Went to see the Doctor today to get my new cast.  On the way out of the house I tripped down a stair to leave.  I thought I sprained my right ankle and was really upset with myself for not taking more time and being more cautious.  I whacked my cast on the step and that hurt a little, but it wasn’t bad.  My wife drove me there while I sat in the back seat with my leg up.

They cut the old one off and brought my foot up a bit to re-cast.  I opted for bright orange.  They cut the cast off and it didn’t look as bad as I thought it would.  I’ll post pictures when I can.  He re-casted me and I was told that he was encouraged by the amount of flexibility and that I might even get into a boot next time.  I chose bright orange because with 3 young boys, I figured they might see it better.  They always came close to hitting it and it always scared me.

The funny thing is when I was at the Doctors office, with my cast off.  While I was enjoying my leg being able to breath, I was scared to death of falling or something happening to me while the cast was off.  I laid down on my stomach and had my knee bent at a 90 degree angle with my foot in the air.  He was pushing on it and I didn’t have any pain.  I thought it would hurt, but didn’t, so I took that as a good sign too.

Got home that day and laid around with my foot up.  The new cast wasn’t as comfortable and I could NOT sleep at all.  I wasn’t really in pain from the surgery or anything else, it just felt like my leg was swollen and the cast was pushing against my ankles.  It felt like they would break their way out of the cast and I could not get comfortable no matter what I did.  I finally laid on my stomach with my knee bent at a 90 degree angle again and left it in the air.  Which felt better (this was also how I reduced swelling that I thought was going on in there.)  I placed a bean bag chair (my number 1 go-to leg elevator) behind my knee.  I brought my leg down a bit and was able to sleep a bit, maybe two hours.  Then I tossed and turned trying to find a comfortable spot for my leg in the cast.  My wife got up and left because I was all over the place.

It didn’t really happen until about 6am when I got comfortable.  Maybe the cast has a "break-in" period?  I honestly don’t know.  Tonight will be the test.

Next Doctor appt - Jun 10th.

I really miss walking and just being able to do stuff.  I had just bought Kayaks for my wife and I for this year and can’t wait to do that again.  Not being able to go fishing has been really hard.  Missing my kids games and just playing with them has been super rough, but I know the worst is behind me and look forward to the days ahead.  I’m doing more around the house and actually drove today.  It was painful leaving it down for that long (2-3 hours) so I know to take it a little easier on that.  I’ll try to post some pics soon.

Things were going well and I was taking medications with no problems.  I was set to have my next Dr’s appt on May 29th.  On the 28th though, I started having a bad reaction to the Percocet.  I had some anxiety and called my Dr. who told me to stop taking it.  I did but had a hard time sleeping that night.  Everytime I started to fall asleep, it felt like I would stop breathing.  He told me if I had a hard time sleeping take some Benedryl.  I hate taking medicine’s to begin with but my wife said it would help and clear up my congestion as well (since I had a cold).  I didn’t take it right away and still had those feelings.  I finally took it and was able to sleep.

So on May 15th is when I ruptured my achilles.  My oldest son had little league practice on this day.  The coach couldn’t be there so he asked for help from one of the parents to run it.  My wife asked me if I could help and I said "sure."

About the day before practice, I was emailed that I was the only one who was going to run it.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to run it, but wanted to give the kids as much practice as possible.  I talked to the head coach before hand and he was there for about the first 3o minutes.  He set up the pitching machine and gave me some drills that they like to do.  Three kids showed up, including mine.

I ran them through some batting practice and then after that they wanted to play a running game.  They have one person at home plate and one person at second base.  They yell "go" and see if the guy at home makes it to second base before the guy at second makes it home.  Since there was only 3 of them, my son asked me if I wanted to join them.  I said "sure."  I ran from second to home and won the first race.  I’m 40 and running against 10 year olds.  I wasn’t running as fast as I could, but still didn’t want to lose.

