http://achillesblog.com/sanfrantourguide Frisco tourbusdriver and guide forced to wait out summer with Achilles Tendon rupture Thu, 11 Jun 2009 20:34:27 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It was a Friday, June 10th, at midnight, alone in a big old hillside house, that the shotgun pop changed my active life.  Dancing to Harry Belafonte, the noise made me suspect I'd broken a wooden floorboard.  No pain - but the foot could not go down, only hopping and ... http://achillesblog.com/sanfrantourguide/2009/06/11/one-careful-year-later/ A whole tourist summer passed me by as I sat thinking, reading, blogging, DVD'ing, etc.  With a right ATR, I was afraid to risk driving, and spent a lot of time at home, often considering both  of my white, white legs.  Now, as of this week, it's over!  I can ... http://achillesblog.com/sanfrantourguide/2008/09/19/12-weeks-pt-says-i-have-flat-feet/ One night, watching TV and "spelling the alphabet" with my toe, it dawned on me that the jolting between the strokes of an A or E was mildly annoying.  Suddenly, a stroke of genius!  My old Gregg shorthand skills, which I had learned 30 years ago in a girls' Catholic ... http://achillesblog.com/sanfrantourguide/2008/09/08/toe-writing-learn-shorthand/ I am curious to know if we are all under some strange compunction not to name our doctors.  I know that I hesitated myself at first, and have refrained from it throughout my postings.  Is there some kind of unspoken rule in the medical world generally?  Even when we've had ... http://achillesblog.com/sanfrantourguide/2008/08/27/why-do-none-of-us-name-our-ortho-docs/ My final post-op came at 8 weeks, after 2 weeks of walking in two-shoes, heel lifts and crutches.  My doctor felt that I could be released to slowly walk properly on my own, that I could be trusted to be careful in the following four final weeks, to simply walk ... http://achillesblog.com/sanfrantourguide/2008/08/22/8-weeks-post-op-released-by-doc-no-pt/ The tour business is in full swing, and I can work as a lecturer ("step-on" jobs) as well as a busdriver.  However, when colleagues call me with last-minute city or wine tours, I realize that I would be taking a very big chance to walk around, even with a crutch, ... http://achillesblog.com/sanfrantourguide/2008/08/13/no-pain-big-gain-agoraphobia-fear-of-rerupture/ I had just been getting used to 3.5 weeks of a FWB walking cast.  No driving or anything, but going places, including the library and shops, clumping around with no crutches, even in the redwoods with the nephew. Now it's back to crutches, although no cast.  No one had warned me, ... http://achillesblog.com/sanfrantourguide/2008/08/07/goody-two-shoes-but-with-crutches/ The niece and nephew are still in town, 4.8 and 11 respectively, in desperate need of entertainment.  Prior to my ATR, their Aunt Mary was their main transport around and a big chunck of their entertainment as well, since I could let them come on the local bustours with me.  ... http://achillesblog.com/sanfrantourguide/2008/08/05/a-trip-to-the-redwoods-meeting-a-tv-star-on-the-bus/ Yesterday was my second post-op appt, after 2 weeks in the splint and 3 in a cast.  First came the young resident ortho, who said that it was time to go to the second cast. I asked, "Will I ever be using a walking boot in your protocol, or just casting?" He ... http://achillesblog.com/sanfrantourguide/2008/08/01/go-to-two-shoes-at-5-weeks-post-op/ Well, it takes an disability-based websurfer to find these things!  In India, most ATR's are caused not by sports but by slipping off squat toilets, or as they call them, "Indian-style toilets".  Physical therapy is almost never really done because of the living situation of these people, and they regain 50-70% ... http://achillesblog.com/sanfrantourguide/2008/07/27/indians-with-atrs-squat-toilets-dangerous/