Volleyball Tragic Achilles Blog

It has been a while since I have reported on this site but that is mainly due to not having the time to sit around and dwell on my injury. It has been close to six months since my total rupture and surgical repair and over this time there has been alot of hard yards with the physio etc.

Two to three times a week physio treatments for the past four months have resulted in my recovery going from strength to strength and Im looking forward to my next specialist visit in two weeks to hopefully hear his final sign-off. I am back running and doing all the normal things in life (especially with two kids to keep you on your toes), sometimes I forget that I had such major surgery. Mentally I think I am ready to return to volleyball but I will leave that final decision to those who know best.

All I can say to those out there that are just starting out on their recovery, don’t give up. As each days goes by things will start to get better and better and before you know it you will be where I am asking yourself ‘where has the last six months gone’.

I had my (long awaited) second follow-up visit with my specialist last Friday and to was hoping he would put me on the next level of recovery and go PWB  and finally let my foot touch the ground after the 6 weeks of NWB. To my total surprise after running the standard strength tests etc. he was very happy with my progress and how the total rupture was healing, that he said I was fine to go straight to FWB plus loose the boot.

I had to ask him again to repeat all of this as I was not taking it all in, and yes the boot could go and I could start wearing shoes again. Now all I need to do is find all the missing left shoes.

I pushed it a little the next day as the office xmas party was on and it was lawn bowls. So the boot came off and the shoe on but after an hour of back and forth on the bowling green the foot started to swell big time (worse than ever) and the heal pain around the area where the back of the shoe would cut into the achilles area was not feeling great.

Had my first Physio treatment the following day and even though the pain levels increased (plus the fact that my Physio takes great pleasure in inflicting pain over many years on me) it started to feel alot better as if I was finally getting somewhere. He did have some good advice: Wear the boot still to places I am not familiar with or where I will need to walk longer distances and then wear joggers etc. to other places like around the house.

I started doing this that day and even made it to my wife’s xmas party and so far things are looking better even if alot slower that when I was on my knee walker.

The one thing I have noticed is every time that I now stand sup, the blood rush feeling to the whole leg has started.

I finally got to take the cast off today and see for the first time the good job my Doc did ten days earlier. The scar is larger than first expected as apparently I did a pretty good job of making a mess of it. The nurse did say that everything is healing just fine and nothing to worry about.

Stitches came out with very little pain and my lovely new Air Cast boot went on with all three heal wedges. I think the first instructions were for only two but I had problems getting everything to sit properly so needed the third.

I was so looking forward to having the cast off and no more heavy weight to carry around but was shocked to feel how heavy the boot ws and how uncomfortable it was when I jumped back on my knee walker.

The biggest disapointment of the day was the fact that my Specialist got called away earlier in the day so I did not get to ask all the questions I had been saving up for these past two weeks.

I finally go back to full time work next Monday and already have to find time to go and see him (my specialist) next Friday. Hopefully he will not get called away this time.

I took some photo’s but unfortunately Wordpress is not playing nicely and they will not show up in the post. If I can work it out I will post later.

It has been two weeks since I ruptured my left Achilles and one week post op. I decided to finally get out of the house as I was getting sick of sitting around and not having much contact with others during these long days (at least until my two boys and wife come home from school/work).

My wife offered to  drive me to watch my volleyball team play as we have a big national tournament coming up in a few weeks and I wanted to catch up with them all in person.

After playing volleyball for close to 25 years I never thought it would be so hard sitting on the sideline being totally hopeless and not being able to help out when things got tough. So many times I wanted to jump up and run on the court. The crutches quickly squashed that idea.

After using a knee walker for most of the past two weeks (which in my eyes is the best invention for Achilles injury sufferers) jumping on the crutches for a night was a completely different experience. Even in the way the injured foot reacted. It felt like it was going to explode from all the blood rush. But now a few days after this little adventure, everything feels like it is moving in the right direction (except for those morning injections which I still can’t get my head around enjoying).

I have my first post-op appt with my specialist tomorrow where (fingers crossed) the stitches will come out and the cast off, and boot on. Then another few weeks of NWB which with my knee walker will hopefully not be hard.

What will be hard is the big volleyball tournament that I will travel with the team to watch. The rest of the team will have to get used of me screaming from the benches rather than on the court.

Well I have made it through the surgery and hospital visit and so far all has gone well. My surgeon said I did a very good job at shattering the tendon and had to make a larger incision that first anticipated.

The hospital staff at Castlecrag Private in Sydney were all great and really made my stay a lot easier than I was imagining. I would recommend them to anyone unfortunate enough to need a hospital stay.

After a long trip home in the back seat of the car with the ankle elevated and hips twisted, I have finally made it to we’re I will spend a lot of my time over the next ten days before hopefully getting the cast off. The doc ended up putting a back slab cast on which has then been wrapped up tight with bandages.

Today is Melbourne Cup day here in Australia which is one of the biggest horse races is the world. They call it the race that stops a nation so what better way to spend the day then on your bum with the leg(s) up.

Pain level has been up and down so fingers crossed it does not get any worse.

I’m a 45 yr old active father of two school age boys. After playing volleyball for 25 years with only minor sprains and strains I finally succumbed to a major injury with a completely ruptured Achilles.

It only occurred a few days ago and already I have been fortunate enough to have had family help to get into one of the best orthopaedic surgeons and am scheduled to go under the knife in two days.

I don’t know if I’m paranoid or not but my biggest worry is the pain level. I’ve heard so many people say that Achilles injuries are so painful etc. etc. but here I am at day 5 post injury and there is very little pain and that makes me worry that it is only going to get worse once I wake up from the surgery.

The other thing that worries me is what my wife refers to as “claustrophobic ankle”. Being constrained to a cast for any long period of time and not being able to scratch or wiggle my foot/leg.

One thing I have found very helpful is this achillesblog.com website. Being able to read other people’s stories who have been though this before is very reassuring that there is life after all his is over.