Hello Everyone:
I have seen and read a lot of other blogs on this site, and I don’t want to be too boring, but I will try to give you a blog on what is happening with me, and hopefully it will help some of you experiencing a similar injury.
May 10th:
First of all, I am a middle-age guy and physically fit. At the time of the injury, I was working out about 5-6 days a week, and also playing golf (walking most rounds), so I was in pretty good shape. I also play competitive tennis, so you know where this story is going. On the evening of May 10th, I was participating in a match with my tennis partner. Prior to the match, I had warmed up for about 30 minutes and we were in the 9th game of the match, so I think I was pretty warm and stretched out.
I was at the baseline, and there was a ball hit to me that was pretty short, in front of me. As I pushed off with my right leg to get to the ball, there was an audible pop and it felt as though someone had hit me in the back of the leg with their racket. As a matter of fact, as I was going down, I looked back to see what had hit me. I knew right away, from the pain and the pop that this was an Achilles rupture. My wife happened to be there, having just finished her job at the physical therapy office, and I signaled her out to take a look. She immediately diagnosed it as an ATR. As I sat there for a few minutes, I remember thinking that this must not really be happening. I mean, besides being an active person, I had never had an injury in my entire life, and I have been playing some sort of competitive sport every season for about 30 years.
Some people wanted to take me to the emergency room, but my wife told them that this really wouldn’t do any good. From other posts, it appears that all they do with this injury is confirm that you have an ATR and tell you that you have to see a specialist. So, I went home and put ice on it. My wife called our orthopedic doctor friend (knee specialist) and he immediately set us up with an appointment with an ankle doctor in his office. Unfortunately, I had a very important business meeting the next day, so we had to make the appointment for the day after, on Thursday, May 12th.
May 11th:
I remember praying hard that night when I went to sleep that somehow, like past aches and pains, that I would wake up and everything would feel better. Well, when I woke up the next morning, my foot still wouldn’t move right and I had to drag it around to walk with any success. I hadn’t expected a miracle, but you never know.
It is interesting to note that after the initial pain when the injury occurred, the pain was not very intense. I found that as long as I carefully shuffled my right leg, I did not feel much pain at all.
I also tested my foot/ankle to see if I could drive, and found that I could not. I simply could not get my foot to go down on the gas pedal, or on the brake. My wife drove me the 40 miles one way to get to my office for the day and came back and got me later.
May 12th:
On Thursday, my wife drives me to see the doctor and after a 10 second Thompson test, he declared that I had a full rupture of my Achilles. Because of all the blogs from other folks, I had pretty much concluded that the doctor was going to give me this news, so I wasn’t surprised. He was very booked with surgeries, but after some begging and reference to our orthopedic doctor friend, in the same building, he agreed to do the surgery on Friday afternoon. My first questions were related to how long my recover would take. He said to expect 2 weeks in the cast, followed by 4 weeks in a boot, on crutches. Then I could expect to wear a shoe, but I would probably not have much mobility, even with a shoe on, for at least another 4 weeks. I told him that I wanted to play golf again as soon as possible and he assured me that I would be playing before the end of the summer. That was encouraging, and I immediately set my internal goal to be playing by August 1st (11 weeks). I also asked him if there was an option of not having surgery. He said that from his experience, the mobility with the bad leg is reduced about 35% without surgery. Also, the chance of a re-rupture is much higher. While I know there are posts from people who have not had surgery and have had some decent success, after doing my own research, I decided that it was not worth the risk. My wife, who works in physical therapy, also told me that I would be crazy not to have surgery. Maybe she just wanted to see me poked with a needle, but I think she was speaking from experience seeing other people recover successfully with surgery. I knew that if I did the surgery, the odds would be better that I would get much closer to doing all the things I did before, with no hindrance. Also, if you are thinking about not doing surgery, you need to consider what you will do if you are unhappy with the non-surgical results. In some cases, it is very difficult to repair an ATR after the torn tendon has been allowed to atrophy for months and months. I just felt for me, that it wasn’t worth the risk. I want to be able to run, jump, hop at the gym and in sports , just like always, without having less than full performance. Being a real baby when it comes to needles, my biggest apprehension was just having surgery, not to mention the worry about post surgery infections and other complications. Having weighed all that, I still felt that surgery gave me the best chance.
