Hello all. Everything has been going well in my recovery so far and I’ve strayed from visiting the site and the blog often as I’ve returned to a semi-normal routine. My cast came off two weeks ago and I received a Bledsoe walking boot with some wedges. I am down from four wedges to two, and I’m using only one crutch occasionally. I’ve been nearly FWB for about a week, and tomorrow I will completely ditch the crutch and venture throughout my day without it. Visit the doc a week from today and hopefully everything is still progressing nicely.
Funny, though. On an elevator on my way out of work today, I bumped into a gentleman who asked what I did to my leg. I said, “I ruptured my Achilles.” He proceeded to tell me he just ditched his walking boot after rupturing his right Achilles in January while playing flag football. He then said, “Before I did that, I had ruptured my left Achilles a year before doing the same thing.” This guy had two ruptures, one in each leg, in about a year. I felt bad for him. But as I left him he seemed positive. He was happy to be in shoes again and walking mostly without a limp or strange gimp. He wished me luck and told me it only gets better with time. The positivity was refreshing and a good reminder of this blog and the people who’ve helped me in my recovery.
3 responses so far ↓
normofthenorth // Apr 26th 2012 at 3:45 am
Unfortunately, his experience is not extremely uncommon. One study (linked from the studies page on this site) calculated that the risk of a recovered ATR patient tearing the other AT within the following 4 years or so was ~200 TIMES the risk of a random person tearing an AT. And many of us did it more than 4 years later, too (including me, 8 years later).
Once in my sports-med clinic’s waiting room, I struck up a conversation with a guy who used to work in another sports-med clinic, and helped treat ATR patients. He said that when they were recovered enough to be discharged, they’d say “See you soon!”
I think that’s a little overstated, but the risk is clearly there, especially if you go back to having fun doing “explosive” activities like your basketball and my volleyball, etc.
ultrarunning316 // Apr 26th 2012 at 3:59 am
That may be true but *shudder* so macabre…
Janus // Apr 30th 2012 at 9:02 pm
Matt, I’m with you. Met a few folks who had suffered an ATR (tho’ not a double), and it was greatly comforting to see how they were back to normal. Plus their own remarks on the process — and what I took also as their clear understanding of what I was dealing with.
The boot is your good friend, for a while. I had/have a Bledsoe as well. Served me well.
Out of concern for your well-being, mental and emotional health, I won’t mention the Pens-Flyer series. But again, Philly hasn’t seen the Stanley Cup in person since 1975. So we’re used to living in a constant state of despair, with occasional hopes and expectations raised only to be ruthlessly crushed.
All best w/ the ATR recovery!
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