The day my Achilles Tendon “snapped”!!

Hello everyone!

My name is Christine and I am so happy that I found this website.  This site has helped me stay focus on my recovery. I’m so thankful for everyone’s inspiring stories! Well, now on to my story…

It was Friday, January 23rd.  I was at the gym working out.  The workout for the day included box jumps (20 inch), double unders and thrusters. The clock was set, and it was time to go.  I was feeling really good that day.  I felt strong.  I was pacing my jumps, chaining all my double unders.  I had a rhythm going.  First and second round was smooth, barely winded, zipping right through the workout.  I remember thinking to myself…"you got this".  Well, into my 3rd round, I jump off the box onto the floor and then it happened.  It felt as though something hit the back of my left ankle.  I felt no pain.  I placed my left foot on the floor and I remember thinking…"What’s wrong with the floor?" …..and "why is it so uneven".  So I stop working out and hobbled over to the side, hoping that whatever happened will just go away.  Since I never had an injury before, this was a first and I assumed it was just a sprained ankle.  This thinking went on until I finally decided to see a doctor about my ankle issue, which was 3 weeks later.

I saw my doctor on February 13th.  He took maybe 5 minutes to examine.  He squeezed my left calf, and there was no movement from my foot.  He then tells me…."yup, it appears you have a ruptured Achilles Tendon" from there, everything happened so quickly.  I was scheduled for surgery 4 days later on February 17th.

Surgery went well.  I was placed in a partial cast for 2 weeks then into a hard cast for 1 month.  The cast was removed then I was placed in a boot for another month.  The boot came off on May 1!!  I was so HAPPY and EXCITED because now I can start physical therapy.

Well, I’m 16 weeks post-op. I’ve already had 4 PT sessions and notice improvement in my flexibility.  Right now I am trying to walk without a limp, it’s hard but I’m determined to get rid of it ASAP.  All I want at this point is to be able to run….it doesn’t have to be long.  I’ll settle for half mile.  Thanks for reading and any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

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