My Journey Begins…
Hi World.
Well, my story is the usual, office worker, regular gym bunny, trains 5 days a week, 6 if im good, usually have thurs and fridays off… my training consists of weights and hot yoga, not a lot of cardio now that Ive retired from basketball.. so you get the picture right?
Here in NZ, we’re about to go into Summer, Ive just come back from fiji, I thought to myself, hmm, a little cardio could do some wonders for that bikini… BIG MISTAKE. MASSIVE, HUGE. GINORMOUS….
In short, on saturday 17th November, I snapped my left Achilles by doing jumpy scissor lungey things on the step platform (2 high) inbetween weight training exercises. WHAT AN EGG. (you’ll hear that a lot, i think its a kiwi thing).
I got driven to the hospital by a girlfriend who was working at the gym at the time, (dont get me started on why the ambulance didnt come - it was only based 500m down from the gym… if you’re in wellie, you’ll know which one Im talking about.
The Emergency Department had triaged me and on painkillers within 15 mins of walking, no wait, of being wheeled in the door, i just had to be seen by a doctor.
Within 30 mins of being wheeled in, they confirmed I had snapped my achilles on the left leg. I was wheeled up to the fractures clinic, seen by an attending and almost on my way to having a cast put on when my best mate “M” arrived. “Did you ask about surgery?” he asked.
“Yes,” I replied “and they told me that unless im an elite super athlete I wouldnt get one”
Surgery has been debated by all my friends who have had an encounter with the achilles fairy. Some have had it after they were in a cast for 4 weeks, some have had it straight away, some didnt get it as an option (and they were super athlete material)…
“Ask again” M whispered… “no, they wont give it to me” i replied, “ASK!!!!” he insisted. You can see who won that wee debate.
“What about surgery?” piped up this little voice, oh wait, that was me,
“Well, unless you’re Dan Carter you probably dont need it, the pros and cons of surgery vs non surgery are debatable” replied the doctor.
“Can we ask the surgeon” asked M, who, as you’ve all guessed by now is pro surgery as he was the dude in a cast for 4 weeks before they realised his tendons hadnt knitted back together again…… we have another friend who waited 8 weeks before they realised… so yes, surgery is a good idea in Ms brain.
We waited for 3 hours for the surgeon to get out of surgery, which im sure is a ploy to make you take the cast option. He came up, repeated the whole “we dont usually operate on achilles unless you’re dan carter… but….um ”
“Gotcha!” I thought, theres the “but…. um” we were waiting for …………. He talked about the pros and cons, all i heard was “risk of infection, blood clots, no shorter healing time then if you didnt have it….” yeh, yeh okay… im good for just the cast option now, hook a sistah up.
M insisted I hear his point of view… “and then you know that its done properly and you dont have to worry about it, and what happens if you go into a cast and then you need surgery, you’ve just wasted 4 weeks… ”
“Um, i think i’d like to explore the surgery option please.”
They sent me home in a cast 30 mins later while they booked me in tentatively for surgery on Monday morning, they were going to talk to the head surgeon dude and would to confirm tomorrow night.. yay!!!!????
I came home, leg in a cast with some crutches, and had a shower - what a mission. plastic rubbish bag, tape it up, no wait, i think its leaking, undo it. do it up again, get in the shower, sit on the plastic stool we had, cried my eyes out. summer was over. no more high heels, no more driving my car (its a manual and a convertible). STINK. (another piece of kiwi slang for you)….
The texts and facebook well wishes came thick and fast - M felt it was his duty to share my pain w the rest of our friends, My cousin dropped off a shower chair and a seal-protect bag for my leg that she had used.
TIP #1 - get one of these bags from the pharmacy - they are AMAZING! no more rubbish bags, no more tape. GET ONE. now.
I went to bed after my shower. Im not talking to anyone. I had my grump on.
Sunday - i had to go to work, well, i didnt, i was always going to go to work on sunday pre snap (PSnap) but now i had to go in and finish up all the things I wasnt going to get done if I had to have surgery.
Sunday arvo, phone call came in - report in at 8am. you’re on the schedule for tomorrow. (if i could’ve jumped for joy, i would’ve.)
next post: surgery.
So, this is where my journey begins… I welcome you along for the ride…
see you soon
MMHNZ 
