Avulsion for once

June 5^th - September 10^th

So after walking out of the clinic with permission to go two shoes I wandered back to the office by way of the local food court for a little celebratory lunch. I got back to my desk sat down and immediately took off the boot and tried on my shoe. Luckily I had gone shoe shopping on the previous weekend. I’d tried on my work shoes and they were both too small and seemed to crush my heel with a vice like grip. So I get back to my desk, pull my right shoe out of my backpack and fit it on. Pretty much free now.

Putting the shoe on was liberating, working the rest of the day was exceptional but taking transit home that night was sobering. I no longer had anything to mark me as requiring assistance - you certainly don’t garner much sympathy for carrying an aircast. And it hurt, there was some swelling and the strength wasn’t there and there really wasn’t much I could do about the limp.

For the next week I worked into going to the shoes full time. It was mostly because I wanted to keep myself from over-reaching. I figured to show some improvement my muscles would need extra rest, so I took a couple of days wearing the aircast for transit but otherwise use the shoes or sandals or go barefoot.

So I got my birthday wish.

I also now get to go grocery shopping on my own, work in the yard without assistance, fetch things from the kitchen or the basement - pretty much loosing the hand-and-foot waiting on I’d been getting. But I also was now able to ride my bike in the trainer and spend some time trying to regain the fitness I had allowed to disappear when I stopped using the crutches, and to start trying to lose the 30 lbs that I gained at the same time.

My mother’s birthday is in July which proved to be my first test of endurance, its a 3.5 hour drive and except for a stop for Tim Hortons I made it all the way without an issue, the next day the same.

August is the month of an annual conference that my friends and I go to, typically without our wives but this year they tagged along meaning that a second vehicle was required. For people who like driving I would highly recommend the Ford Flex, it was exceptionally comfortable, except in the last row which is essentially a cushioned pit. Still I drove all 8 hours down and back which was good. There was also 5 to 7 hours of walking and standing required every day, which made the hot tub and the pool at the hotel very welcome.

I did experience some swelling at the end of those days, but it was nowhere near the swelling I experienced when visiting my brother a month earlier and standing on his back stoop chatting until 3am - my foot ballooned around the straps of my sandal looking for all the world like a loaf of white bread rising. That was the last significant swelling I experienced.

Part of the walking around the conference floor I spent concentrating on recovering my gait and eliminating my limp but by day 3 the leg was tired enough that I did stop off at a both and purchase a cane, which helped considerably. I tried to get over to see the Indianapolis Criterium to support the US bike culture and maybe see some shiny new toys before Interbike but we left late, it was a long walk and my leg really did not want to go that far. I’m disappointed that I missed it because I was able to get to see this year’s Toronto Criterium (and I’m looking forward to seeing some CycloCross this year), its exciting and fun for a bike race, at least you get to see the riders more than once unlike a stage race.

By the end of August I was back to being capable of pretty much anything but running. Without the physio I didn’t have the strength to support, which is fine by me because it aggravates my left achilles something fierce.

September 10^th actually arrived very quickly, surprisingly fast actually, except for that last three days while I was waiting for the appointment to arrive.

I took the morning since I was fairly certain I’d be low on the priority list to see the surgeon and my appointment was at 10am. I wasn’t too far off, I didn’t get into the examination room until 11:15 and then I waited another 15 minutes before the attending popped in to see me.

Warning - don’t let the attending make decisions about the mechanical fix, always wait for the surgeon!

The attending had the best of intentions, he’d passed by my examination room three times in that 15 minutes and was considerate enough to check in on me, he must have also thought that getting the bed cleared was a good idea because I looked perfectly ambulatory.

He comes in and picks up my chart, reading only the top page he summarizes with “So, you were an Achilles Rupture huh?” and I hit him with it - both barrels: “Nope, an avulsion.”

He looked shocked for maybe a tenth of a second before he turned to the computer to pull up my images. “Avulsion? Wow.” So I explained to him how the diagnostics were mistaken and how my surgeon hadn’t known it was an avulsion until he opened me up. So finally he pulls up my x-rays and looks at them thoughfully “Oh, yeah, minimal bone fragments, that was lucky.”

This is what illustrates that the surgeon is the best person to determine how mechanically sound your fix is. I didn’t have x-rays until after my surgery, he couldn’t have been seeing any bone fragments.

Still he did start the examination and checked the tendon, my strength and my range of motion before my surgeon came in. They exchanged a couple of sentences before my surgeon sat down and eyeballed the tendon while asking about pain, strength and flexion. When the attending mentions that my dorsi-flexion was exceptional the surgeon got a concerned look on his face. Because of this site I knew right away what he was thinking and both the attending and myself blurted out how it was okay, there was no indication of the tendon lengthening.

The surgeon seemed satisfied, signed off on the clinical release and told me I was good to go, just to come see him if there’s a noticeable problem or I need a tune up. He actually took my pronouncement of attempting to find the closest mosh pit and start pogo-ing in stride.

So that’s where that leaves off. I’m now on my own and its a little scary. Probably why I came back to this site and decided to post my experience. Its good to have some people around who understand and will pay attention to your ramblings. Well my ramblings really, everyone else is so succinct its annoying!