Today marks the six month anniversary of my initial injury. It seems to have gone by so fast, yet so slow. 

Labels: achilles

Could I really be free of the boot? Finally? For reals?!

I did a lot of walking without the boot around the house and at work last week, but still wore the boot at all other times. Saturday I ventured out boot-free, though I took it with me in case the leg got tired, or the worst happened. I even had a short drive of my car! 20 weeks to the day since I last drove it. So good to get behind the wheel again :D

The leg went well on the weekend, so I made the decision on Monday to not only go to work without the boot, but to catch public transport. That went as well as I could hope, so I've been completely boot-free since then.

The calf definitely seems bigger. I've been getting Em to take photos every few days, but the photos don't really seem to show the difference that well. The tendon feels really good. The location of the second tear feels good. It's even hard to feel where that tear happened - it was a noticeable lump before, but now it doesn't feel much different to the other leg.

The biggest concern I had initially was actually with my knee, which took a little bit of coaxing before it was happy doing all this work. It's since improved and is bothering me less and less. I just need to get out of the habit of sitting on my foot while at the computer. Since coming out of the boot the old habit has kicked back in and I'm sitting on my foot. Yes, the bad foot. The foot doesn't mind, but the knee has a fair bit to say about it when I stand up. Thankfully I don't seem to do it at work, so I only have to watch myself at home.

I still have over a month left before the 6 months is up since the first injury, so the tendon still has a little bit of healing left. Then it will be another 3 months from that date until the muscle tear is fully healed. So I still can't do anything too active just yet, which sucks because I weighed myself recently and I'm heavier now than I've ever been. :(

I am getting on the exercise bike now and then for some low-impact exercise on the leg, but it's also for the rest of me. I'm hoping in maybe a month I can get back on the treadmill and do some walking, maybe getting on my real bike around then too. Another month after that I might hopefully be able to get back to running again and start over again on trying to get fit.

But no more netball!

Labels: achilles

My time in the boot looks like it's almost up. The leg is feeling really good. I'm getting around in the boot really well. I'm even going without the boot around the unit a bit (and making sure the cat is nowhere near me!)

But I have one final hurdle to overcome before I really come out of the boot for good. That's this:


The right leg is about half the size of the left. Granted the left is larger than normal at the moment from having such a workout the last 4 months, but the right is still not strong enough to really support my weight.

Flexibility-wise it's better than it's been since the start of all this. But strength-wise it's not as strong as it was last time I was out of the boot. Part of me feels that's what caused the second injury - the calf had to suddenly do a LOT of work and it just wasn't up to it. So my goal in the last week or so left in the boot is to build more strength in the calf. I think in the last 2-3 days of going just a little bit of time out of the boot it's already bigger and stronger than it was. Hopefully another 5 or 6 days makes a difference.

Labels: achilles

I had my visit to the specialist yesterday to see what the plan is with the new injury.

First thing he did was check the damage himself. He was really happy with how the tendon feels, so that's good.

Then he decreased the angle on the boot. He said the angle I had it on (which was erring on the side of caution) was too extreme. If it was at that for too long I would have risked all the muscles shortening even more and having further problems. So it's at 15 degrees now, but I'm to try to go to 7.5 degrees later in the week. The goal is to be at 0 degrees in the next few weeks, and to be out of the boot in a month.

It's feeling quite good now, with just some discomfort when the calf is stretched past where it's happy to go. That's one other thing I have to do in the next few weeks, is give it a stretch every now and then.

So the next month shouldn't be too bad - the current angle is almost manageable, but in a few days it'll be coming up some more. By then I should be almost walking normally on the boot just using a crutch or two for balance.

Overall it's set me back 6 weeks in the boot, then a further 3 months on my total recovery time. So no sports until 6 months from the new injury. I think I can handle that.

Labels: achilles

I was doing really well last week. I was walking without the boot, although I was still using one crutch most of the time and strapping the ankle just for a bit of extra support. I was resuming my life. I even went to a couple of open inspections last Saturday to check out some units.

Then Sunday night I had just finished cooking dinner and before I sat down to eat I decided to answer nature's call. As I was walking into the bathroom to wash my hands and just before I got a chance to turn on the light, I discovered my cat was asleep in the doorway. By "discovered" I mean "stepped on". Gave me a hell of a fright, and in trying to get off him in a hurry I must have kind of jumped, and I heard a snap. :(

I immediately assumed the worst, and put the boot back on amid waves of pain. After I recovered a little from shock, I tentatively tried moving the foot, and was surprised to find that I could move it. That and the fact that there was more pain in a different location to what I remembered. In the next few hours I had talked myself into believing that I was wrong and that it was the achilles again and that the last 3 months work had been completely undone. That was a seriously depressing thought.

