Being down isn’t Mike Nitschke’s lifestyle. He lives on Shawano Lake and loves to be out on it with his wife and grandkids – pontooning, fishing, and ice fishing. But he was down and out for about a year and a half because of brutal pain in his ankles.
“It was like if you drove a pole barn spike through your ankles and tried walking on it. It just would not get any better,” Mike said. “One thing led to another, and my activity went from being pretty active to I bought a window of an hour to two hours a day to get whatever I wanted to get done because it hurt so doggone bad, I was sitting in the recliner.”
Mike was a meat cutter for more than four decades, spending most days standing on concrete. He worked for several supermarkets before starting Mike’s Country Meats with his wife.
“Knock on wood, 43 years and I still got all ten fingers. That’s unusual [for a meat cutter].”
While his fingers have made it this far unscathed, his ankles are another story. They even kept him from enjoying the little things in life, like walking their golden retriever puppy.
“He’d just look at me like, ‘Cripes, I didn't know I was going to the old folks’ home.’”
Even though he and his wife are semi-retired, they were both frustrated that Mike felt stuck in his recliner.
“It was brutal just to do anything. My recliner got a lot of use, and it shouldn't have.”
Searching for Ankle Pain Relief
Mike went to see several providers for help, from a rheumatologist to orthopedic surgeons. The most they would do was take X-rays and say that surgery would be an option down the road. One provider suggested weight loss, but Mike knew his ankle pain would restrict him from most traditional exercises. He got a boot and did physical therapy. None of it helped.
“After almost about a year and a half of just about screaming, it was to the point where I didn't know which way to turn anymore it hurt so bad,” Mike recalled.
Finally, he showed his X-rays to a friend who is an ICU nurse.
“She goes, ‘Ohhhh. You’ve got some dandy heel spurs. Why don’t you go see Dr. Guo?’”
Mike made an appointment at BayCare Clinic Pain & Rehab and saw Rachel Janowski, PA. After reviewing his X-rays, she suggested Mike get an MRI. His MRI revealed partial Achilles tears in each ankle along with the heel spurs, so Rachel referred him to Dr. Jason George DeVries, a podiatric surgeon with Orthopedics & Sports Medicine BayCare Clinic.
Achilles Tendon Repair Surgery is the Answer
One week later, Mike saw Dr. DeVries. He wasted no time in suggesting surgery.
“He reviewed all the stuff that I had done – the therapy, the boot, the heel lift, everything – and he said, ‘Now it's time to just fix it,’” Mike recalled. “And I said, ’Well, I'm with you.’”
His left ankle was worse than the right, so Dr. DeVries fixed that one first in July of 2023. Mike did most of his rehab at home and felt comfortable walking on it a few months later while he enjoyed Oktoberfest in Shawano with his wife and some friends.
“My left ankle was right on,” he said.
He scheduled surgery for his right ankle in November and looked forward to being healed up before snowblower season started.
In June of 2024, Mike went fishing in Canada and says his ankle pain has been reduced by 90%.
“I'm glad that Rachel from Doctor Guo's office finally was the one who pulled the trigger and said, ‘You know, you got more going on. Let's get some MRIs,” Mike said. “Then we got to move forward because I don't know how much longer I could have taken the pain.”