Three days after my injury, the following monday, I struggled with my insurance. After much advice from fellow healthcare professionals I finally was approved to see an orthopedic group. I was amazed at the difficulty I experienced in getting authorization. Didn’t they understand I was incapable of living life this way? I’m sure this is being dramatic but it’s how I’ve felt this whole time. After some sobbing and being kind to strangers I finally got my approval. The office called me and had an appointment for me that afternoon! What a relief.
Naturally being the incapable person I was at that time and having the over-bearing mother I did I was picked up and assisted by my mother to go to the surgeon. Our consultation was interesting, they first led me to the "cast room"where the removed my splint. In case you didn’t know a splint was, a splint is a sort of soft/hard cast, it is very padded but provides support in the area needed. Basically there was plaster along the back part of the leg and up both outer sides of my leg with padding everywhere else. I’ll post a picture soon. In the cast room my splint was removed. The doctor came in and assessed my leg, did a Thompsons test and we discussed my options.
He explained that I could take a conservative route of healing, which involved serial casting and allowing my tendon to regenerate naturally, or I could have surgery with the serial casting. He explained that each method would keep me immobile the same amount of time and that the only bneefit to the surgical option was a decreased risk of re-rupturing my achilles. I chose surgery. My main concern was returning to work as soon as possible. You see, my work is everything to me. He expalined that I would be out for at least 12 weeks. 6 weeks of serial casting and 6 more weeks of PT (physical therapy) and a walking boot. Surgery was scheduled for friday.
They sent me home with some rinky-dink make shift cast. The doctor didn’t think I needed a cast since surgery was so soon and he said there was no way to injury myself further. However, when I attempted to crutch out, the pain from my foot flopping around was too much so I had an interesting splint.
This is my rinky dink splint
The ladies at the doctors office helped me fill out my disability and said they’d send it out once the doctor completed it. Now it was time to head home and "patiently" wait for friday.
I did decide that I couldn’t do crutches any more. I had a friend who used a "Kneely", it’s a scooter for leg/foot injuries. I rent it for $100/month and it’s made my life SO MUCH EASIER!! Check it out! I highly recommend it. Honestly, I can go distance now and move around without becoming tired quickly. The only down side is you cannot do stairs with it.
This is my scooter, it’s amazing! I call it scootie
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