ericm’s AchillesBlog

Hello all,

Now that I have a few people behind me on the "NYC marathon" tracker I thought I would start my own blog.  I’m a 37 y/o from Portland, OR.  I have a desk job but I have always been active outside work.  I’m 6′2" and fluctuate between 195 and 205 lbs. with a muscular athletic build.  My activities vary throughout the year but I regularly attend Crossfit classes, bike commute to work year round 5 miles each way, walk my dog about 45 minutes every day, go for a long bike ride when I can, run, race sailboats, and was just starting up softball for the year.  Over the summer I had a 200 mile bike ride planned and I had started training for that, two running relay races, several sailboat races, and a 10k.  Oh, and I had started playing tennis 1-2 days a week.

Tennis was new to me around Christmas but my wife and her friends had started playing and I was taking some lessons and attending drills.  I was enjoying learning and getting some exercise running around the court.  On April 13 I was one hour into a two hour drill session and was moving toward the net for a short ball.  I pushed off hard with my left foot and instantly felt like I was hit in the leg with someone’s racket and then had the sensation my foot fell straight through the ground.  I looked behind me to see why someone had hit me and nobody was within 20 feet.

I pretty much instantly knew what I did.  I can count 6 people I know who have ruptured their achilles including my dad, father-in-law, a good friend, an old boss, friends of the family, etc and they all describe the injury as thinking somebody had hit them, getting shot, etc.  The pain was right in that spot and I could feel the gap in the tendon right away.  All I could think was was "there goes my summer."

I looked up the urgent care facility for my insurance provider on my phone and they were closing in about 45 minutes.  By the time I calmed down and confirmed this wasn’t going away, then called my wife, there wasn’t enough time for her to get me and make it there before closing.  I wanted to avoid the higher cost of the emergency room if I could and wasn’t thrilled about waiting until the next day.  I put some ice on my leg for about 15 minutes and let the nauseous feeling I had subside then slipped out.  I was worried they were going to try and keep me there for somebody to pick me up.  It was pretty tough making it to the car because I didn’t have any crutches and nobody was helping me.  I hopped on one leg most of the way and then started getting nauseous again.  I hobbled using both legs the rest of the way and was surprised it didn’t cause too much pain.

At the urgent care center I parked in the basement garage and hobbled over to the elevator.  Luckily there was a wheel chair which I commandeered to get me the rest of the way.  I had been there a few years before and since then the urgent care area was moved to the opposite side of the medical campus so instead of being just at the top of the elevator I had to make my way across the campus.  At that point it was about 5 minutes before closing so they were able to see me right away.  They confirmed the rupture and put me in a splint.

After the injury I saw two different doctors for treatment options.  I’m double covered for insurance right now because my job will only give me $10/month if I’m not on their insurance plan but my wife of 1.5 years is a teacher and she was able to add me for a minimal amount.  Teachers in her district have really good coverage so it was a great deal.  Her insurance is a HMO plan (Kaiser) and my work has preferred provider coverage.  The HMO was steering me towards conservative treatment and the PPO was recommending surgery.  In the end I decided to have surgery but went to the HMO because the cost was significantly less.  All of my after visits and PT will be much cheaper on the HMO as well.  If I want more PT than the HMO will prescribe I can always use my insurance and go to any PT I want.

I had surgery 10 days after the injury and everything went well.  I have had 4 previous orthopedic surgeries so I knew what to expect.  I have been able to work from home at my discretion so through all of this I only missed 2 days of work; the day of the surgery and the day after.  I had surgery on a Thursday morning and was off pain pills by the following Monday, except right before bed I took a pill for a few days to help with sleep.  I kept my leg elevated above my heart at all times other than when I had to get up to do something and never had much swelling.  If I was up for more than a few minutes I could feel the blood rushing to my leg and my toes would start to turn purple.  I just took it easy for the first two weeks and rarely left the house.

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