Finally I have been given permission from my physio to ride my bike.... Well when I say ride my bike, its ride my bike on a turbo trainer in my garage and for no more than 10 mins.

So last night I donned my cycling shoes which -given the swelling on my heel- were a bit of a tight fit. I couldn't be bothered to get kitted out in full lycra, not for 10 mins so on went a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.

I hobbled into my garage and after 5 mins pumping up the tyres on my turbo bike I cocked my leg over the bike for the first time in about 10 weeks.

The first thing I noticed was that ive tightened up in my upper body so i need to get back to pilates. The 10 minutes passed by pretty quickly and without much pain in my tendon. Lets just say it grumbled a bit. Anyway after 10 mins on the dot I resisted the temptation to do more and climbed off.

First step on the ladder completed, for some reason I'm having a feeling of deja vu! Cant think why!

Bless me father I have sinned its been a very long time since my last blog post. So much for the stated aims of this blog as being a journal of my recovery from a herniated disc. Well things have moved on somewhat.

After my disc problem I was left with a numb section to my left leg, however I had been told that this might happen due to nerve damage from when the disc burst.

6 months of physio had brought some form of mobility to my back and I could manage to ride my bike up to 30 miles.

I started Pilates at http://www.northantspilates.com/. This really helped in my mobility and my understanding my posture. So things were getting better.

Can you sense a but? well there is one.

12 years ago I snapped my left Achilles tendon while playing squash and over the past years my mobility has got progressively worse.Play a gentle game of footy with my 6 year old son would leave me unable to walk the next day.

As I didn't have a fully functioning leg out of the 2 I have, I paid a visit to my GP.

He sent me for an xray as I had a mysterious lump on my heel . In April 2011 I was referred to a consultant and diagnosed as having tendinopathy and was prescribed a course of physio.

3 months passed in which all I was asked to do was stretch the tendon which with every stretch was getting more and more painful. So I asked to be referred back to my GP.

My GP while being sympathetic was also annoyed that I hadn’t been sent to a specialist orthopaedic consultant.

Anyway I requested that he referred me to Bill Ribbans a name I had been given by my previous physio.

It was now August and I was sick of waiting, and as I had private health insurance from work I decided to use it.

I arranged an appointment with Professor Ribbans. He sent me for another xray and then 4 days later I was sat in his office. He diagnosed something called Haglunds deformity Haglunds deformity basically a bone was growing into my tendon.

An MRI scan was arranged to confirm his diagnosis and to check that the tendon was still intact and I was then booked into The BMI Three Shires for 26/8 The Bank Holiday weekend.

The required arrow was drawn on my leg

The procedure was an Achilles tendon decompression. Basically the surgeon makes a cut into the tendon and peels it away from the bone. He then removed the extra bone and sanded off my heel bone. Arthrex anchors where then screwed into my heel bone to hold the tendon in place. To see a video click the following link and select Achilles Sutre Bridge. Arthrex Inc

My leg was put into a plaster cast

and I was back on crutches for the second time in 12 years. 2 weeks passed watching films and reading.

Although this time i had to self inject a blood thining agent (Clexanne) into my belly, which wasn't very pleasant.

There was an unexpected overnight admission to Northampton General for suspected Meningitis but that's another story suffice to say it wasn't what they thought!

At the end of the 2 weeks I had the cast removed and was now place into this delightful item of footwear

This is called an Aircast boot. It was a revelation and enabled me to walk around the house without crutches and make myself a drink without throwing it on the floor

I was also able to take it off when needed which allowed me to take a bath and also get some air to my foot.

As you can see it was very attractive and very scabby! Sadly the bottom half of the stitches hadn't knitted together and was weeping.

Once the plaster cast was removed I was able to commence physio on the 20/9 with Mark Brennan at Witty Pask and Buckingham. The initial physio was to massage the calf muscle (which now resembled an old women's bingo wing due to muscle wastage) and manipulate the tendon. Initially I had 2 physio sessions a week but its now down to 1.

The majority of work is around stretching the tendon and i think im making good progress. The heel is still swollen but Prof Ribbans expects it to take a year for that to reduce.

Hopefully at some point over the next 2 weeks ill be able to cock my leg over a static bike and do something which to me will resemble a step on the road to recovery.

I'm back at work but walking with a limp which again I'm hoping will subside over the coming weeks.

Ive set myself some goals for the coming year which i will share in my next posts over the coming months. As the operation been a success? Its far too early to say yet but It will be deemed a success for me if I can play football with my son and walk freely.... reasonably freely the next day.

I'm off to physio again today. Here is my latest picture of the scar and yes it is swollen!

As you can see lots of hard skin which I'm hoping will reduce and if you look closely (to the right and above the new scar) you can just about make out my other scar from 12 years ago.