Fast forward to today and after a painful ultrasound yesterday, I find out that it's not the tendon itself this time, but the musculotendinous junction: that's where the tendon becomes the muscle (or vice versa). The muscle has a 60% tear in it.

It's a good result in that the achilles seems undamaged this time, meaning its healing process should be continuing fine (still 3 more months before it's finished healing), but it's a bad result in that I've got another period of time on the crutches, and possibly in the boot. I say possibly because I haven't seen the specialist yet, so I don't know what the recovery procedure is for this sort of injury. There's no surgery option, so it will be a rest-it-and-wait process, but I don't know if the boot will be needed, and if so what angle it needs to be on etc. All I really know at the moment is that if the foot comes up much at all from where it is (boot is at 22.5 deg again) there is pain. Quite a lot of pain. So as annoying as the boot is at this angle I'm leaving it where it is for now because I figure no pain means things at least aren't getting worse.

That's where things stand for now. I'm not quite back to square one, but for the time being I might as well be. At least the outlook isn't as bleak as I initially thought and hopefully in the next month or two I can be boot-free again.

Edit: Wow, hadn't realised it had been 5 weeks since my last post. The time really flew once the boot came up to zero degrees.

Labels: achilles

I felt this afternoon that I'm becoming a grumpy old man. A bitter, twisted, grumpy old man.

It's been 8 weeks now since the injury and I'm sick of just about everything. Sick of the boot. Sick of the crutches. Sick of being stuck at home. Sick of having to go places. Sick of the aches and pains. Sick of not being able to drive my car. Sick of everything.

I got the boot replaced again on Friday, but got told an interesting tidbit: the boot isn't supposed to take my full weight. That's the first I'd been explicitly told that. Everything else I'd been told up until that point was that the boot will allow me to walk almost normally, and the crutches are for balance. So since Friday I've been having to get around without asking the boot to support my weight. That means I can stand up straight on it, but that's about it - I can only rock my weight forward ever so slightly before it's going to put the force through the boot in a way it's apparently not designed for.

Trying to walk like that is asking a lot of my right knee, and it's not liking it too much. So I'm having to avoid that as well, which means if I want to get around without the crutches - or without using them (and my hands/arms) to support my weight - I can only put the right foot forward a little, then bring the left up beside it. It's a slow way of getting around.

This afternoon on the walk from work to the car I barely used that leg at all and relied totally on the crutches. I'm able to cope with that much better now, but it still took it's toll and left me exhausted. Climbing the stairs at home made me realise that when I get exhausted I get extremely irritable and impatient and every little thing frustrates me. In fact I don't even have to be exhausted to run short of patience with something that poses any obstacle.

Maybe I've always been like that. Maybe my current state is only exaggerating it. I don't want to be like that though. Frustration never helps anything. But it's difficult not getting frustrated when every small task is made a thousand times harder, without something stupid not cooperating along the way.

At the start of this I'd not imagined just how physically demanding this was going to be. There's almost not a part of me that's not affected by this: my right foot hurts if the boot is too tight; the right shin took a beating a few weeks back; the right knee is being asked to do things that it can't quite do, the right quadricep is doing the work of an entire leg; my back is constantly askew (and really pointing that out to me of late); my left foot and knee are taking most of my weight; the left quadricep is sore tonight for some reason; my hands have calluses from the crutches; my wrists aren't liking supporting my weight; neither are my elbows; and neither are my shoulders. Thankfully my chest muscles have learned to cope with the extra work, so they've been ok lately. But just for a bit of fun my neck decided it'd have a bad night's sleep and give me headaches all weekend just gone.

The only part of me that's not complaining right now is the achilles itself. The right calf is even able to tense up now: it's beginning to feel like a muscle again and not just useless fat.

The one glimmer of hope I have right now is that I have another checkup in eight days time, at which time the boot should be brought all the way up to zero degrees. Hopefully at that angle the curved sole of the boot will allow me to return to some form of normal walking without bending it all to hell.

I think that might be the main cause for my frustrations - not uncooperative inanimate objects but the fact that there's still 5-6 weeks of all this still ahead of me. :(

PS my work's Christmas party is this Friday. Yay for booze!

Edit: wouldn't you know it - this post is refusing to publish on my blog. Grr!

Labels: achilles

The new boot is broken.

It seems I've improved on my boot destruction technique, because it only took me 3 days to break this one. I think I even did a better job of it, too. It's not cracked, but I have no idea how it hasn't yet.

Here's the damage:


That bit on the right was pretty much straight this morning. And at about lunch time when I gave it another check. Yes, I'm a bit obsessive compulsive about the boot, but I think it's to be expected after the last one.

Here's a closer shot:


I have no idea whatsoever how that happened. It's almost folded over on itself. That's not even the direction I'd imagine the force of my weight going.

