just found this site!
Hi everyone, I ruptured my left Achilles tendon on 4/11 trying to play basketball. I wish that I could say I was doing a reverse lay-up, slam dunk or something cool. I don’t quite know what happened, I believe I simply lost my footing and was trying to recover. I could have sworn somebody kicked me in the back of the leg. Like so many other blogs I’ve read, when I turned around to look, no one was there…I had a similar pain when I was young and figured it was just a calf strain. Initially, the pain was absolutely terrible; I really thought I broke my ankle because of the immediate pain and swelling. Eventually, I was able to sit myself down and watch them play for another hour. To further complicate matters, I rode my motorcycle there and was determined to get it home. I don’t know how I did it, the pain when shifting was excruciating, but I made it home…somehow. Stupid.
I spend the next week limping and taking Tylenol after Tylenol. The worst was when I woke up in the morning. When I tried standing up, the pain was agonizing. I would cringe in pain for at least 30 minutes while trying to get ready for work…it was awful. Finally, after over a week, my wife made me see our family doctor. He felt my calf and it was indeed pretty badly swollen. He also held the ball of my foot and told me to push down with my toes…nothing; I simply had absolutely no strength to push. He told me this is extremely worrisome and scheduled a MRI the following week. After finagling with my insurance company and $700 later I had my MRI. I received the results the following Monday and my family doctor told me that it was a partial rupture of the membrane surrounding the Achilles tendon. This now was beyond his ability and he scheduled an appointment with an orthopedic doctor.
I finally met up with my orthopedic doctor, he was a very serious guy, but from what I’ve heard, he is good. He felt the calf and the area around the tendon and then told me to try to push downward with my toes, again…nothing. Then the moment of truth, he said I have a FULL rupture of the tendon and the gap is about 1.5cm. The rupture itself is actually right where the tendon meets the calf, which he said is unusual. He explained to me my options, but said that being young, I really need the surgery so I can ‘enjoy’ the rest of my life without limitations. Well, I agreed and scheduled the surgery for 2 days later.
The surgery was scheduled for 6:30am 4/22 and this being my first surgery, I got virtually no sleep the previous night. The surgery actually was MUCH easier than I imagined. The nurses treated me like a king and I had so many drugs in me I felt practically nothing before and after the surgery. The worst part was when they were injecting the nerve blocker, my leg would involuntarily flex up and down and with a bad ankle, it didn’t feel very good. That is the last thing I remember before waking up post surgery and seeing my wife standing there. The nurses monitored me for about an hour after the surgery and then I was ready to go home for an exciting day of laying on my recliner…
It has been 8 days since surgery on my Achilles tendon. They put me in a splint and wrapped it. I didn’t feel very ‘safe’ with this and was scared to death of my wife accidentally kicking me in bed. My ankle was completely numb the first day because of the nerve blocker they injected. I was finding that I was dragging my foot when I had to use the bathroom because I couldn’t even feel it. However, at about 2am here comes the pain. Oh my God, I was cringing (and shaking) because it literally felt like a knife was stuck in my heel. I took Percocet after Percocet (staggering it every 3-4 hours) finally, at around 8am the pain was subsiding and I pretty much slept the ENTIRE day.
I returned to work the following Monday. I now feel that I returned to work way too early, but money is tight and I simply cannot afford to not work when my wife is in school. Needless to say, the swelling progressively got worse as the workdays wore on. I was eventually forced to see the doctor because the swelling would cause my toes to go numb. On the bright side, the doctor was able to look at my foot. He didn’t have much to say, but nothing out of the ordinary and the staples looked good. They now put on a hard cast and re-scheduled my follow-up appointment for 2 weeks. This cast feels MUCH better than what I had before and my leg feels much better protected.
I’m still in waiting mode, the doctor I feel is very conservative and I don’t imagine him removing the cast or letting me put any weight on my foot for at least 10 weeks. All can say is what a demoralizing injury. You literally cannot do ANYTHING by yourself and if you do try to fix yourself food or even use the bathroom, you are EXHAUSTED. The time and effort to do even simple tasks is just ridiculous and frustrating to say the least. I am able to clean myself up, while balancing on my good foot. I use body wash and just rinse off the soap with a wet washcloth. I believe they do have soap that does not require rinsing, but I have to check into that. I just don’t feel it is worth wrapping my cast and risking falling to take a shower and I DO feel pretty clean after ‘bathing’ myself and rinsing well.
It is the weekend and I am bored silly, I actually look forward to work the help the time pass, at least I’m earning money and being productive. Today, I decided to go out to eat with my wife and almost fell on our wet porch when one of my crutches slid from under me… Man that was scary; I really have to just suck this up and stay home when I don’t have to go to work…
