DannieSays’s AchillesBlog

Hey everyone. Just posting once more to update on my recovery. I fully healed, non-surgically. I’ve gone off backpacking over seas, run my usual distance and time. I played my first football game again 2 weeks ago, and my second last week.

I still have a bit of soreness on my heel from i’m sure my lack of physical therapy, but whatever. I can live with it. Its not too bothersome. It would be if i had to stand a lot.

Stay hopeful, and eat healthy, and i recommend being aggressive with the rehabilitation. Using the iWalk 2.0, and working out. The body is a complicated machine and it can be thrown off its harmony. Laying in bed, and being inactive can’t be good for your body.

This is an opportunity to test your resilience. Best of luck!!

So i finally went in for my visit to the doctor. It was a quick one. A quick one that cost me 220. :\

I swear I could have totally skipped this visit. From what I read online, it says, be in cast 1 week, then splint with walking boot, then physical therapy. Anyway…

But it was good to get some direction. I need to be in the boot another 2 weeks. I need to not do my home-brand rehab with the stretching band. I need to keep doing range of motion exercises with my foot.

He gave me a prescription for physical therapy. I now have to find my own physical therapist. This is not an easy task, especially since there is never a listing of the damn prices. I don’t have insurance, so I’m not sure home much it will cost.

I’m guessing 100-150 per visit. I’m more likely to do the one visit, and ask them about doing the other session that week on my own. Then only do it once a week, for the 4 weeks prescribed.

From all the videos I’ve seen online, I’m going to guess it will be the same things. It says it on the prescription pad.

“Pt - Achilles tendon rupture left /

Weeks 8-12 after injury wean out of cam /

boot, toe raises w/ good leg to /

support injured leg, begin Achilles stretching/

strengthening + (eligible word. Looks like preconception)

1-2 x week x 4 weeks.

Hope this is useful to someone.

If anyone has any info on costs of Physical Therapy sessions in NYC, please let me know.

-daniel

Ok, so I don’t remember where I left off, but I am quickly get this blog up to date.

I was in a walking boot with a split, about 10 days after my injury. The doctor gave me this and said for me to schedule a visit a week later. I stubbornly made it for 3 weeks later. Because I think I didn’t want these weekly visits costing me 220 each time. My appointment is the 19th.

I’ve felt good walking on the boot so much that I took it off finally a few weeks ago. It felt so… fragile and movements felt so uncoordinated. But I tried out range of motion movements, and over time did feel better.

I tried to put weight on it later on, and I did so only by holding on to my chin up bar. And boy did that feel strange. Like the heel of my foot was umm.. more plump i guess is how to describe it. My heel was feeling a little less sensitive being in that split. I’m sure it wasn’t meant to be used for more than a week.

So skip forward for a week or 2, and I’m now hobbling without the boot. i do stretching with an elastic band i found. Feels good right after, but it tightens up after a while. I’ve watch youtube videos from people’s recovery posts. I guess i’m on track and where I should be. For a few days I tried going back in the splint and boot. and while that did feel safer, my foot was back to feeling super stiff and weak. I can’t go back in that boot now. I was wondering if I wasn’t letting the tendon heal enough by not being toes pointed down for long enough, and it doesn’t seem like the case.

I can feel back there and it seems like it is very much there. Tendon from calf to heel. There is a bump midway down, I’m guessing that’s the scar tissue. I’ve tried to massage it to break it up, and it has worked for the most part. It is less than it was. But I shouldn’t be doing my own brand of hair-brained rehab.

I bought one of those balance discs to try out balancing on it, and boy, I’ve got a ways to go to recover. I could barely do it for a minute. I walked around all day inside my place and I noticed I am putting my weight on my heel and not the front part. That’s why my heel gets sore from walking around in it.

What’s really helped is being some heel gels that sit in the back of my shoes. Like those Dr. Scholl’s insets. With those I’m able to walk almost normally. And the added bonus of giving me an extra half inch in height.

