Achilles Tendon Rupture Recovery

Some of my friends are renting out a court on Wednesday nights, and I’ve started playing basketball again.  I’ve played three times so far, and it’s been great!  However, I’ve been taking it easy on both ends of the court.  I don’t think I can go “all out” yet, so I’ve been happily running back and forth playing team ball and taking set shots when I am wide open.  I used to love slashing to the hoop, and I don’t do that.. yet.  Since I don’t back peddle any more, my defense has suffered too.  And I never cared for rebounding anyway, so not much has changed there.

All things considered, I am more than happy that I am able to do this 8 months into the recovery.

My wind is definitely there, and my achilles is doing fine.  However, my knees are bothering me and I think that is what is keeping me from doing more on the court.  Looks like I have to go see an orthopedist about my knees, but if he/she recommends surgery, I probably will decline and stick to sports that are less taxing on my knees.  My knees felt okay playing tennis, so I might just stick with that.  Well.. we’ll see, I’ll do what’s best for my long term health.

So do I feel like my achilles is 100% by now?  No, and I don’t think it’ll feel 100% for a few more months.  I’ve heard from others that it may even take longer to feel 100%.  It’s almost like nursing a mildly sprained ankle for a long time.  It feels okay to move around, it’s a little sore at times, and I baby it a bit.  But I don’t limp any more, and my knees are more of a concern than than my achilles now.

It was a beautiful day today.  I jogged along the Hudson river about a mile to the gym, worked out for about an hour, and jogged/walked back home.  I am starting to do more leg exercises in hopes of strengthening my knees.

As a side note, it looks like Elton Brand (NBA player who came back from an Achilles rupture last year.) signed a five-year, $79.8 million deal with the Sixers.  Go Elton!  http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/2008/10/11/2008-10-11_elton_brand_boosts_76ers_character_and_c.html

It’s been a while since my last post, but I’ve been checking the site everyday reading everyone’s posts during my free time here and there.  I am still amazed by how many people are on the site, and we now have close to 200 Achilles Bloggers.  That’s a lot of people healing, recovering, and working hard to get back to normalcy.  When I designed the marathon tracker, I never thought that there would be groups of people at each 1/2 mile marker.

Speaking of the marathon tracker, I’ve finally made it to Manhattan!  When I ran the nyc marathon some years ago, probably the most memorable part of the race was running through the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan.  I had thought that there were lots of people cheering on the runners in Brooklyn and Queens, but getting off the Queensboro Bridge ramp into the streets of Manhattan and feeling the amplified waves of cheers was definitely something else.  I probably ran about a minute faster that mile with adrenaline pumping through my system.

It has been 32 weeks, almost 8 months since my injury, and I am pretty happy about the progress I have made in my recovery so far.  I’ve been playing tennis fairly regularily, and I’ve been enjoying the cool fall weather.   I signed up for a group tennis clinic that takes place every Thursday night for 1 hour at an indoor tennis court near where I live, and I am looking forward to playing regularily.

I probably played more tennis this year than the past few years put together, and that’s probably because I now appreciate being able to run around more than I did before the injury.  I am still fairly careful out on the court, and I don’t bother chasing down really difficult shots.  I’ve learned to ‘let go’, and I am okay with it. 

I’ve been going to the gym to work out two-three times a week, but I don’t do any calf specific exercises.  I run about 15 minutes to warm up and then I do upper-body workouts as well as squats with light weights.

As far as my recovering achilles is concerned, it’s in pretty good shape.  I can do several single leg calf raises, but I do have a bit of slight, dull soreness that comes and goes if I put too much strain on my achilles.  Yes, it’s not 100% yet, but I don’t expect it to be.  I don’t limp anymore, but I still can’t wear some dress shoes.  Oh, here are some pictures of my scar.  It really hasn’t changed much since my last post.  Unfortunately, I haven’t been good about applying lotion, mederma, etc.

Well, maybe there has been a slight improvement in appearance, but I don’t care too much about how my scar looks, really.  I think it’s a cool scar.

Here’s the close-up:

My achilles tendon on my recovering leg is definitely thicker, and it’ll probably stay that way.

It’s holding up pretty well.