May 13th:
It is a very long time from midnight on one night to 2 pm the next day, to not eat or drink. I made it, but this was really only the first of many inconveniences that I have experienced, or will experience with this injury. After the usual paperwork, they brought me to the surgery room, check my vitals and inserted an IV. I live in Boulder, Colorado, USA, so my experience from here, may be different from those out there living in Europe, Australia, or another location. After a short visit by the doctor, the anesthesiologist came in and we discussed what would happen. Besides putting me out for a while, she was also going to put a pain block in my leg in the nerve behind my knee. I am still not sure about the purpose of the pain block, since I was going to be knocked out, but there was almost no pain when she put it in, so I didn’t mind.
After wheeling me into the operating room and talking to me for a couple of minutes, I was out and the next thing I knew, they were waking me up (around 4pm). As expected, I looked to my right leg and saw a very large wrap almost up to my knee. By around 4:30 they felt that I had regained consciousness enough to let me go home. I think that since it was a Friday afternoon, and I was the only one left there, all the nurses wanted to get to happy hours as soon as possible. With a little assistance from crutches and my wife, I was in the car and back home by 5 pm. So, in my case, the entire procedure from the time they took me to the surgery center, until I arrived back home was about 3.5 hours. While I was in the recovery room the doctor had already paid my wife a visit to tell her that the rupture was as he had expected and that the surgery had gone well. I plan to ask him more about where the tear was located and how he sutured the site, when I see him in two weeks.
May 14th:
My cast consists of a hard plastic splint around my ankle, cotton cloth around that and then a very large wrap that looks a little like an Ace bandage. The splint and wrap come up to about 3 inches below my knee. This is not the type of cast that you can walk on, and I have crutches 100% of the time. I was instructed to keep the leg elevated and iced for 72 hours. I started with Percocet for the pain, but I have found that it doesn’t work for me, except if you like being constipated. The pain block works for about 24 hours, so from Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon, I was doing very well. As the block wore off on Saturday night, the pain got pretty intense. I took extra Percocet thinking that this would help, which it did not. Around midnight, I got up and hobbled to the living room, so my wife could sleep. I grabbed the Advil (ibuprofen) and took 2 of these. In about 15 minutes, the pain subsided significantly, and I determined that I would not take Percocet again. Advil actually works really well for me and always has.
May 17th:
I am now on day 4, beyond the 72 hour period, so I determined to get up and move around a little more today. I have an office job, and can work from home pretty easily, so I am doing that. Still, it is way boring to sit in one place all day and not be able to be active like I usually am. I found that when I get up to do something, like go and look out the window, the blood rushes to my ankle and I can feel the pain. I have still been icing to keep the swelling down. Besides some tingling in my toes from time to time, my toes also feel like they are freezing, at times, and then they will feel fine. I think this is normal, since my toes look good, respond to touch and have good color.
By the way, since this is my first blog, it is probably important to point out that I have already set some goals. It is May here in Colorado and a great time to golf. I usually golf year-round when there isn’t snow on the ground, which this year there wasn’t much down here. We are just entering some of the best golfing months and I will be stuck missing some of it. So, my biggest goal is to get back on the golf course by August 1st (11 weeks). I will probably have to take a cart instead of walk, but I am going to do my best to make it, and I will keep you posted on how I am progressing toward that.
I also want to get back in the gym, much sooner. I seriously doubt that I will be back on the tennis court for a much longer time, but that’s okay as long as I can work out in the gym and play golf. By the way, I also have a home gym and worked out on that today, the 4th day after surgery. Other than some pain from being up too long, everything went fine. No leg stuff, just upper body stuff.
As I said, my biggest goal is to get back on the golf course. At the time of the injury, I was playing a couple of times a week, and practicing on the range a lot. I was due to play in a big tournament the weekend after surgery. Of course, I missed that. I think everyone needs a goal, when they begin this ATR journey and I have determined that golf will be mine. Once I accomplish that, I will add a goal to get back on the tennis court or some other milestone in the gym. I was just starting to get pretty good at golf in the last year, and I was really looking forward to making more progress this season. I will not let this season pass me by!
Hopefully, I can be a help to others, as some of you have been a help with your blogs for me. If you have any questions, please ask. I will try to enter some pictures in the near future.
