A week after my ATR
This is the first post of this Blog, in which I will try to summarize my experiences for the sake of sharing the information with others.
It has been exactly a week since I ruptured my left Achilles tendon.
On Sunday, Feb 15th, I was playing with my Grizzlies Soccer team in the Sunday Dome League in Montreal.
After 15 minutes of playing, I stood with my back to the opponents’ goal, and a defense man behind me. I started sprinting for the ball, when I felt a striking pain in the back of my left ankle. I fell on the ground and as I was turning back to look at the ‘criminal’ defense man, it appeared to me that he didn’t even touch me. This is when I realized something bad had happened to me. I knew I tore something, I just didn’t know what exactly. The pain went away almost immediately (5-10 seconds) but the leg felt weird and was slightly shaking.
The next stop was the car, and then the emergency room of the hospital, where my wife happened to be working on a call as a resident. She knew what it was, and another doctor confirmed that I had a complete rupture of the Achilles Tendon (ATR). They did the Thompson test, and felt and saw the gap above my ankle, in less then 5 minutes.
I left the hospital with crutches, and did not apply any ice (as I should have - USE ICE!) in the days before the surgery. However, In the next day I did go back to the emergency room, to put a cast on my leg to make sure the foot does not move and to make it clear that this leg should not bear any weight.
I was lucky to have the surgery set-up for Wednesday, just 3 days after the injury. I believe that doing the surgery quickly has some significance, making it easier to stitch before the muscle starts retracting.
The surgery was short (1 hour) and under full anesthesia. I left home at 12pm and was back around 6pm, which is relatively painless. The surgeon did, however, prescribe a serious amount of pain killers for me, promising my wife that it will be very painful. Well, I’m happy to say it is not so bad. It is more uncomfortable than painful.
The main challenges in this injury, as I see it, are the long recovery period and the motion limitations. Walking with crutches is not only slow and cumbersome, but also requires both hands. So I already spilled one cup of coffee, and I cannot carry my 1 year old baby from one place to another. Luckily, he can walk by himself now 
Since the end of last week I am trying to figure out what would be the best way to get the iWalkFree crutch. I have high hopes to get one one quickly and increase my level of mobility and interdependency. If you have any tips regarding where to purchase or rent one please let me know.
I guess this is it for today. I’ll go check how my team mates did today and get ready for the Oscar night.
Filed under: Uncategorized and tagged ATR, complete, iwalkfree, surgery
Lior, I’m sorry that you had to join the club, but welcome.
I found my iwalk on Kijiji, but I checked Montreal and didn’t see anything there. I would expect that you could get one directly from the company in a couple days if you’re willing to pay full price.
I see you were averaging a goal a game - nice! I have a pet theory that playing on turf contributed to my injury - do you have any thoughts on that?
Thanks schmeck
Like many other ATR victims, I’m sure, I was trying to find all sorts of explanations and reasons why the hell this had happened to me. I didn’t think about the turf. I actually think turf is safer to play on then outdoors grass, which is always full of holes and can become very hard sometimes.
Frankly, I don’t think I’ll ever know the answer…
If I had to guess what would be my next serious injury I would never have guessed it would be this one.
Anyway, good news: the inventor of iWalkFree called me back and they are sending me one tomorrow.
Lior