Agreed, fear of re-injury is a real concern. Besides Ben, this thread contains a few other cases of that devastating outcome. While finding the mental strength to get through this injury once is manageable, I can't imagine what it must take to endure it a second time. Ben, curious to hear how you are progressing, both mentally and physically. It's great to hear reports of returns to normal life and activities from those who have recovered, so thanks for that.
I saw my orthopedist this week for a three month (13 week) evaluation. He is happy with the apparent strength of the repair, and described my ROM as about the middle of the bell curve. He seems confident that I can make a full recovery over the next couple of months, and be back to running sometime in there. He pointed out that the ROM required for recreational running is not great, the issue being more the ability of the quad and tendon on the injured side to be able to absorb the considerable eccentric forces generated on landing. Seems like it's more important to make the best recovery than the fastest one.
I'm going to pare back on my PT appointments to two a week as I approach the limits on my coverage. I'm still doing acupuncture and laser therapy a couple of days a week, and continuing to work hard on my own. Hitting the elliptical trainer most days, which elevates my HR and gets me sweating a bit, and still doing a lot of walking. I can kind of make it around on an exercise bike (with a slight bit of cheating out of the seat), so I anticipate doing more of that. My ROM was just short of 120 degrees on Friday, and I now have tangible progress like being able to put on my sock on the injured leg, tie shoes, and walk up stairs with both legs, so nice to see some real-world improvement.