Day 9: Splint0r3d
And so the journey begins. I went to the doctor today and he confirmed that I did rupture my Achilles’ Heel. Based on what I’ve read, it’s going to be a long journey from surgery to casting to rehab. So I’ve decided to chronicle the whole (mis)adventure.
There goes volleyball, the whole snowboarding season and getting super fit. Talk about a major bummer! Instead I will be consuming massive amounts of delivered food, TV, internet and sleep. You think one could be content with that but not if there’s no choice in the matter. 
There is an amazing amount of information available on the web. In particular, much of it is centralized at http://achillesblog.com/.
When I injured it, I wasn’t sure if it was more than a sprain. I thought I would give it a couple days and see how it felt. Did that and was out of town for a few days. I read more about the injury and the telltale sign was that I compared the Achilles on my healthy foot vs injured foot and there was a clear depression on the injured foot. So I decided to see an orthopedic surgeon / sports medicine doctor.
He said I really should’ve come in earlier. Drats! I should’ve listened to Emily. Anyway, we talked options surgery vs just immobilization. Given how active I am and my age he recommended surgery. I’ve read so much online I felt pretty good about making this decision.
Day 0: Injury
It had been a busy day. I woke up, did a light work out and went to a job interview. Typically I don’t work out on days where I’m playing volleyball but I thought it would help psyche me up for my interview.
I got home after a day of walking through torrential rain, interviewed for several hours and then taking a semi-miserable MUNI ride home. Cold, tired, grumpy. I was looking for to some serious vegging in front of the TV but remembered I had volleyball. I wasn’t looking forward to the drive but I love volleyball.
It seemed like a typical day except I didn’t do my typical stretch routine. I stretched my back and shoulders, typical problem areas for me. Usually I do a calf stretch but not this time. That would be my fatal mistake.
The first game went normally. Ref-ed the next one. And then we were up again. While warming up, I put my right foot back so I could push forward. It’s a step I’ve been trying to time my approach but, on hindsight, probably puts a lot of stress on the Achilles. I don’t know if I slipped or not but it felt like someone kicked my in the heel with all their might.
I looked around to see who I should curse out but no one was near me. My heel was in massive pain. I didn’t twist my ankle. So I had to sit out the next game. When I was walking I noticed that my foot hung loosely (as if the Achilles had been cut). I didn’t realize what this meant until much later on as I wasn’t familiar with the injury.
I drove home (which was a bit painful) but had it wrapped and iced thanks to Maria, my teammate. It was in some serious pain so I took some Advil. Showered like a pink flamingo and then hit the sack.
I figured I would give it a few days to see how it felt and would see the doctor if there wasn’t significant recovery. I read some stuff online and thought that I had just sprained my Achilles’ instead of tearing it.
October 22 2009 10:18 am | Uncategorized