Anyway, That’s just about up to date. I’ve spent the majority of my time inside my apartment man-caving. I’ve gotten so much done with my photography business. Reading, setting up my website, going through tutorials. I’m a lot better as a photographer now than before. My goal is get back to normal, walking, hiking, running. My playing in sports leagues is done. It’s not worth risk of re-injuring this thing. And after years of playing in the leagues, I’m pretty fine with that.

Alrighty, since I didn’t write the first 3 weeks. I’m doing a quick catch up so I don’t feel so behind on these.

My injury was on a Wednesday night, and after getting home after the ER, I came to realize the effort of going up stairs on crutches. I’m on a 5th floor walk up building. That’s 5 flights of stairs. Its a heck of a workout. I kind of see this as a workout session. Since I can’t go running, I do this. Although I am concerned about over exerting myself and damaging some other part of my body now. Like my other leg, my other Achilles, maybe some hip muscle…

Thursday I stayed home from work, and Friday I did also. I managed to get up on my roof on Friday to keep my mood up. I went up there with a backpack that had a towel, and some foam floor tiles (that i use for working out in my living room). This was nice. I wanted to get out of the apartment and set the tone that I’m not going to be lazy and waste away.

I did go out to meet someone on Friday night. That was my first solo hobble out. I’ve come to the realization that sidewalks need to be evened out more. I am also very well aware of those little ramps at the corner of sidewalks. Good job on those. I went about 4 blocks. It was exhausting. Constantly looking down at my movement. Making sure I have the full time on walk signs. I was a bit concerned about going out and being ogled at with my crutches. But in typical New York City fashion, no one blinked an eye. People seemed friendlier if you can imagine.

Getting into places with shut doors is difficult. Some even have a little ramp to get to that door, which made the balancing act a bit trickier. But once you’re seated, everything is back to normal. Aside from where to put these crutches so they don’t fall down.

First full week of the #crutchLife

I was determined to go into work and not give them an excuse to write me off. I’m a freelancer, so they can for whatever reason, stop giving me work. So I used the ‘VIA’ to get picked up at my corner of my place and dropped off no further than 2 blocks from my office.

This was pretty convenient. I might actually do this on other days. It’s about 5.40 per ride. I usually sit in the front passenger seat. If anyone decides to use VIA, use my promo code and we both get credits! ‘daniel7v8′.

Anyway, getting into my office building, i notice the handicap button by the door to auto-open it. This works about half the time. Jerks.

Once at my desk, I notice the little things I miss. The ability to get up to get a cup of coffee. COFFEE! Because I couldn’t hold something and crutch it, i had to do without. I don’t like asking for someone to get me coffee, so I go without it.

I prepare my lunches the day before and leave them in my bookbag until its time to eat. I don’t heat it. I’m not picky, and the cold food is fine for me. I also bring a bottle of water in there. Once it’s time to go, I get up off my desk and take up for home also, with VIA. Sometimes it’s a 15 minute wait to get the car. So I have to stand out there for 15 minutes waiting. I see people with their walking, and look forward to doing that again. Left foot and right footing it down the block. Patience…

I’ll post again about week 2. I manage to get to work from home since I was put on a project with the LA office, so i’ve been home. This brings it’s own set of things to consider. Till next time.

Hello everyone. This is my first entry. Please bare with me, as I have not been a dedicated or illustrative writer in the past.

OK, so my injury occurred on Wednesday June 8th. I had a game of flag football that day, and I didn’t have the time to stretch I would normally like to.

In this game  we play both offense and defense. I mostly like playing on defense. We played one possession and I’m about to come off the field, but I’m asked to stay on to play on offense. I line up at receiver late in the drive, and I’m about to push off to start to run, when I feel my left foot give out and I fall right to the ground. I know right away that I did not trip, I did not injure something superficial. It is something on the inside. I lay there, knowing I should not try and mess with it.

I’m helped off the field. By the way, I should add that as a rule of thumb, ignore all medical advice you get from people who don’t have a ‘Dr.’ or ‘MD’ by their names. Everyone will try and tell you to do some motion that should not be done. I ignored most of it thankfully.

