Stephen’s Achilles Blog

Anyway, I had been playing with no issues for the last several years until…suddenly about a month ago I woke up the day after a game (I always play either Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday so that my body gets at least one day of rest in between), and the backs of my ankles were on fire. From out of nowhere I thought. I was doing the same extensive stretching program as before. A couple days later I played again, and while I was sore, it wasn’t painful enough to quit. I did, however, decide to shut down, and went back to the chiropractor. Same analysis: tight hammies and probable tendinitis. Over the course of two weeks, I went for twice-weekly massage, electro-stimulation and ultrasound. While talking to her, I realized I had perhaps made a critical error. I got new basketball shows a few months ago, and the type that I wore religiously are no longer made. After some research, I found a pair that was similar and bought them. They were, however, tighter than the old ones, and since I had been feeling good in the ankles for a couple years, I absent-mindedly forgot to switch in the orthotics.

For good measure, I enrolled in a new yoga class, Iyengar 1, a system designed to hold poses, which is very good for stretching. Two weeks ago I attended two classes, then feeling pretty good with all the work, returned to playing basketball on Thursday, January 22. I popped the orthotics into the new shoes, then played but took it easy, and felt pretty good. When the backs of the ankles acted up, I called it a day. The next day I was sore and visited the chiropractor for treatment and over the weekend the pain abated. I decided to play on Monday and Wednesday the following week, and practice yoga and Tuesday and Thursday.

On Monday, January 26, I popped two Advil to preclude inflammation and got to the gym a little early to warm up and stretch. The gym was very cold. I started playing and felt relatively pain-free, so I decided I could be a little more aggressive. About 90 minutes into the game, I had the ball and started to make a power move to the basket. I felt a strange pop in the back of my left ankle, and the proto-typical symptom: I thought someone had thrown another ball, hard, at the back of my left foot as a joke. I turned around to yell, saw that there was no one within 30 feet of me, and realized immediately what had happened. I managed to limp to the bench and  said “I blew out my achilles.” Oddly, it was not very painful, nowhere near the pain I had experienced with my worst ankle ligament sprains and tears. In fact, the rupture completely eliminated the pain in the back of my left ankle. Ironically however, the back of my right ankle continued to burn (and is still inflamed to this day, even as I write this).

Two guys in the game carried me to the car; one was older and the other younger — they had both had ATR’s. 
“How long,” I asked.

“One year,” they both said.

More tomorrow.

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