Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Pop goes the tendon

It was innocent enough. A typical Monday where I flew to San Antonio, put in some work and then took Mo and Ryan Crow up on their invitation to play squash after work. I'd never played before, but I have played racquetball and tennis enough so figured it was easy enough transition.

We played for about an hour, I was sufficiently terrible but enjoying myself. I was at the back of the court, Mo and Ryan up front when I charged up to get a ball.

Snap.

It felt like something had hit me in the back of the leg. I fell to the court and exclaimed "Something hit me! What the hell hit me?"

Mo and Ryan just looked confused. I stumbled out of the court, they got some ice for me and I sat and elevated the foot. It didn't immediately swell up and I could still move my foot so I wasn't sure how serious it really was.

I stumbled back to the hotel, put it on ice and found some light reading on achilles tears and ruptures. That night, I woke up at 3 a.m. and knew it was bad. I looked online to find a minor emergency clinic and decided to head there in the morning. It was a quick visit, doc took about 2 minutes to say either "substantial tear or full rupture." They put me in a walking cast and sent me out the door with some crutches.

After some deliberation, I decided I should fly home immediately to be evaluated by an orthopedic doctor in Boulder. That was today.

"95% sure its a total rupture"

MRI tomorrow to confirm, but I'm already scheduled for surgery on Tuesday. Will be the first surgery for me, and looks like a significant recovery to get back to 100%. Doc says a year, but I'm hoping that I'll at least be able to get back to riding the road bike or light hiking relatively soon. I stumbled upon this:

http://rupturedachillestendon.blogspot.com/

It gave me some confidence that maybe life won't cease completely. I've got two friends who have done this very thing in the last couple years, and they both seem to be fully recovered so that's what I'll shoot for.

Ski season is done, but at least I'll get a refund on my pass. Shooting for being ready for biking come next May, which is 6 months away.

1 comment:

Chris said...

Man Joel, bummer! Keep us posted on the MRI and recovery time.