I ended up canceling the appointment they setup for me after the prompt care visit and setting up another appointment with a doctor that was recommended to my wife (she’s a nurse anesthetist). And thanks to my wife’s contacts at the hospital I was able to get a very quick appointment.
At the time I just figured this surgeon would be nicer than most and do a good job….I was naive. He was so much more!
Here’s what he brought to the party:
1) super nice guy, easy going and smart
2) no pressure, he outlined pros and cons of surgery vs non surgery and left it up to me
3) he uses a progressive approach using minimally invasive PARS technique
Thankfully I had done my research and knew I wanted surgery, but I had no idea how important the surgical method would be…
The minimally invasive PARS surgery was a no-brainer for my situation, vs the open surgery and non surgical option.
The PARS surgery will have you walking in an aircast after a few weeks vs months in a hard cast on crutches…
The PARS surgery requires a small horizontal incision and 2 tiny heel incisions. It uses a jig to effectively suture the tendon back together within the muscle sheathe around the tendon.
Or you could have the open surgery which is a huge 4-6″ vertical incision that requires months more of recovery time and 3 months in a hard cast after surgery.
Or you could avoid surgery, but that requires a lot of time in the aircast 24/7 until it heals naturally… much longer of “no cheating”, and that means sleeping in the big plastic boot! Big risk here is rerupture if you screw up, and the time/inconvenience. From a lot of my research it seems like the nationalized healthcare countries use this method a lot. (Canada and some EU countries came up a lot)
adamv1984 