Here we go.. 07/20/2011 time, 8:45pm, Place: Jose Martin Park- Event: Basketball Championship Game (B-Class Teams)
Prelude to an Injury:
So… you hear the stories, you hear the fears, tears, cries of all the other Trauma Patients in the Ortho World, but you would NEVER think it would happen to you, why, because you stretch, stretch, stretch, and stretch some more until you have convinced yourself, that Today, I have done all due diligence to NOT get injured!
Opening Act:
First quarter, I’m on the bench (not because I am not the best, but because this is my first game back from a Boxer’s Fracture on my left hand with a partially cracked pinkie finger “8-weeks healing time”) back to the story… I am on the bench, watching the game and patiently awaiting my opportunity to show the team that I haven’t “lost a step” (yet) when my number gets called.. Can you imagine how happy I am right now! I check into the game and I’m running with joy (kid in a candy store) and we have the ball. My teammate takes an ill-advised 3-pointer, he misses and I grab the rebound for the put back! I do my patented backwards trout thinking to myself “Man, I still have it!” About 4 steps into my celebratory backwards trout, I feel what I am still describing as a kick to the ankle. I am pissed! I thought someone from the other team was angry because I was “doing my thing” so I instantly turn around to address the culprit and guess what, No one was there! I was so prepared to ask the person why did they kick me only to turn around to look at everyone else down the floor already.
So, now it’s just me and my thoughts. I say, ok no one kicked me.. it was my imagination playing tricks on me once again. So, my team mates yell “Alan, get back on D!” so, I go to take a step with my right foot(injured foot) and I can’t! I look down and my foot is like “Hello! I’m still here but only connected via bone! The amazing thing, maybe shock, but I was in absolutely NO PAIN (more about that later) so, I call a time-out and limp my normally happy self back to the bench. Teammates ask me, AB, you good man and naturally I was saying, “Yea, I’m good, just a bad twisted, sprained, broken, something ankle, but I will be ok. Go out there and get one for me! So, while the game continued, I had the bright idea of (1) taking my shoe off to check the injured area (2) put my shoe back on to walk down the stairs and ask the receptionist for Ice. First bad idea, NEVER put your shoe back on if you think you have an achilles injury and second, never try to walk on it.
Well, now, not only does she not have ice, I have to walk back up the stairs, or not.. Well, Thank God for technology, I shot my friends a text message and decided to drive home. When I arrive at my house (10:30PM), I am walking sooooo slow, someone could’ve ran 5 miles before I could reach 100 feet. I instantly start my research to self-diagnose myself and I knew it was something wrong with my achilles. Well, thank god for AchillesBlog and YouTube. I break into Doogie Howser MD Mode, lay on my stomach and start to perform the Thompson Test and the two fingers up the back of your ankle to check for any gaps. Well, both test were positive. I had a silver dollar sized gap in the back of my ankle and squeezing my calf muscle produced absolutely no movement from my foot.
Now I am scared! I have been researching for hours, not sleeping, thinking about work, life, etc… and my last thought was “Say it ain’t so” I stretched until I couldn’t stretch anymore! I did everything I was suppose to do! OMG! So I call my Ortho at 5:00am (at his house) and said I have an Emergency, not the 911 kind, but the 811 plus 100 soon if you don’t help me out! I told him what happened and he asked me to meet him at the office at 7:00am I told him “I’m getting ready now because it’s going to take me forever to get there”.
Intermission: Driving to the Doctor’s Office
Part Duex: The Drama!
I arrive at the Doctors office at 7:15am and he has like 20 people waiting for him! I was like OMG! Was there an attack of the Achilles Snatchers last night! That was my original thought, but I had no idea why there were so many people there at 7:15am in the morning. Well, no worries, I know I would be seen first :0) So, I get called in the back and he’s looking at my foot and proceeded to do the Thompson test and the 2 finger test. I told him, “Doc, I did that already, can’t you do another test to make me feel better and tell me that It’s not as bad as I think” he said NOPE. He states, you have completely torn your achilles. To what extent, I do not know yet, but I can only give you your options from this point forward! Of course, “Say it ain’t so!!! So, he gave me two options, but the 2nd option involved no surgery and wearing a cast for 75% of the year and I told him that is NOT an option. So, I selected the surgery option in which he told me that he could fit me in on Friday at some point but didn’t know when yet. I told him that was fine and they proceeded to do the Pre-Surgery Prep on me.
FYI: I AM SLEEEEEEEEEEPY!
Well, I will skip the part where I was admitted to the hospital because my blood pressure was up so high and get to the “Tap Tap Tap” and surgery part.
“Tap, Tap, Tap and Surgery”
Well.. I am laying in my hospital gown finally getting some sleep on Thursday afternoon around 7:00pm and the first nurse comes in to check my blood pressure and to tell me that I will be having surgery at 11:00am on Friday morning. I said ok and go back to sleep. Around 12:30am I am finally in a good deep sleep when I feel..”tap tap tap on my shoulder. I wake up with a lady from registration asking me” Sir, how would you like to pay for your hospital stay right now”. I asked her, “Are you kidding me!” you couldn’t wait until the morning to ask me that! I tell her I need 5 minutes and to my surprise, she comes back in exactly 4 minutes. I asked her to hand me my pants to that I can grab my wallet and pay my $900.oo hospital stay!
The Aftermath:
Surgery went well and I am placed in a GINORMOUS plaster cast that you absolutely can not get comfortable with. While laying in my room all day just anticipating when the numbing agent would ware off I finally fall asleep. That numbing agent wore off around 3:00am in the morning!! Holy Haberdashery, Batman!!! I was pressing that emergency Nurse Button soo many times! I wanted her in my room ASAP!! After a quick shot of “What did hell did you just give me” I was off to sleep! Amazing, I have absolutely NO PAIN in that area! The only thing the sucks is the CAST!!!!!
3 days Post Op , I had to get that Brick removed from my leg. I went to the doctor and practically begged him to remove that plaster cast. He obliged and gave me a nice DUKE U Blue fiberglass cast.
More to come:
My next Doctors Appt. will be Aug. 8th. I will beg my Doc for a nice new VacoCast walking boot.
I will let all the fellow A-Bloggers know whats the new update! Keep Hope Alive and keep those toes wiggling.. We will brick free of the Cast Soon!