So I have to rearrange my day again tomorrow to go back to them.... again. With maybe 6 weeks still to go in the boot I hope...HOPE... that this will be the last time I have to go back to them. Good thing they weren't open when I noticed the bend - I was furious!

Well, at first I was speechless. I didn't even tell Em - I just held out the foot and pointed at it in stunned silence. This was at the bottom of the stairs, so after I'd climbed the stairs at a frustrating pace (back to 1 step at a time to avoid using the boot at all) I took the boot off to give it a closer inspection and almost threw it. As if it's not been enough of an inconvenience the last few weeks, this is making it a complete pain in the ass. What else is the boot for if not for walking on?

Labels: achilles

I finished work early this afternoon and headed back to where I got the boot from to see what they thought of the state of it.

They were a bit surprised at the condition it was in. Doesn't seem like they've seen it happen before, but thankfully they gave me a replacement boot and sent the old one back to the manufacturer. The new one seems a tiny bit smaller than the old, which hopefully means it's a little less cumbersome. It's a lot less stinky, that's for sure :P

Hopefully this one lasts a little longer than the last. It only has to last about 1 week longer than the last to make it to the end. :)

Labels: achilles

The boot is broken.

After noticing a week ago that it was flexing quite considerably as I put my weight on it, I mentioned my concerns about it breaking during the checkup on Tuesday. He said he's never seen anyone break one of these boots. So I guess I'm lucky enough to be the first to do so.

It's not entirely broken as such, but it has a noticeable bend in the metal bar that runs up the left side of it. This bar (with the rotating mechanism about a quarter the way up it) is what supports my weight as I walk on it. This bend has been there for a few days, but last night I noticed it's gained a crack now as well. I figured this would only be a matter of time, cos you can't flex metal that often that much without having adverse affects.

Here's a shot of it:


So now it's Saturday morning and after a bit of ringing around we've discovered there's nowhere we can go to get this replaced. So I'm stuck till at least Monday struggling around on the crutches again. I can put weight on the boot fine, but only so long as it's flat on the floor. I'm not at all comfortable putting weight on the toes end of it any more. If I do so and it breaks completely then it would likely put all my weight on the achilles, which would be a bad bad thing.

In order to get our early bird parking on Monday we'll probably go to work early, but then leave a bit early and go throw this boot at them on the way home. The crack is only one of the problems I've had with it - the stitching on one of the straps came completely undone and after trying a safety pin I ended up literally stapling it together, and the velcro on the metal bar is starting to come unstuck and will eventually fall apart as well. At $240 I would have hoped it would last a bit longer than this, considering it's only lasted half as long as it's needed.

Labels: achilles

I had my first checkup this morning since getting the boot.

Seems everything is going well and he's happy with how the tendon is feeling. So the boot has come up to 15 degrees (from 22.5), which will stretch the tendon out and force it to lengthen some more. This new angle is feeling much better. I can all but walk on it now, though I still half need a crutch or something for balance. It should make getting around much easier.

During the checkup when the doctor asked me to stand on the boot, I mentioned how it tends to put backwards pressure on my knee - something I have a little bit of a phobia of after a minor netball injury maybe 8 years ago. He asked me to sit again and had a bit of a play with the knee and said there's definitely some damage to the anterior cruciate ligament. Regardless of the achilles injury, the damage to the ACL is enough that he would have suggested I not return to netball. It had always been a concern to me and I was always very mindful of that knee when on the court. I'd had it checked by my GP a while back but he couldn't find much wrong with it so I hadn't seen a reason to stop playing. At least I know now that it wasn't all in my head!

I'm booked in again in 3 weeks time to go to 0 degrees on the boot. That should come soon enough, given I feel I can probably return to work full time now. I'm actually booked in on the last day my doctor is at work before he takes a month off over Christmas. So that means the next stage - which should be 3 weeks - will be 4 as I wait till he comes back to work. At that time the boot will get the flick (yay!) and I'll return to more normal footwear.

That's not the end of the process, though, as he said at the end of that 3 months in the boot it's still only about three quarters healed. So I will still have to take it easy for the following 3 months.

The good news is that when I mentioned that I want to replace netball with cycling, he said I should be able to get on an exercise bike as of right now. So I might give that a try maybe later tonight to see how it goes. At least I can get some exercise in in the next 6 weeks to combat all the eating that's usually associated with Christmas. :)

Labels: achilles

It's been 6 weeks almost to the minute since the injury, but it feels like it's been about 6 months.

Em said the other day it feels like it's gone really quick, but for me it feels like it's been forever. You know how time seems to go quicker when you're busy? I've spent around 4 days a week for the last month and a half on the couch, so time has been going really slowly for me. :/

I have my first checkup on Tuesday, so I'll get a better idea of how much longer I'll be stuck in the boot for. It can't be soon enough though. I'm at the stage where it's feeling pretty good so it feels like the boot isn't necessary any more, so it feels like it's just being nothing but a nuisance.

