My ATR happened almost two months ago now. As I tell everyone, I was on the soccer field - they automatically assume I was destined to have an injury since I play soccer. I was only pushing off to start a run and POP - I hit the deck, knowing what had just happened. Why did this happen? You got me. I’m going to split credit with: 1: Almost no warm up or stretching before this particular outing, and 2: I’m heavier than I once was. These two excuses may or may not relate to the reason for the tear, but that’s what I’m going with.
I was planning on going a couple hours out of town to visit family the following morning. I knew there was a Bone and Joint Urgent Care where I was headed so I waited to see any healthcare professionals until the next morning. A physician’s assistance diagnosed me and got me a script for an MRI to be done when I got back home. He did recommend that I slow down and take it easy at this point in my life - thanks for the sermon, buddy. I left the clinic only to notice that the PA was leaving on a motorcycle - what a hypocrit!
Then there was business office trouble. MRI’s have to be pre-authorized and the prescribing place sent it to the wrong imaging place and things got a little crazy for a few days. I ruptured my tendon on a Friday, so by the following Tuesday I find out that I don’t have an MRI scheduled. Finally get that scheduled for the following Monday. I got an appointment with the OS two days after that. OS confirms what everyone already knows and sx is scheduled for two days from then. So my surgery is exactly two weeks post injury.
Excited for surgery! I’ve been laid out with ACL reconstruction a couple times, so I’m thinking surgery is just a blip and PT starts the following week. Not even close. Have surgery under GA and awake to the nurse in recovery trying to see if I’m actually cognicent or not. I asked her, "What are you giving me?" She says, "Demorol" and I tell her she does good work. Next few days is all about not feeling pain, right? Rx 40 tabs of Percocet 10 and a balancing amount of beer and the next two days went by quick and painless. By day three I was only taking the oxy 2 times a day and totally off by the end of the week. Man is that stuff addictive, but luckily constipation - notsomuch.
Time for a 7 hour car ride. Perfect timing for this injury with the "last" wedding of my youth to attend. I’m 33 and I’ve been going to weddings far too much for far too long and this one was that light at the end of the tunnel! The couple was more friends of my wife, but I felt like I could do this. Long story short - I survived. I will not go on any road trip 7 days post-op achilles repair ever again. Nashville was beautiful, however.
The week I got back from my trip I went in to have my splint and stitches removed. "Everything looks good," was about as much as the doc was involved. Got a shiny black cast and made an appt for four weeks. Four loooooooooooooong weeks.
And so began the "worst of times". In all of this, I have only taken 1.5 days off of work. I have been fortunate to keep my leg up through the day while at work, but the situation is obviously not ideal. So in the early part my days in a cast, that’s when I started getting down - especially in the evenings. I’ve always helped my wife (5 months pregnant) with the evening routine of dinner, dishes and our two year old. Not to mention we have a huge garden going right now and everything just seemed overwhelming. So I sat on the couch, leg up. Day after day, evening after evening. This was the norm until about a week before my latest appt - apparently the excitement of getting my cast off was making my mood noticeably better. Between that and a marked improvement in the ‘blood-pooling’ phenomenom (that occurred at a moment’s notice in my foot if I stood up), things started looking up. A slight silver lining is that the World Cup started and the couch is comfortable.
Next post: Post op visit #2, 6wks
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