How it happened …
I was playing basketball in a league down in Bloomington, MN for a few weeks in the evening and this particular game was an early start, 6:30pm, which meant I went straight from work to the game. My last meeting ran late until 6, so by the time I got to the court I only had a few seconds to change and wasn’t able to stretch properly or warm up.
After playing the entire first half I sat out the first few minutes of the second before checking back in. I believe this allowed my muscles/tendons to cool down and tighten up which ultimately led to this injury. I should have and now do know better than going from a sedentary work environment to a full contact basketball game without warming up.
It didn’t actually hurt as bad as I thought an achilles tear would so I held out hope that it was just a bad muscle pull or strain and drove the 20 miles back home with my bad right achilles. During the drive, I started to suspect it might be worse with each successive push on the accelerator. In the morning I grabbed the crutches I have from other sports related injuries and used them to get around. We called an ortho clinic to schedule a visit to get my leg examined, but the earliest they could get me in was the following day. So I caught a ride to work from my wife, so I didnt have to drive.
At work someone reminded me that we had an on-site clinic, so I called down to see if they could fit me in that morning and luckily they had an open slot. Upon hobbling down to the clinic on one crutch, still testing out my ability to put weight on the leg and downplaying the injury, I got in to see the doctor. He took a quick glance at my leg, felt up the back of my achilles and proclaimed that i had at least partially ruptured my achilles, sent me off to a local urgent care ortho clinic, and told me to stop putting weight on it immediately.
Long story short, they put me in a boot, I had surgery 2 weeks later, the surgeon desribed the achilles as “shredded”, and I am now getting to the PWB stage of my recovery. All has gone well so far and the achilles look sto be in good shape. Physical therapy starts tomorrow and I am looking forward to ditching my crutches next week if possible.
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Hang in there w0rm…I did mine playing hoops too…ironically after stiting out for awhile as well. My was obvious though…big kick (or at least felt like it) in the heel and I fell like a ton of bricks.
Good luck on PT and recovery going forward.
Hi wOrm, I also went out to play touch footy at about the same date as you after work and also did it after half time having cooled down - i was an unseasonably cold day too here in Australia and i was outdoors. just got into two shoes - hope your recovery is going well.
I appreciate the well wishes. I hope both of your recoveries are progressing nicely. Best of luck getting back out on the court and the pitch as soon as possible.