Our feet are often taken for granted, that is until an injury makes getting around a lot more difficult and painful. For Thea Miller Ryan, it's a pain she knows all too well. As one of the volunteers for Siouxpercon, she's used to being on her feet a lot for the annual weekend event. But a couple cons ago, a pain in her foot was something she never planned for.
“It's a long, long weekend and I was moving around a lot. On Friday, it kind of hurt when I went home. On Saturday, I was like, this is starting to really hurt. By Sunday, I couldn't walk on that foot. I knew that something was wrong,” said Ryan.
From Diagnosis to Treatment
An ortho urgent care visit led her to podiatric specialist Brian Dix, DPM with Avera Orthopedics.
“He knew right away that it was my Achilles tendon. He could tell from touching it and I could tell when he touched it that something was wrong. It wasn't burst yet, but it was on the edge of bursting,” said Ryan.
“Her MRI showed that she had moderate to severe tendinosis in her Achilles with tearing where it inserted into the heel bone. The Achilles is almost doubled or tripled in size and so we did all the things; trying different shoes, icing, even some Voltaren Emulgel, which is a topical medication and those all failed. So we got her some physical therapy and if all that fails, and when you have pain on a daily basis, then we get into more of the surgical aspects of it,” said Dr. Dix.
Surgical Repair and Correction
For Thea, her injury was caused by the normal wear and tear of aging, but there was also a bone spur causing her additional irritation.
“In surgery, we opened up her Achilles, repaired the Achilles, and took all the scarring and calcifications out of her Achilles. Then we detached it from the heel, shaved off the bone spur, got down to good bleeding bone, reattached her Achilles, sutured that up, and then her calf muscle was still a little tight. So we actually lengthened her calf muscle as well to help so she had more dorsiflexion and everything wouldn't be so tight back there to try to help prevent recurrence of it happening again,” said Dr. Dix.
After surgery, the recovery from an Achilles injury is a long journey. It requires you to be non-weight-bearing and fairly immobile for months. But taking those first steps without pain for Thea were incredibly rewarding.
“I'm so glad I did it. It has changed my life. One of the ways it's changed my life is, I'm Gen-X and we always grew up wearing shoes and socks that match your outfit. So that was a big transition for me was hearing you need to wear tennis shoes now. So here I am in a dress at work with my tennis shoes on, which just goes against everything Gen-X!” said Ryan
“Yeah, we both have Hokas!” said Dr. Dix.
“But it's so worth it in the end. It really is. We’ve got to get through and the only way out is through!” said Ryan.
With new shoes, and a new lease on life, Thea is now ready for next year’s con.
Learn more about podiatric and orthopedic services at Avera