Anyway, I called my brother to come pick me up, which took not too long. On a side note, I had to hop from the center of the field, to the parking lot, using my brother’s shoulder to bare some of the weight. You will underestimate how difficult this is. This is not the 3 legged relay race at the company team-bonding picnic. When your entire body weight MUST be supported by one leg, and only one leg, you realize how amazingly well constructed the human body is.

We’re in the cab, and I’m thinking, I’ll just go home in the cab and go to the hospital in the morning. This is a stupid idea by the way. If it is something debilitating, just go to the doctor. Get it over with, and do it sooner than later.

Traffic was terrible, and we kept being diverted more and more west (I live in NYC). So I say, let’s just go to the emergency room. I should add that there was not much pain in my injured foot (my left). So the strain was mostly on my right leg, and specifically on my right hip. Like the hip-flexor area.

When we arrived at Mt. Sinai St. Lukes Hospital we get out of the cab. I don’t know if it’s just me, but I always imagine a very obvious and helpful staff looking for people limping around outside the entrance. This was not the case.

While in the cab, I’m google-mapping for the Emergency Room, and where is the entrance. I don’t want to arrive at a pediatrics or ear and eye center, just to have to go back in a cab across town. I called to make sure, but you never know.

So, in the ER. Seeing a doctor did not (amazingly) take long. It was about 11pm at night. It was pretty quiet. Mostly old-folks in there. A nurse first takes my heart rate, and asks a bunch of questions. No prior medical complications, not on medications, non-smoker (btw, isn’t this a crazy thing to know. being a smoker has this much an impact on your health that they ask you this).

I’m asked to wait in a room (btw, I’ve gotten around in a wheel chair thankfully). I hop on a table, and a doctor finally sees me. Asks me a series of questions, touches my Achilles area. He says it seems like that’s what it is. But says we should take x-rays. Ok.

They take 3 views of my foot and then I’m back in the room. The doc comes back in and tells me about my injury. It’s a rupture. Not cool. I haven’t mentioned this yet, but I have no insurance. Nada. Obamacare is garbage. 340 per month with a 6500 deductible. Useless. I may as well stuff money in my mattress.  But I digress…

He suggest I go non-surgical. Telling me about the complications of surgery, such as the skin back there doesn’t heal easily (this explains why women put little band-aids back there from all the heel wearing), and of course surgery is always a risk. Have you seen how that surgery goes? I’m sold as soon as he suggests no surgery. I googled it’s about 8600.

So they wrap me in a plaster cast, put my foot pointed down (plantar flexion), and hand me some crutches and boom. There I am double pole-vaulting around.

Now, we get to the part that has been freaking me out most. The costs. There’s a weird thing about if you pay immediately, for my ER visit (which is a level 4 out of 5), it’s $430. If I choose to pay later, it’s $1600! $1,600! I had to ask them to confirm. I went with the pay now.

I recommend that if hospital staff reference some memo, or document or whatever, ask them to make a copy of it for your records. If they show you a screen of your details, ask them if they can print it out for your records. You don’t want to take a chance of someone saying something, and you have no record of it. You’ll likely never see that specific person again.

So I am writing this (finally) in my 3rd week since my injury. So I’ll give you a brief updates on what has happened (billing wise). Apparently a hospital may bill you 3 times. #1 time for the ER visit. #2 for the services of the hospital personal (the doctor who saw you, nurse, etc…), and #3 for the use of the equipment. So that $433 turned out to be about $433 for the ER visit, $49 for x-ray, and then 349 for the services performed by the doctor.

I’ll post again to talk about the days after my injury.

Stay positive! Be thankful it’s not worse. A visit to the hospital really humbles you and makes you thankful. I don’t have a oxygen tank to drag around, I wasn’t the woman in the next room moaning in pain. This is a inconvenience and sucks of course, but it’s recoverable.

-Dannie