Road to Recovery

First and foremost, thank you for this amazing blog. I have never blogged before and am not very experienced at this, but for such a great cause, I felt I had to get involved and share my story.

So, here we go again…. yes, sadly this is my THIRD achilles rupture. I have ruptured twice before on my right leg and, this time round, it’s unforunately hit me in the left leg. I guess I saw it coming, as they say, those that have a tendency to rupture in one leg, will equally likely do so with the other. Having said that, it’s been over 8 years since my last rupture so I at least had a good run in between.

So, how did I do it? Well, like many others on this site, I am an avid squash player. Last time round in 1999, I was in a tournament and heard the classic “pop” and didn’t know what it was. I even walked (or limped) my way to the railway station to head back to my parents home to get some care and attention. The second time round was also on the squash court again, but I blame myself for jumping back into the game way too soon (I was probably at around 14 weeks) even though I was only practice hitting.

My first injury was treated “conservatively” by the surgeon - i.e. there was no treatment whatsoever other than natural recovery in a boot. At the time, I was just starting business school, so it was a psychologically traumatic and humbling experience. The hardest thing was having to fly to the US (from the UK) alone and arrive at school not knowing anyone. Having to rely on others, make new friends, and still do well at school while jumping around on one leg was not enjoyable to say the least. To add insult to injury, it was the middle of winter at a New England school — ice and snow everywhere. I won’t share the horror stories of falling in the ice, but as you can imagine there were many such unfortunate situations. The upside of this whole story was that, by peddling myself all over campus non-weight bearing for 8+ weeks, I was in great shape — even getting up and down steep staircases (looking back I was crazy to do that given a fall could have resulted in much more severe injury).

After the second rupture, I went back to the original surgeon (who felt terrible) and surgery was decided for the next recovery.  This time round, he stitched my tendon up good and tight. The healing process went well and I was back on my feet in a matter of 3 months, though didn’t play competitive squash again for at least a year .

So, it’s over 8 years later now, and this time round I was just recreationally playing on a Thursday morning. While I have been good about stretching and taking care of myself, I knew I was pushing myself for: 1) playing first thing in the morning when my body is naturally stiff, and 2) playing every other day in training for a club tournament where I was in the semi-finals. While stretching in the morning, prior to the game, I felt my left tendon being a little tight but foolishly thought it was nothing serious. As a right handed player, most of the stress is on my racket foot (right leg) so generally, I have not worried as much about my left foot. To all other squash players, don’t make the same mistake I did — stretch both achilles religiously!

While in the fourth game, I heard the tell-tale “pop” again so knew instantly what it was. This time round though, I went straight to ER. After 4 hours in ER, even though I knew what the diagnosis was, and 3 medical Residents poking at my leg, they told me the inevitable — go see the ortho. I was able to get an appointment to see my orthopedic surgeon the same afternoon. He was understanding and suggested I go into surgery the following Monday (5 days post injury). While my inclination was to get surgery asap, he informed me that there are only possible surgical difficulties after 7 days. He did however encourage me not to fly before the surgery as I was planning a trip to Miami… now cancelled.

Tomorrow is the big surgery day. I’m a little anxious but having been through this before am hoping the day goes by quickly, and that i’m drugged up on percoset before I know it back at home on my bed. I’ll report back in in the next day or two to let you know how it goes.

Here’s a picture of the scar from my previous right foot achilles surgery. Come next week or the week after, I’ll no doubt be looking at a similar looking scar on the other foot. At least, I can keep using the shark-bite story from my Scuba diving trips (claiming I now got bit on the other foot coincidentally).

8 years later still looks ugly!