Thursday, February 14, 2013

Ruptured Achillies Tendon

A week or two after I boldly advised that I would be be back to blogging, I went and played paintball at my squires buck's night and ruptured my achillies tendon. It took a solid chunk of my motivation away.

I was going for a flat out sprint in order to try and win a game, and my ankle went 'pop' like a gunshot, and then my leg didn't work. I dropped out, called the game to a halt, and went straight into R.I.C.E. Rest Ice compression and elevation. It didn't hurt, likely because I was hopped up on adrenaline from the previous good games.

The next day at the doctors I was put into plaster for a week. Then it was surgery to sew the tendon back together, then another two weeks of plaster, and then six weeks in an 'aircast'.  I am now out of the cast, going to fortnightly physiotherapy. Never underestimate how good standing up in the show feels. Try kneeling for showers for six weeks.

The incident didn't hurt, and the surgery was the best imaginable - the only 'ow' was the drip going in, and I woke up feeling good and pain free. They gave me pain killers that will see the bin soon as they are not needed.

I'm still not walking and exercising freely, so my time is pretty heavily used on geeky past times such as assembling and painting miniature models and computer games.



2 comments:

Bethan of Brockwood said...

My Dad tells a very similar story about when he snapped his Achilles tendon - he was playing squash, same sound, same foot not working - and same absence of pain. His was bolted back together with steel.
A warning - for whatever reason (genetic weakness, compensation, ?), 10 years later, Dad snapped his other Achilles tendon, just walking down the street. I don't know if there's anything recommended to do, but if there is, you should do it!

Ysambart said...

I am being a good boy with my physio :)

Physiotherapist visit yesterday. Everything is going well. I went from -12cm kneebend to +2cm - which isn't bad considering my left foot is only +3cm :) I went from two seconds balacing with my eyes open, to (practically) unlimited with my eyes open and around fifteen seconds with my eyes closed. I forgot the number, but my reverse extesnion was similarly improved. I am one of the 5%! Apparently only 5% of people do the exercises set by their physio often and well.