kamueller’s AchillesBlog

Friday, Oct 12

Doctor’s appointment, Splint removed only three days after surgery. He put me right back in the boot with a couple of heel risers. NWB for 10-14 days until the staples come out. He’s still saying I can drive when I start walking. We’ll see. He also says I can take the boot off to sleep. This differs from most of the reports I’ve seen on this site. I’m really happy he is so aggressive with the protocol, but it makes me nervous as well.

A friend brings out a knee scooter that a colleague is loaning to me. Another brought over an iWalk. I had a slip on the crutches walking into the doctor’s office. Missed the yellow Wet Floor sign.

The nerve block finally wore off on Thursday. However, I still have numbness in that foot.

Sunday, Oct 14

Had concert tickets to the Fox that I had purchased in May (4U Symphonic Celebration of Prince). Friends chauffeured me and Fox employees transported me in a wheelchair to and from my seat. No regrets, but the pain and swelling that night were intense.

Monday Oct 15

I’m cleared to return to work, restricted to only standing 15 minutes at a time. A colleague is driving me to work everyday and loading the knee scooter in her trunk. I sit at my desk with my foot elevated on top of it. The kids have been pretty well behaved considering I can’t move around the classroom. I use the knee scooter to get around at school and my first floor at home.

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Friday, Sept 28, 2018

I’m a 47-year-old high school teacher and it’s homecoming week. A group of teachers participates in the Teacher Dance at the pep assembly in front of the entire school. Our motto this year was “Old School is the Best School”, so when I fell to the ground after my Achilles popped, a lot of kids (and teachers) laughed because they thought I was acting “old” and that it was part of a skit. I had just hit the ending pose and I hopped a little to run off the floor. As I hopped up,  it felt like someone had kicked me in the back of my foot. I knew as soon as I tried to walk, that something was terribly wrong. I could put no weight on my right foot at all. Fortunately, the school’s athletic trainer grabbed a wheelchair, took me back to her office, and secured transportation to an ortho urgent care, where the rupture was confirmed. I was put in a walking boot and told I could weight bear as tolerated.

What we didn’t realize was that my injury was considered Work Comp, so I had gone to the wrong office. So I had to cancel the MRI scheduled for Monday to instead see the district-approved Work Comp doctor, who then scheduled a new MRI for that Friday. He also referred me to a new Ortho surgeon within their network.

Filling out all of the injury paperwork with “dancing at the pep assembly” still seems surreal.

Wednesday, Oct 3

Met with the surgeon, who scheduled surgery for the next week. He said I could go back into the boot rather soon after surgery and would be walking and driving soon after. I was skeptical as everything I had read indicated a long 4-6 in a NWB cast. He seemed pretty confident that I would FWB quite early.

Friday, Oct 5

MRI that only Work Comp needed, as the surgeon had already scheduled surgery from the Thompson test.

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