MaitK’s AchillesBlog

I got my stitches removed 2 weeks post-op. It was quite painful at some point. Most of the stitches came out with an ease. Incision was covered with bandaid again and was on my way. At previous post I had picture of check-up at 19th of september. Picture was taken slightly before stitches removal. Was consulting with surgeoun about walking boot (thank you Internet, found achillesblog later), he wasn’t against it. Only told that closest place to get one is Tartu (second largest city in our country, ~100 000 people live there). Tartu isn’t far from Võru (68km) and I had to go there anyway becouse of one appointment and book presentation where I was invited as guest(my photographs are in this book). So told surgeon that I am going to Tartu anyway today and he wrote a persciption for the boot (all digitally like almost everything in our country).

You don’t need a perscription to buy a boot in our country but you really want one. Here is why. Our healthcare is compensating up to 90% of orthosis price if you need it and accident was less than 6 months ago. I think it is a wonderful deal.

As I mentioned before, I had a manual gearbox car. I didn’t want to go to Tartu by bus, neither with car with manual gearbox, because of the traffic there will be. So I needed a car with automatic transmission. Luckily one of my friends have one and is willing to switch cars with me for the day. I met him at his workplace in Võru and drove home with his car. With only two pedals it is freaking easy. Luckily my right leg was ok and this made me very happy. Few hours later I started my jurney to Tartu. It was a hours drive and went smoothly. First I got to shop where they sell medical orthosis and other stuff. Went in and there were only one older lady before me. Shopkeeper felt sorry for me and pointed me to a chair to sit and wait until she finished with this lady. I have been waiting for about 5-7 minutes and it was my turn. Gave her my ID card (http://id.ee/index.php?id=30470) to check my perscription and she gave me a boot to try on. My leg was still casted and tried it on my good leg, fitted ok. And she packed it in. All I now had t do was paying the bill and in my mind I was ready for big numbers. But boot cost me only 15,40 euros (full prize is 154 euros, I got 90% of discount with perscription). It’s about 20 USD. Shopkeeper was so helpful to transfer my purchase to car too, so I was very thankful for her. Few hours later I was done with all my appointments and other stuff at Tartu and drove back to Võru, switched cars and drove home.

For the record, I have quite bad karma. Here is why. I have injured myself a lot of times. For example my left leg has had more accidents than some people on their lifetime. I mean accidents that end up in hospital. I have broken my leg when I was in highschool, playing basketball. Leg was casted for 3 weeks, couldn’t train for several months. When I was in defence college I cut my knee with barb wire (at field exercise), got few stitches and a straight leg for almost two weeks, have hideous scar on my knee for reminder to be careful. Few years back I misstepped when I was going to take piss at friends place at hayfield and injured ligaments of the ankle joint. Was 3 weeks at home and then slowly started to recover using orthosis. I was able to train again like nothing happened about 5 months later. So I am quite experienced with different foot injuries, also I can operate crutches very well. But injuring achilles tendon, I don’t wish this injury even to my enemies - thats the worst.

So I was scheduled to get out of straight cast on 25. of september. Now that I got my boot I was so eager to get to wear it. So the day came. 3 weeks had passed and I took my new boot with me to the surgeons office at hospital to get it installed to my leg. Getting off the cast was like a relief. Finally I could move my leg. Unfortunately as the tendon wasn’t so long any more I couldn’t put my leg to 90 degrees. Luckily my new boot had adjustable ankle and that wasn’t a problem. So I got it installed and went back to home. It was a good liberating feeling. And I loved velcro. At home I could loosen the boot, take it off and I even be without it. It is fantastic feeling. Also I tried to put little bit of weight to it when moving around and that felt allright.

Till next time!

[View with PicLens]