Five Month Review
Last Sunday, the 14th, I hit the five month milestone; five months since the night of the fateful ATR. Since October 2009, the 14th of every month has become increasingly significant. It’s not a date I’ll ever forget. Little did I realise, as I curled up on the sofa at home watching Sunday night TV with my wife and reflected on what I was doing five months previously – sitting in sweaty squash gear, clenching my teeth against the pain, willing the doctors at A&E to call my name next, looking at my lower leg and wishing – wishing – that they would contradict the evidence of my own eyes and tell me, no, no, you’ve popped a calf muscle, not ruptured your Achilles tendon at all – that, somewhere else in the world, the nightmare was just starting for a man the same age as me, but considerably more famous.
David Beckham’s six days older than me. I interviewed him once; nearly ten years ago, his son, Brooklyn (then just a few months old) sat on his lap and gurgled throughout the 20 minute chat. Made us both laugh. I thought then that Beckham was a decent, solid guy. So I felt pretty bad for him on Monday morning when I heard the news, went online, and read about what happened in detail.
What struck me about Beckham was, from the footage I saw, that it happened, much like mine, in such an innocuous way. I guess many of us can empathise with that – jogging in the centre circle, no-one near him, bang! It’s snapped. He knew straight away, apparently. Perhaps he heard that dreaded sound. The other thing has been the quotes attributed to his surgeon. I have no doubt he’s an expert in his field (probably the No.1 in the world) but to suggest Beckham will be ‘light running’ at two months is very optimistic, so is kicking a ball at three months. He did stress jumping would be 3-4 months and, while I would never want to dismiss Beckham’s drive to return, I think he’s got a very real battle on his hands to play again. If he’s playing competitively by the end of the calendar year, he’ll have done well. Good luck, David.
So, I’ve been thrown off course a bit in this blog. What of me? Well, as of roughly two weeks ago I feel I’ve turned a bit of a corner. “A massive corner,” said my physio, when I mentioned this. From nowhere, the limp suddenly reduced significantly, swelling was rare, colour was better. I’ve now had a couple of gym sessions, focusing mainly on bike, cross-trainer and various stretches; the stretches have been toughest, but my physio is really pleased with my progress. So much so that my manual sessions with her (ultrasound, massage) have thinned out to every four weeks.
From here on in, it’s down to me to step up the gym work and push on. I can’t run properly or fluidly yet, so that’s the next thing I want to do. I can manage a heel raise on my right foot only, albeit just a few inches – but it’s a start. Jumping, etc is still a way off. In terms of returning to how I was before, I’m about 50% of the way there (says physio). In that context, plenty still to do but I’m grateful for how far I’ve come and there’s the odd little reminder to take my time; earlier this afternoon I turned sharply with my right foot planted and got a little shooting pain. Just a little warning.
Take care, all, and continued good luck in your recoveries.
I’m glad you’re making progress, Kevin. I also hope there’s a way for you to help educate your local professionals to get them to make their non-surgical protocol less “conservative” and closer to the schedules used in the modern studies I’ve cited on my blog. You’ll be doing a bunch of other athletes — future ATR patients — a big favour!
The gist is (1) straight into a boot, with 2cm heel lift. (2) start physio & exercises and partial WB at 2 weeks. (3) Full WB “as tolerated” starting at 4 weeks. (4) “Wean off boot” starting at 8 weeks — or get your hinge-able boot hingeing starting maybe at 7 weeks, or maybe even earlier. It’s way quicker, and less disruptive to your life and to your strength and balance and coordination. And it seems to work well, according to the studies.
Wow, Kevin, Im a massive Man Utd fan and would love to hear more(or see) your interview with Becks, not sure you can private message on here but do so if you can work it out!! Suddenly everyone knows about achille ruptures in the UK, maybe they’ll rename it the Beckham’s tendon eh…
Im a couple of weeks ahead of you (as you know) and stepped up my gym work to include jogging this weekend. Very light and short for now. Been doing jumping squats too, so your not far off.
Keep at it!