Professional Vagabond

Freed from the cast back on Oct. 9th!

I hit the showers immediately and began massaging the foot and the area around the tendon. The advice of everyone on this site was extremely useful. So much so that only after seeing my PT twice she called to tell me on Oct. 17 that I got the green light to take off the walking boot from time to time and try bearing as much weight as I could - comfortably.

Well… she called only because I left her a message telling her I tripped on my front porch the night before. Yes, I spent another night at the ER and had to visit the Fracture Clinic again the next day.

Having just returned from a wake I fell! The pain was greater than the initial injury… because I tore open the wound - sigh!

The team at the Fracture Clinic examined by hand my tendon and could not detect any breaks or gaps along the tendon. Oh please… please, please.

I’m back on Thursday to meet the team again. There has been a couple of areas of some light spotting of blood.

So for now I wait patiently hoping for the wound to heal nicely, postponed my PT sessions and hope for the best.

Sorry no videos yet of me walking with my “hands-free” crutches but they have made a huge impact allowing me to get around in comfort.

The cast comes off this THURSDAY!

Armed with my iWalkFree crutches I hosted meetings with local journalists and retail partners to launch our new line of cooking appliances: Induction Cooktops and Wall Ovens. But not before I hosted the Canadian Home Chef competition on the set of Foodies. To start off the competition our chefs made an amazing breakfast for Jennifer Valentyne - one of the hosts of Breakfast Television in Toronto.

From waist up you can’t tell.

Uh, it was way too early for me…

 Just getting ready to go live on-air.

 

Here I am with the host, Jennifer Valentyne.

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Oh yeah! Today at noon the designer of the iWalkFREE crutch dropped by and now I’m walking with 2 free hands. Within a few minutes I experienced a new sense of freedom. For now Lance wants me to walk around as if the device was a cane. Now and then I’ve already walked almost naturally with both arms swinging freely and even took a call on my cell phone.

Here is the 1st photo taken by my wife. I’ll see if I can make a video and post it before the weekend.

With my national media tour coming up it was time to pack up the gear for shipping. Thankfully a handful of people from the agency and department helped. Nevertheless it took longer than I anticipated and my foot quickly was turning shades of red and purple.

Before noon I was in the showroom lying on the couch. Fortunately I won’t be sitting at my desk for the next few months… but standing in front of cameras and journalists may pose a challenge as I travel from city to city.

At home I’ve been able to work from the couch - thank God for the Net and mobile phones. I’m going to have to modify how I conduct my interviews once on the tour however. I made a post earlier today regarding the iWalkFREE “hands-free” crutch. I’ve been speaking with the designer and hopefully I’ll get fitted this week.

A friend rented the device when she was injured - she is a PT herself. The benefit for me is how it allows the user to have full use of both hands. Especially important for me now that I need to create the illusion with the help of the cameras that I’m standing on my own two feet.

I’ll do my best to document my experience. For now here is the website - www.iWalk-FREE.com. It would be valuable to hear from anyone that is currently using this device themselves.

Cheers!

A summary of my experience through the lens of my phone.

Day 1 - Waiting in the ER

Day 1 - Come back tomorrow

Day 2 - Come prepared… to wait

 

Day 3 - Ultrasound

Day 3 - Getting ready for surgery (waited for 10.5 hours)

Day 4 - Good morning

Day 14 - Remove sutures

Day 14 - New footwear… the latest from Paris

It all started on the basketball court. Our friend Kevin was visiting and we decided to kick off the long weekend with a pick up game. After failing to grab the rebound I was determined to retrieve the loose ball. Yeah that’s it… one explosive step and I ruptured the Achilles tendon completely… leaving nothing but strands of spaghetti for the surgeon to piece together.

I’ll be out of action for another 3 weeks and then I’ll begin the slow road to recovery. Aside from not being able to leave the house initially, becoming a temporary burden to my wife and missing out on some cool campaigns at the office… the difficulty of sleeping with this cast was unexpected.

Hopefully I’ll be at Whistler this spring!