volume of the right kind of training to avoid the injuries is going to get more and more important, I think.
One more use of Gemini: when to switch to the flat sole. As I wrote a couple of days ago, this has been bugging me; in the original research details this wasn’t really significantly featured; today’s extended AI research regarding this specific point was summarised like this:
When to switch to the flat sole on the VACOped
Manufacturer vs. Clinical Guidelines
The official OPED manual states that the wedge sole must be used when the angle setting is between 15∘ and 30∘ of plantarflexion. Biomechanically, this implies that once your dorsiflexion stop is moved to 10∘ or 5∘, the wedge sole is no longer required and you should transition to the flat sole.
However, clinical protocols vary on the exact moment of this exchange:
- The Accelerated Model (e.g., Gordon Protocol): Transition to the flat sole typically occurs at Week 6, exactly when the dorsiflexion stop is adjusted to 10∘.
- The Standard NHS Model (e.g., UHCW/Royal Berkshire): Many of these protocols advise changing to the flat sole at Week 7, when the setting is adjusted to 15∘.
- The Cautious Model (e.g., Plymouth/Level 0): Some institutions explicitly instruct patients to wait until Level 0 (0∘/neutral) is reached before swapping to the flat sole.
Biomechanical Rationale for the Sole Change
The wedge sole features a significant heel lift and a rocker profile designed to compensate for the “equinus” (toe-pointed) position. It allows you to roll through a step without straining the tendon or forcing the knee into hyperextension.
Transitioning to the flat sole is intended to normalize your gait as you approach a neutral (90∘) ankle position. Moving to the flat sole while still at a high degree of plantarflexion (like 15∘ or 20∘) can feel awkward or unnatural because the heel of the boot will “drop” relative to your foot’s position, increasing the tensile load on the tendon prematurely.
Navigating the Transition
Patient experiences suggest that the switch to the flat sole is often the most difficult “milestone” in the boot phase.
Safety Note: Regardless of the timing, you must never weight-bear without one of the two soles (wedge or flat) attached to the rigid plastic shell, as this can damage the boot and compromise your stability.
Gradual Adjustment: If a jump from the wedge sole at 15∘ to the flat sole at 15∘ feels too aggressive, some clinicians recommend setting the boot back to 10∘ or 15∘ for a few days after switching to the flat sole to allow the foot to “settle” into the new gait pattern.
Criterion-Based Switch: Rather than strictly following the week number, some patients wait until they can comfortably weight-bear at a specific angle (usually 5∘ or 10∘) before removing the rocker.
This reinforces my decision to change the sole at 0° after a short period of acclimatisation to the move from 30°-5° to 30°-0° ROM – my current timeline puts these two changes smack in the middle of the week 9-13 danger zone. I’m also sure, in the meantime, that all of the protocols calling for only a few aggressive changes are laid out like that to keep the number of medical care appointments to a minimum (at the expense of the patient’s comfort). Since I’m doing it all myself, that’s an irrelevant factor. I mean, I’m not 100% sure … and I have wondered occasionally about how sensible the ‘self-treatment’ process I’m implementing actually is 🤔 .
An addition from a reddit
The total time you will be in a VACOped boot is usually 11 weeks. But this may vary depending on your clinical findings. At all stages you are safe to walk, putting your full weight on the injured leg while wearing the boot.
• 0 to 4 weeks – fixed 30 degrees equinus (tip toe) with thick sole in place.
• Week 5 – change to 25 degrees
• Week 6 – change to 20 degrees
• Week 7 – change to 15 degrees and exchange the sole of boot to the flat sole
• Week 8 – change to 10 degrees
• Week 9 – change to 5 degrees
• Week 10 – change to 0 (foot flat)
• Week 11-16 – start to spend less time wearing the boot Once you start to wear normal shoes, you must use a heel raise at all times (indoors and outdoors) for a further 6 to 8 weeks. The heel raise must be either on the sole or inside the shoe. Also wear footwear when doing your strengthening exercises.
• Week 17 to 19 – wean into normal footwear – you do not need to use a heel raise and you can start to wear flat shoes/no shoes again.
Positive Moment(s): Reading the positive responses to my video post 🙏 ; finding the arm from my 10 yr old glasses that I lost in the snow a couple of days ago in town … NEVER thought I’d see that again 😅 🙌 .
Milestone(s): Purchased the Lattice Training on-line climbing course as a Christmas present to myself 😁.
Saturday: I’d thought I was going to have more time during the Christmas holidays to write … but I was wrong. I did note a bunch of things down, but I think I’ll have to (hopefully) process these next week.
Positive Moment(s): Might add some later, but it’s already Sunday …
Sunday: Today, again, turned out more hectic than planned, other than from 4:30am until 8:30am or so (which I largely spent on reddit and using Gemini – links to follow); the clearing out of my middle son’s apartment, which I thought was going to be done in about 30 mins, took a couple of hours; the driving took longer too, everything in fact. My foot didn’t exactly balloon, but it needed some attention when I finally got home to my partner’s new flat.
Positive Moment(s): Had a bunch, as the day was busy but basically positive … but again, it’s Sunday evening already, need to do other things (and I’ve skipped a part of my mobility exercises too, for severall reasons).
Future-Sol’s reflections (date: xx.xx.20xx): < to come at some point in the future >
< just injured your Achilles tendon? / urgent short-term resources / resources for later on >
Achilles Rupture Recovery 
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