Ok, so no food after midnight and nothing to drink after 9am.  My surgery is scheduled for 3pm but I’m supposed to come in at 1:30 to fill out paperwork and get prepped.  I am starving and thirsty and the dr’s running late so I don’t actual have the surgery until 4pm.  I had a popiteal nerve block and was in no pain at all after I woke up.  Well no pain in my achilles anyway-  when I was intubated for the general anesthesia my lip was cut and my throat feels irritated. The surgery took a little over an hour. I had huge cast on that had a lot of padding and allowed for swelling.

Once I got home, I was feeling nauseous and couldn’t eat anything for a few hours.  I took a percocet before I went to bed and slept fine.

**Surgery details: open incision (about 3 inches) with modified Krakow suture.  Tendon was in good shape and didn’t have to trim much of the ends before suturing.

After a few hours of phone calls I get a referral to an orthopedic surgeon that specializes in foot and ankle surgery.  He did the Thompson test, saw it was a complete rupture and scheduled surgery for the next day (Note: I had no ultrasounds or MRI!).  I asked him why’d it happen?  I had no achilles pain ever. I have a normal BMI, I exercise, I eat well, what the hell?  I was really frustrated since I knew this was a “6 month until I’m back to normal if I’m lucky” injury.  I do cardioboxing, boot camp, zumba and tennis every week- probably an average of over an hour a day. I don’t fall into the “weekend warrior” category I keep reading about… Plus I’m female.  But I am 37 years old and my doctor said well you’re in your 30s and you’re playing sports…  Sheesh…

I get info on a knee caddy since the crutches are hurting me and I’m slow and feel unstable using them.  It’s delivered in a couple of hours and I can zoom around the house.  (Over the weekend I was using our computer chair but it doesn’t roll so well on the carpet and there are no brakes! ) My husband gets all my prescriptions filled in preparation for the surgery the next day.  I have percocet, vicodin, keflex and aspirin.  Whoohoo…

Ruptured my left achilles tendon during a tennis match on Oct. 16, 2009.  Had already played one set (probably about an hour so I was warmed up) when I heard a horrible loud “SNAP” and looked around to see what I had run into! I tried to put weight on my foot but there was no resistance so I sat down.  It hardly hurt at all but immediately knew what happened when I felt for my tendon and there was nothing there…I hopped off the court with the help of 2 friends and went straight to the ER.  I told them I snapped my achilles tendon but my pain was only a 2 or 3 on a scale of 1 to 10.  A NP came and probed around where my tendon should be and said I had a partial rupture. I asked are you sure?  I can’t put any weight on it.  (Later after looking on the internet I found she hadn’t even done the Thompson test which would have shown it was a complete rupture.) No ultrasound or MRI, they just splinted my foot, gave me a pair of crutches, and told me to call me primary care doctor for a referral to the orthopedic surgeon.