How it all started

My peroneal tendon surgery started with a really stupid injury.  My husband and I were scheduled to go on a cruise in late April 2013.  The morning of my last day  at work before the cruise (a Friday), I got up in the dark to get dressed for work, and tripped over my tennis shoe in the dark!  I went down like a ton of bricks and really rolled over on my right ankle.  I crawled over to the bed and woke my husband and told him he needed to get me to urgent care!

Xrays in urgent care showed no bone breaks but they diagnosed a pretty severe sprain and set me up with an appointment with my podiatrist later in the morning.  The podiatrist also diagnosed a severe sprain.  So then I asked the important question - could I still go on my cruise?  The doctor recommended I use crutches and keep the foot elevated for 2 days and then think about using a wheelchair on the cruise, as well as an ortho boot and/or ankle brace.  That's exactly what I did.

After the cruise, I wore the ortho boot for a couple of weeks and then the podiatrist put me in to physical therapy (to re-strengthen the ankle ligaments).

In the meantime, I was also dealing with knee pain in the right knee from a degenerative tear in my meniscus.  Between ankle pain and knee pain I was not a happy camper!

I had to stop PT for the ankle when I got scheduled for arthroscopic knee surgery to repair/remove the torn meniscus in mid-June.  I had PT following that surgery to strengthen the knee, but we weren't doing anything for the right ankle.

By August, when I was mostly recovered from the knee surgery, I could tell that I was still having a lot of pain and instability in the right foot, so I went back to the podiatrist in August.  We did another set of xrays (still no indication of any broken bones) and then he ordered an MRI.  Took 3 weeks to get MRI scheduled and another 2+ weeks after that before I could get ahold of the podiatrist.  MRI revealed:
 

1. Extensive tear of the peroneus longus tendon and peroneus brevis tendon as described above with tendinosis [damage to a tendon at a cellular level (the suffix "osis" implies a pathology of chronic degeneration without inflammation)] and tenosynovitis [inflammation of the fluid-filled sheath (called the synovium) that surrounds a tendon].

2. Chronic partial thickness tear of the ATFL [anterior talofibular ligament - the one that wraps around the front of the ankle].

3. Focal talar subchondral signal abnormality measuring 3mm could represent early osteochondral lesion formation. 

 

Holy moly!

 

I asked podiatrist "now what?"  He said I could try wearing the ortho boot some more or otherwise I'd probably need surgery.  I tried the ortho boot for another 2-3 days, but the uneven gait actually bothered my right knee (the one I had operated on in June).  I started doing some internet research and learned that the peroneal tendons, once torn, will not repair themselves - only way to repair is to surgically repair.  After an uncomfortable weekend in the ortho boot, I called the podiatrist back and asked for a referral to the surgeon.