Easter Sunday
Firstly to Dennis. Thank you for this site.
I guess chronological order seems the best way to do this.
04/04/2010 - 9:30am ish
Given that we were looking at having a lovely Easter Sunday lunch, my wife suggested it would be a good idea to go across the road to the park to do some exercise. Seemed like a great idea…….
So my wife, daughter who is 5 walked over to the park. I was actually looking forward to doing this. I’m not a terribly athletic or fit person, but was looking forward to it nonetheless.
So after some very basic and half hearted stretching (token gesture really !) the three of us dig some gentle jogging back oand forward and kicked a ball around for a lil while.
As my daughter took a drink on the seat my wife suggested that we sprint over to the yonder tree and back. Seemed reasonable.I knew that my Achilles was feeling a little sore/tight but honestly did not pay that much attention to it.
Sitting on the seat my daughter had called out the magic words "Ready, Set, Go…" POP …All over, my wife had taken off, I’ve crumpled to the ground with a scream of pain, dropped the F bomb and clutched the back of my leg. It was weird, I knew straight away what had happened.
I said to the darling wife "I’ve snapped my Achilles" . In her caring attitude her response was immediate "Oh bullshit, you’d be rolling around in pain. Its like child birth you drama queen". So suitably chastened she took my daughter back home to be cared for by my mum who was visiting for Easter, whilst she ran back over to the park with a bag of frozen frys wrapped in a towel. I honestly didn’t know where to put it first.
So mum and my wife got me up and we hobbled back to home, thankfully not far away. Sitting on the back step I was relating the story of what happened to mum, who was a registered nurse, and she agreed that the inevitable had happened.
I think I was in denial at first, then agreed to go to the hospital….on Easter Sunday. !
After some magical pain killers and an ultrasound …yep. His words " Looks like you’ve done a god job on it" . Placed in the boot and off home with a referral to see the orthopedic surgeon.
As the days progressed the pain in my upper calf was the worst. Like a constant crap where you wake up in the middle of the night gasping. No pain in the ankle area at all, unless you pressed against it.
07/04/2010
Rock up to the surgeon with the ultrasound films, after some poking and squeezing he couldn’t really see where in the ankle area it had gone. Suspected that with all the pain in my calf it could have happened up higher as well. Great, potentially 2 tears. Then off for an MRI the following day. By this time the cramp in the calf was really annoying and painful.
08/04/2010
MRI. No really issues. Pain in calf still there and still annoying. As the tendon had nothing to attach to the muscle had bunched up, causing the cramping pain. Makes sense I guess.
12/04/2010
Results back, no issue in the calf, 1cm tear in the ankle. Best outcome is surgery….. April 20.
Over the days leading up to surgery the pain was more manageable and eased a lil.
20/04/2010
Holy shit ! Woke up and it really hurts. The nurses were fantastic, got on top of the pain quickly and was blissed out in about an hour of waking. Found out that I’m allergic to morphine, but there are plenty of other wonderful alternatives out there.
So for the next 6 weeks on crutches. No weight bearing at all.
Deepest heartfelt thanks to my beautiful wife who has been amazing. Dinners, coffee and generally taking best care of my as possible while debilitated on crutches as she is trying to complete a degree. I had a cloth shopping bag I could put around my neck to put things in as I moved around. It helped with a lil independence and managing some things for myself.
02/06/2010
Wooohoo, can start with partial weight bearing, one crutch and physio. Slowly slowly.