The next round, I started from home to second.  I rounded first and started running in a straight line towards second when I felt and heard a loud "pop" or a snap.  I went right to the ground.  I’ve sprained a lot of ankles in the past and knew that this wasn’t that.  I started holding my leg but thought it was weird that I wasn’t in a lot of pain.  I got up and hobbled over to the bench.  I knew something was definitely wrong, but still wasn’t in a ton of pain.  I just couldn’t walk right.  My son thought I was kidding but then realized that I wasn’t.  I sat on the bench and reached behind my leg and it just felt soft, like "mush."  I knew it was my achilles.

My wife showed up from our other two son’s practice and new something was wrong.  My oldest son told her what happened.  She looked at me and said "you need to go to the hospital" and I responded, "I know."  I didn’t even argue.  I hobbled to my car, which was a little harder than coming off the field.  Since it was my left leg, I drove myself to the Emergency Room.  I got there and got out of the car and really had a problem walking now.  I could hardly move at a snail’s pace even.  Hospital security saw me and asked if I needed a wheelchair.  I hated to admit it, but I did.  They wheeled me in and they got me right in, as it was pretty slow.  The nurse felt it for a little bit and said the Dr. will be right with you.  A few minutes went by and the doctor came in and told me what I already knew, that my achilles was torn.  She then left and brought back 3 or 4 more doctors to feel it.  She said they don’t get many right away because people generally go home and come in a while later.  She said mine was "textbook."

They put me in a half cast / have ace bandage and got me some crutches.  She gave me prescriptions for pain and swelling (Ibuprofen).  I took the Ibuprofen but not the pain meds until I went to sleep cause I thought it might start hurting.  The crazy thing was, it never really hurt.  The next day it still didn’t hurt and I just kept taking the Ibuprofen because I thought I should.

May 17th

I had set up an appt. with a sports medicine/othopedic surgeon on the 17th.  He looked at and felt it and confirmed what the E.R. doctor told me.  He set me up for an MRI for the next day.  I went downstairs in the medical building to the MRI place and they told me they had an opening right then.  So I waited a bit and had it done then.  I was to return to the Doctor on Monday the 20th for the results.

May 20th

The MRI confirmed that the tendon was completely town across.  The doctor told me that it was a pretty clean tear and the surgery shouldn’t be that hard.  I’d never had surgery before so I was freaking out for sure.  They told me that surgery would either be tomorrow (21st) or Friday the 24th as those are the dr’s surgery days.  They called and got me in the next day - 21st.

May 21st

I was scheduled for surgery at 1130 am, but had to be there at 930 am.  I had to bathe that morning with special anti-bacterial Dial soap.  The shower was pretty hard to take.  I had to put a garbage bag around my leg, as the cast went up to just below the knee.  I tied it in the front.  I put another garbage bag over that and tied it in the back.  Got to the hospital around 930 and had some really nice nurses.  They missed the IV the first time but got it on time number two.  The Dr’s first surgery ran long so it was around 1220 when they were ready for me.  They put in the medicine to knock me out in my IV and then wheeled me into the operating room.  I remember looking around, saw 2 nurses who said something to "Bruce", who was standing by me.  I looked up and saw a man with a beard and went right out.

The next thing I remember was waking up in the recovery room.  It was around 4PM.  I didn’t think it was supposed to take that long so I was a little worried, but more than that I was in a LOT of pain.  My nurse was a little grumpy but asked how I was doing.  I mumbled that I was in a lot of pain.  She gave me a dose of morphine.  A short while later she asked again and I told her I was still in a lot of pain, as the first dose didn’t seem to do much.  She gave me another dose, which made it tolerable and I told her that.  She took the IV out and I went over to a recliner chair.  On my left leg was now a blue fiberglass cast.  I ate some crackers and then had to leave.  My wife (driver) and I had to get the kids from school.

I got right home and started taking the Percocet and Ibuprofen that was prescribed to me.

Oh, I almost forgot, that night trying to go to bed I kept complaining that my throat hurt REALLY bad to my wife.  She told me it was from the tube.  My response was "what tube?"  She said they stuck a tube down my throat and said "didn’t you hear them tell you about intubation?"  I had no idea what the word meant or was just to freaked out about surgery to realize it, but man did that hurt.  It went away after a day or two, but that was almost as bad as the leg pain for me at the time.