My Cross To Bear

Hello all. I apologize for the long break. I have just gotten fully back into the swing of things at work and I have been playing catch up and filling in for co-worker that is on vacation, but, I am here and writing now. I am supposed to have more pictures up now showing my war wounds, but there has been one thing stopping me from doing that, batteries. I swear every time I got to the store I forget to get them. I can leave the house specifically to get batteries and come back home with $150 worth of groceries and not a single battery! It feels great to be able to kind of hobble around without my crutches; well at least it DID feel better.

    I just recently had my check up appointment on Thursday and I got some good news, and some bad news. The good news is that the doctor says I seem to be healing a little ahead of schedule and it does not look like I am really going to have much of a scar. The bad news came after he looked around the room for a second and asked me, “Where are you crutches?” Okay…..problem. I figured that since they put me in the boot I should be okay just using the boot to get around. But he said it is too dangerous and that I should be using the boot and the crutches together. That really hurt hearing him say that dreaded “c” word again. I thought I was rid of those things for forever. When he told me that, I felt like a little kid who was just told to go sit in the corner and think about what he had just did wrong.

     So, I told the doc that I will reluctantly go back to using my crutches and I went on about my business. I think one of the worst things about experiencing this kind of injury is that I have developed what I like to label as, tendonrupturephobia. Since I had been hoping around on one foot and kind having to walk on my tippy toes on my good foot to make up for the height difference when walking in the CAM boot, I have started feeling a bit tender and sore on my good calf. Before my ATR I would have shrugged this feeling off and kept going, but now I feel like I’ve got another tendon ready to snap. It’s not just my legs either. While I was at the gym the other day, I figured I would try curling the weight I used to curl before I was injured and I felt like I could almost do it, but I stopped just as I felt I was about to get it up and get into my rhythm. I thought if I pushed too hard I could tear the tendon in my bicep. I know this is something that I am going to have to get over, but this is one of those injuries that can kind of mess with you a little bit.

     One thing that I can say is that it feels good being able to take a shower without wrapping my lower half up in trash bags and duct tape. It also feels good being able to stand in the shower again. But, I have also figured out that getting into the shower with a freshly repaired Achilles is like getting into trouble….it’s easy to get in, but not so easy to get out. After hopping in the shower recently, I could not help but smile as I stood there…in one place….scared to move too much for fear of slipping…. and thinking, wow, I am almost normal again. But after enjoying my shower I was faced with a dilemma. I am now forced to step out of the shower, directly on to the linoleum floor. I had moved the little bathroom carpet out of the way because my wife got it nice and wet when she got out and I did not want to slip on it or step on to a cold carpet fresh out of a warm shower. Smart move right?

   Well here was my issue….. I could not stick my good leg out first because then my bad leg would be left holding all my weight in the transfer process. I also could not step out with my bad leg because I would have to balance all of my weight on it as I pulled my good leg to dry land. So, since I figured I was already in a lose-lose situation, I started making evasive maneuvering plans. So this way, if anything goes wrong on my way out, I will already have a plan in place that would keep me from making another trip to see my doctor to get that same AT repaired. But just as I was ready to make the leap of faith, a short scene flashed across my mind. I pictured myself stepping across the edge of the tub with my bad leg and then having my good leg slip on a soapy spot in the tub. Unable to catch myself on anything else, I ended up do a split right across the edge of the bathtub. This was not a good thought! So after having that image dance in my head for a moment, I decided to just tuck away my pride and climb out of the tub on all fours. This way, even if I feel, my AT and my uhhh….jewels…would still be out of harm’s way.

    Something else my doctor told me that shocked me was concerning the length of time I was going to have to sport the fashionably stylish Roboboot. He said I was going to have to be in this thing for 3 months. 3 MONTHS!!!!! I mean, granted, the boot is better than the under arm guillotines I have had to get around on, but I thought I was only going to be boot bound for 6 weeks! Don’t get me wrong though, I love the freedom the boot gives me and I love the fact that I can take it off as well. My only complaint is the loud sound that the Velcro makes when I am taking the thing off. It’s loud enough to wake the whole house. But whenever one of the ladies at my job come around now I have a new way to make them cringe…I pull one of the Velcro straps back and get a nice loud velroish sound out of it the I say, “Did you hear that, that’s what it sounded like when my tendon ripped in two.” Wow, the faces I get from that would beat any hunted house face I have seen.

     I have been performing my own little version on physical therapy as well by doing some light stretching as I lay in the bed. I just lift my toes as far back as they can go on their own and I hold that stretch for a couple of seconds. I also like to take my boot of, put my foot flat on the floor and move my foot to thee tippy toes position while sitting down. I don’t do anything that would put any actual weighted strain on the Achilles, but just nice little light movements that allow it to start working and perhaps get some blood flow to it. I call it, Achilles yoga. By the way, just in case anybody cares, my wife is no longer mad at me for driving, she has gotten pretty used to the idea, and she has even taken a ride in the care with me. So I will be good to go until the snow hits the ground. And as a matter of fact, once it starts snowing, I don’t think I will be driving at all. People here in this state see snow every year, but as soon as the snow hits the streets it’s like these people forget how to drive in the snow and they end up with their cars folded and dented up on the side of the street after spinning out in 5 lane traffic during rush hour. That is not an environment I am willing to jump in with a left foot. Other than these little updates, not much has been happening in the ATR area. I could tell a bunch of good stories about other stuff that has happened but then my post would start to look more like gossip columns or advice columns than ATR blog post.

     Be well all and I will TRY to write tomorrow.  And to AnnieH, I apologize for screwing up your lunches….but I’m back!!