Hi all! I’ve been faithfully reading this site since beginning of April and kept saying that I should share my story as well, so here it goes.
As the title suggests, my story is not that unique, pretty textbook for this type of injury. Not in the elite athlete way, more in the weekend warrior way - I refuse however to call myself middle age! My BFF suggested we take a tennis clinic at a local college. I hadn’t played in years, but love to. Last few years my activity level has been low, but I have been an active runner, hiker and spin fanatic in the not to distant past. SO, on a sunny but chilly April evening, we began tennis clinic, and within 30 minutes, I heard the unmistakeable POP as I ran to the net for a shot (my opponent was lousy so I’m kinda holding her accountable for making me run in the first place!!). I went down face first, and my first words were “What HIT me”, which I repeated a few times, much to the confusion of everyone around me! I was convinced that someone slammed their rocket into the back of my ankle as hard as they could. I heard and FELT the pop. Once I realized there was no mystery assailant, I shouted a 4 letter word beginning with F, again which surprised the crowd :-). The well intentioned tennis coach asked if I could try to stand up (and move off the court) and I pretty much gave her the “are you on crack” response. I knew right away what I had done, and waited in pretty signficant pain for the ambulance to arrive.
This has been my first significant injury (other than typical muscle strains and soreness coming from running) so I have had nothing to compare it to, nor have I before had this humbling experience of NOT being able to do something that I wanted to (ie; walk!).
I’ll spare all the details, except to say that I am now 5 weeks post surgery (waited until 4/17 as surgeon was going on vacation and he was well recommended by several folks) and I am PWB. Have been lucky to be able to work from home, though I still require a good deal of help to manage some daily tasks (ie; showering, carrying things, food prep, cleaning, etc etc etc). I’m staying put as much as possible as I don’t want to do anything to risk re-injury (as one of my hometown Eagles just did). I feel like recovery has been going as well as can be expected, no complications, have had the usual pain, swelling and cramps in my calf (or where my calf muscle used to be!) That being said, it feels like I am quite a way from walking in “2 shoes” on my own, but I KNOW I’ll get there!
I have a few big activities this summer coming up, including moving into a new house, and 2 vacations which “WOULD” have centered around hiking, so it will be interesting to say the least!
For the other ladies here, are you dying for a pedicure or what??? I’ve considered going to get my right foot done, but then I realize that the probability of wearing open shoes/flip flops even on my good foot is quite slim for this summer
Wishing everyone safe, swift healing!
Jodi
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