Jun 26 2011
nothing really of interest to report except that the massage to break up scar tissue was electrifying …. literally. as she was working on the calf, i had to look around and ask if she had a zapper in her hand b/c these little electric shocks were coursing up and down my leg. it was the weirdest thing!
Jun 13 2011
so i finally had my first PT appointment since the injury!
i wasn’t even nervous about going since i was already familiar with my physical therapist. Carolann of Apple Therapy had worked with me many, many years ago when i injured my knee, so seeing her again was no big deal. i knew she’d take real good care of me
but my first appointment took forever … there was a lengthy review of my injury and then a physical inspection of my leg and incision before any PT took place. she went over the steps involved in recovering from an injury like this and warned me not to push too hard in the beginning. my incision site looks good, but there are two small areas where the stitches have not been absorbed. it’s only a matter of time before these will disappear
she also informed me that i had a DIRECT REPAIR of the Achilles and that healing from this type of surgery is sometimes easier than for someone who had cadaverous tendons put in
the rest of my leg, however, looks like a train wreck
first of all, my skin is so flaky and scaly that removing my walking boot was embarrassing. white particles flew around like it was snowing! GROSS!
then there is the issue of these red inflamed bumps all over my leg. they don’t itch, but Carolann thought it must be an allergic reaction to whatever it was they used in. upon investigation on the internet and poking around my leg with my fingernails reveals ingrown hairs! YUCK!!!! i’ve never had an ingrown hair in my life, but now my leg is covered in them
so another thing to be really embarrassed about. great. and how do i remove about a million of them?
sometimes my toes are tingly, too, but everyday i get more and more sensation, so i’m not so worried about my toes (although for some reason, i’ve lost all my toe nails on my OTHER foot and i have no idea why …. all the meds for those first 6 weeks? anybody have a clue??)
we both looked at my leg and noticed that i have a weird bump near the ankle on the left side. fluid retention. oh joy. i guess the boot strap was tighter near my ankle and naturally the other parts of my leg got all poofy. another fun leg fact of mine!
Carolann got to work on relaxing and gently stretching the calf muscle. she was very careful near the incision site and worked to get that lump out
it felt weird to have anyone touching my leg since it’s so gross, but i appreciated that she was gentle and not aggressive
after her massage, i was hooked up to the zapping machine. a cold press was put on my leg and four sticky electrodes were placed on my leg in differing areas. these were hooked up to a machine that emitted little electric shocks. it’s all tingly-like. i sat there for 20 minutes and just vegged basically. next time i’ll bring my book
so that was that. pretty painless the first time out!
Apr 10 2011
damn, i’ve heard that sound before … a long time ago when i popped my right calf muscle seconds into a tennis practice. it stopped me cold and took my breath away
this time it was slightly different
i heard it but didn’t feel it. but i knew i wasn’t good. my leg simply stopped working, everything went black and i saw streaks of white light as i began spiraling downward onto the court. i remember as i was going down thinking that it was going to be one helluva face plant and that i hoped someone had a camera to capture the moment
i came to writhing in agony on my back, fully conscious of how dirty the tennis court was since i could feel the dirtlets pressing into my sweaty palms, but i couldn’t feel any scrapes on my hands. when i opened my eyes, i saw my mixed doubles partner kneeling over me holding my leg up. he told me to lie still. he assured me that even though he was an otolaryngologist he knew an Achilles tendon tear when he saw, or in my case, felt one
someone ran for ice, another for a wheelchair and all the while my mixed doubles partner kept holding my leg up
but all i really wanted to know was if there was blood anywhere and if someone snapped a picture. the answer was a NO to both. darn!
the opposing team came up and i asked for a medical time out, but my partner assured me i was not getting up anytime soon. we forfeited to the number one team and that hurt more than the rupture, believe me, because, dear readers, we were ahead in the third set tie-break and about to take the match!
it sux not finishing a match. we shook hands and off they went happy to have a winning season
the rest of my teammates stayed with me until the wheelchair came. i was torn about which ER to go to, so i called a girlfriend. she told me to go the Elliot’s ER but to call first. i did and they said they weren’t backed up. LIARS! but at least they would give me pain meds for the pain, right? in hindsight, i should have gone home, washed up, ate a good dinner and then just went to an ortho the next morning b/c i sat in the ER 6 hours, mostly in the waiting room and then later on a gurney in the hallway. there’s really no privacy in a hallway
only the PA visited me and she concluded i had torn the muscles in my left leg, but not my Achilles. they casted my lower leg, gave me pain meds, a strong dose of morphine as a parting gift, and told me to call an ortho the next morning
oh joy … no more tennis for a while
