Achilles Tendon Rupture Recovery

I wanted to get some suggestions/feedback from fellow AchillesBloggers about what sort of improvements you’d like to see on AchillesBlog. If you can describe in detail (with examples) on what you like, what you don’t like about AchillesBlog, it’ll be really helpful for me so that I can improve the site.
There’s even a possibility that AchillesBlog won’t be running as a Wordpress Blog, so please throw some ideas out there if AchillesBlog was a blank slate, how you’d want it to work. This will be a longer term project, but I want to improve the community experience for AchillesBloggers.

Thanks!

The NYRR Fifth Avenue Mile Race is the shortest race of the year, and it has always been one of my favorites. The race takes place on the first day of autumn when the weather is cool but not cold, and you get to sprint down the Museum Mile with the crowd cheering you on. On top of that, the course is slightly downhill so it really feels like you can just roll to the finish line. My first Fifth Avenue Mile run was back in year 2000, and I’ve run a total of four of these races so far. My fastest time was in 2000, and my second fastest was this past Sunday.
I was about 12 seconds off of my personal best, so I feel pretty good about my run.

After the race, I ate an apple, walked up to the boat house enjoying the nice autumn air, and drank some water and started running the remainder of miles, which amounted to 2 laps around the Central Park (plus a few avenues) to complete the 14 miles for the day. I am following the Hal Higdon Marathon 3 program, with some modifications.. mostly because some days I just can’t get out to run due to work, life, etc.

During my 2nd lap, as I was approaching the big hill on the north end of the park, I saw someone in a leg cast on a leg scooter pushing hard running/rolling along with the other runners and bikers. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

I have come across people on the streets with a leg cast on crutches laboring away on the sidewalk or gingerly stepping out of a cab. I have seen others in a cast on a leg scooter going around the city streets, but I have never seen anyone on a leg scooter pushing and running the full Central Park loop amongst other joggers and bicyclists.

So I jogged alongside her to say that it was great to see her running and getting exercise despite her injury. She said that she slipped and fell at home, rupturing her posterior tibial tendon and the tendon sublaxed out of its groove. And she also tore the retinaculum. I did mention the AchillesBlog community to her, and that I hoped that she would blog about her recovery experience on the site even if she wasn’t recovering from an Achilles tendon related injury. She had a very positive attitude about her recovery, and it would be great to share her story with everyone on AchillesBlog. (She even agreed to pose for a picture to post on AchillesBlog to share with everyone.)

She did sign up for her AchillesBlog, and I look forward to reading about her recovery.

Happy healing everyone!

Well, it’s been over 5 yrs since my injury, and as far as my recovered Achilles goes, things haven’t changed much since the last time I posted my update.  When I am running, playing basketball, or playing tennis, I don’t feel like my Achilles is holding me back in any way.   Now days, it’s usually my knees or my back that keeps me from pushing hard.

The scar on my left heel still reminds me of my year-long recovery, and I am still very appreciative of the fact that I am back to running, playing basketball, and playing tennis.  I do feel like it’s a little tight until I get warmed up, but it hasn’t bothered me much.

I don’t think about my Achilles every minute like I used to during the recovery process, but I am wary of shopping carts and people walking too close to me still.  I still can’t wear some shoes, and I have to buy heel pads for some of them.  But that’s fine.

I am in the middle of training for the NYC marathon, and I have 2 months of training left.   I ran close to 17 miles for my long run of the week, and boy that was tough.  I am a little behind in my training because I had the flu for a week, and I just fell off of my training regimen for an additional 2 weeks.  However, this past week’s training went pretty well, and I feel like I can run 26.2 miles in a couple of months, since I can run 17 miles now.. even though I really struggled through it.

It’s good to see that the AchillesBlog community is still very active and that it’s been a great place for people to connect to others who are going through the exact same recovery.  For those of you who are in their first week of the recovery, as hard as it might be, be sure to enjoy the down time while you are in a cast.  Just be patient and know that it’ll get better.    happy healing!

Dennis

While playing our weekly Wed night basketball, I injured my calf muscle in the same leg where I had previously ruptured my Achilles.  I wasn’t moving very fast, and the motion was similar to how I ruptured my Achilles.  I was moving slowly backwards and then shifted my momentum forward.  I then heard and felt a faint pop in my calf, and the first thing that went though my head was “crap..”.

I limped off the court and felt for my achilles.. and it was still there so I am hoping I didn’t do more damage than tearing my calf muscle.

I drove home and did a quick Google search for torn calf muscle, and it seems like treatment is basically RICE.  I don’t think it’s bad enough that it would require surgery, and I hope I can be “limp free” in the next couple of weeks.  I’ll most likely hold off on playing basketball for a month or two.

Well, I should have seen it coming.  I haven’t been getting enough exercise due to work/life, and I haven’t been making it a priority to take care of my body.  I’ve put on some pounds and playing basketball once a week in this state is a recipe for an injury.

I am all for getting back to playing bball and tennis, but I need to be smarter about it.  I shouldn’t be out there unless I am fit enough to play without getting injured.  Well, I think I’ve yelled at myself enough.. going to bed.

Happy healing everyone!

My apologies for such a long delay in getting the site back up, but there have been some technical issues with the upgrade. At this point, I think I am happy that we now have a new server that is more powerful up and running. I have postponed part of the software upgrade that was causing some problems.

One good thing is that I learned a lot about best practices on how to maintain and administer the website, so that I won’t have to take AchillesBlog offline for so long. I now have a second server that I can test the upgrades on.. and figure out some of the things that I have yet to resolve. In any case, please let me know if you see anything on the site that is not working. I’ll do my best to fix them as soon as I can. I also promise that AchillesBlog won’t be down for long periods anymore.

Hope everyone is doing well, and Happy Healing!
Dennis