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.