Firstly, what a great site!

My story so far:

- playing lads and dads 5-a-side football at centre parcs, I was getting well into it, and in hindsight pushed my 39 yr old ‘used to be fit but now not so much’ body a little too far.  I pushed hard off my right foot, heard a pop and felt like I’d stepped in a hole whilst someone had kicked the back of my leg.  It felt very odd, and hurt a bit…but I couldn’t walk on it.  I hobbled to the side, and then my son and I made very slow progress to the medical centre.  The nurses there diagnosed a calf strain and gave me a few painkillers - I then hobbled around for the last day and drove home.

- things didn’t seem to be getting at all better after a couple of days, so I made an appointment to see my GP.  He didn’t even touch my leg, but said it was a calf strain and he would refer me to physio if I really wanted- since work gave me private cover I did.

- got an appointment to see a physio close to work 4 days later, leg still v swollen and only walking in a sort of caveman shuffle.  I could still ride my motorbike on the commute as it was my right leg, and I seldom use the back brake anyway!  The physio took one look at me and did that squeeze test on my calf, and then said he was 99% sure I’d ruptured my Achilles and it needed an urgent scan.  This was rapidly organised, met a consultant and was in for repair surgery 11 days after the injury.

I am now on day 6 after surgery with my foot up, watching loads of sport on telly, playing computer games, reading books and trying not to get too bored.  My family are being great looking after me, but I must confess to feeling a little daunted at the length of recovery time ahead of me.  Next appointment with the consultant is in 8 days, in the meantime I plan on being as well behaved as possible to get healing on its way.