My ATR story
I’ll explain my Blog title first: 10 years ago I re-ruptured my Achilles Tendon playing basketball in the Australian Masters games in my home town of Canberra. I really thought it was minor as I ran off the court, iced it straight away and returned to play the last 5 minutes. Sure I was limping and it was painful, but I was still able to move relatively well considering.
My first rupture was 27 years earlier, aged 12 from playing football. I really don’t remember the circumstances, just the rehab in the cast and shoes with heel uplifts. I played football (Aussie Rules) for the next 10 years before a back injury forced my early retirement. I moved to the more gentle sport of Basketball for the next 17 years on and off, including my ill-fated return to the Masters Games.
Probably the biggest mistake of my life was not having the surgery after ATR #2. I self-rehabbed and treated the injury as more of an ankle injury than an ATR. I have remained active and involved in Basketball, through coaching, but have become increasingly limited with looking after my own health. I started a vigurous work-out routine of 2hrs per day, every two days 4 months ago. This activity involves a pretty even split of aerobic and strength training and I started developing heel bursitis about the same time. The bursitis and general sharp pain in the tendon and heel wakes me up at 2 am each night. I am getting other tendon related and compensating pain, including shin splints in my other leg and tendonitis around the dice sized lump in the middle of my Achilles.
The good news is I have been referred to a surgeon here who has booked an x-ray and an MRI in 3 days time. I’m hopeful he will operate before Christmas and I’m looking forward to recovering well and rehabbing like a demon.