Injury Day
Injury day was August 17, 2015.
I was on the top of our step ladder working on taping and mudding the ceiling when the ladder tipped and I quickly stepped to my right onto a barstool that was beside the ladder to steady myself. Unfortunately the barstool swivels and it tipped and spun under me so that the ladder, barstool, and I all fell over. In the fall, the back of my right leg (right across my Achilles’ tendon) came down solidly on the leg of the barstool.
The back of my leg hurt, but I figured I’d just bruised a muscle from whacking it so hard. Although when I looked at it, I knew that something might be very wrong. Instead of seeing the line of my Achilles there was a significant dent just above my heel.
I iced and elevated my leg waiting for the pain to subside and when, after a few hours it was still hurting and still looked “wrong”, my husband and I decided we should look into this further.
Thanks to Dr. Google, we started with the Thompson test. As soon as I’d bent up my knees while lying face down my husband knew it wasn’t good. My right foot had no tension from the Achilles and my toes were pointing down toward the floor. Additionally, there was no movement when my calf was squeezed. That combined with the fact that there was an observable gap led us head to the after hours orthopedic who quickly confirmed that I had a complete Achilles’ tendon rupture and would need surgery.
Surgery was scheduled for August 19th.