It still makes me cringe when I see images of single leg calf raises, but it doesn’t feel/seem that bad when I am actually doing them.

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Just a word of encouragement to all the new bloggers:  Take it slow and be patient.   The first few weeks are the hardest, but it gets better, and you’ll eventually get back to doing things that you love.  Happy healing!

I’ve hit the 6-month recovery mark!
I hadn’t played tennis in over a year, and I ventured out to play this past weekend on a dry, warm summer day.

A good college friend of mine happened to be in the city, and he brought his tennis racquet with him. I got to the courts first, so I took some tentative practice serves. It felt a little strange, and I could “feel” my achilles. So much for putting my legs into my serves, but I slowly warmed up enough to feel comfortable with taking practice serves with decent power. I don’t have the most consistent serve, so I wasn’t serving any worse than I did before the injury.
It really felt great to have the racquet in my hands, going through the serving motion, hitting the ball, and jogging to the opposite end of the court to pick up the balls.

By the time my friend showed up, I had warmed up enough to break into a light sweat. I carefully stretched my achilles on both legs, and we started to hit the ball back and forth. I made sure to not stress my achilles by making any sudden stops or abruptly changing direction. I didn’t chase down any really difficult shots, but I was fairly quick on my feet enough to get to most of them.

Another good thing about playing tennis with my friend is that we usually just focus on being consistent and keeping the ball in play within reason. So that allowed me to ease into getting back to where I was before the injury.

My friend was surprised by my mobility as he’s gotten used to seeing me limping around these past few months. I could tell that he was really glad, as he’s got his tennis buddy back.

I do feel a slight soreness in my achilles today, but I suppose that’s to be expected. I’ll take it easy for the next few days and see how I feel.

One step closer to full recovery!

Update: We have 61 votes! Please sign up and send in some more votes!. The most popular proposal has 2698 votes.  I think we need around 900 votes to be in top 25. Thanks everyone!

I have an American Express Card, and I received an e-mail from them about the Members Project that they are sponsoring. I am not sure how well known this is, but I checked it out and found it to be interesting.

Here is the snippet of the e-mail that I received:

It’s never been so easy to make a difference.

Whether you want to protect the environment, save our schools, or fund the arts, Members Project® is your chance to help choose which projects will share $2.5 million in funding from American Express. Last year, Members Project brought clean drinking water to over 3.9 million children across Africa. What happens this year is up to you.

Here’s how you can get involved:

1) Join the discussion. Find a project you’re passionate about, discuss it with other supporters, and help campaign on its behalf. 2) Share your idea for a project. Do you have a project that could make a difference? Share your projects until August 19. 3) Cast your vote. Beginning September 9, vote on your favorite project and help decide which ones will get $2.5 million in funding from American Express.

So, thinking about AchillesBlog.com and seeing first hand the benefit of online social network (community support) when it’s centered around our personal experiences with the recovery, I drew up a proposal.

If you are curious, here it is: Online Community Proposal for the Members Project

If you are interested in voting for this project, all you need is an e-mail address to register.
(You don’t need to be an American Express card holder .)

The project proposal can be modified until Aug 19th, 2008 so I am open to suggestions.

The deadline for the voting is September 1, 2008, but the sooner you vote, the more attention it’ll get, and the more attention it gets, the more vote the project proposal will receive.. you get the idea.

Thanks!

The AchillesBlog.com T-shirts have been a great success! I am delighted that everyone liked the T-shirts, and I am glad that I’ve been able to make them available at-cost. Thanks to your support, especially Kathy (kkdub), I’ve been able to give out T-shirts to some of you.
(If you haven’t ordered a T-shirt yet, and want a free T-shirt, please let me know.)

Here’s what the inventory looks like now:

I ordered 4 T-shirts total. One for myself, one for my brother, one for my sister, and one for my friend Jah who’s been really fantastic. (He is in the Picture Gallery.)

It was silly of me to not order one for a close friend of mine who helped me through some rough times during my recovery.. so since he wears the same size T-shirt as I do, I gave him mine. I’ll order a few more for the second print so that I can have an AchillesBlog T-shirt too!

I hope your AchillesBlog T-shirt becomes your favorite tee, and as Daveleft suggested, if you want to be included in the T-shirt gallery, please let me know.