I take the boot off from time to time to air my foot out and what not, and my leg muscles are depressing me quite a lot. It's insane how much smaller the right calf is so than the left. Here's a photo:



So after the boot comes off (or maybe before?) I'll have lots of work ahead of me to recondition those muscles. If not I'll be walking in circles for a while :/

Labels: achilles

As the 3rd week of recovery begins I feel that things are going very well. The foot has been quite good the last few days, giving me very little grief at all. I'm getting used to the boot: getting around on it, sleeping with it, and showering with it. The crutches are still a little annoying, but I'm getting used to those as well. Having some more confidence in the boot (combined with how good the foot feels) has allowed me to put a bit of weight on the toe end of the boot as I use the crutches. Taking that bit of weight off the crutches is so good!

I went to work on Wednesday and Thursday last week. That went quite well. The commute to work is great - it's a little over 15 minutes drive, which is amazing given Brisbane's growing traffic problems. Getting from the carpark to work isn't too bad, though getting back at the end of the day is a little bit of a struggle. Sitting at the desk all day is fine. However, after the combined effort over the two days I was completely exhausted. Both Friday and Saturday mornings I had a good sleep in, and have basically been trying to rest up all weekend so I can try and get in 3 days work this week.

The plan for the next week is to try and work I think Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. I was going to aim for Friday instead - alternating a day at work with a day of rest - but Em has Radio Lollipop Day this weekend, so she'll be at Central Station super early Friday morning collecting donations. So to go to work I'd either have to go in then with her, or find some other way in. We also have a work function on Friday night, so I think if I go in Thursday instead then I can sleep in Friday to save up some energy for that night. Then Saturday morning is the go karting that I'd organised with friends. If only I could participate :(

So this week will be the most I've attempted since the injury just over 2 weeks ago. On one hand, I can't believe it's only been 2 weeks so far - it's seemed like forever already. But on the other hand, I'm already one third of the way to the first checkup, which seems to be approaching fast. I can't wait to get the official word on my progress - as I said, it's been feeling really good lately and I'm starting to see a faint speck of light at the end of what at first appeared to be an impossibly long and dark tunnel.

Labels: achilles

I went to work on Friday, catching the train as usual in the morning. That was about the toughest experience of my life - including all the fun runs I've done in the last 2 years, and climbing Mt Warning this time last year.

I'm only 400-500 metres from the train station, but there's a lot of steps, and about a quarter of it is uphill. I think in the end it took about 15 minutes, including a couple of rest stops along the way. Then the other end (thankfully only about a dozen steps, and mostly downhill) was tougher than I expected as well, and I had to stop for a rest at one point. During this rest I noticed that the boot looked rather different to what I expected - instead of the foot being pointed downwards a bit, it seemed to be pointed up a bit.

After getting to work (and heading straight to a couch in the lunch room) I inspected the locking mechanism on the boot again and came to the conclusion that it was set to limit the foot to 20 degrees of movement below and above the horizontal. I happened to have the doctor's referral in my wallet still, so after I deciphered terms like "plantarflexion" and "dorsiflexion" I confirmed that the settings weren't what he requested. I think I've got it right now. I can put more weight on it than before and the boot doesn't move much at all. I still can't do much more than balance on it, but that in itself makes the crutches much easier.

Getting a cab home after work was another endurance trial, as the nearest cab rank to my work had a fairly lengthy queue. So we stood in line for I don't know how long as I tried to take my mind off my foot, along with all the miscellaneous aches and pains that I had accumulated during the morning's trek to work.

Saturday was very uneventful as I rested up after Friday's ordeal. I had aches across most of my upper body. We had planned to go for a drive so Em could get familiar with my car, as we'd decided we'd drive to work for a few weeks until I got used to the crutches enough to attempt the train again. But I was too sore to want to even attempt the stairs at my unit, let alone go out somewhere. Plus, I had the sniffles a bit and wound up with aching sinuses, so after a painkiller (hehe, ruptured achilles I can handle, but a bit of sinus trouble and I run for the paracetamol) I went to bed for a short nap.

That short nap turned into several hours, and I woke up at about 6:30. That would have to be a record afternoon nap for me, especially without a severe lack of sleep beforehand. It really hit home then how much of a toll this has all been taking on me.

Today we went to lunch at the services club on the corner with one of Em's friends. That in itself was enough to leave me semi-exhausted, but after than we went to Em's nan's place for a bit, then had a quick stop at Woolies before going to watch the others play netball. So Em got a good bit of practice at driving my car, but it's left me wondering if I can face work tomorrow or not. I guess seeing as it's 10pm already I should be in bed by now if I want any chance of making it through the day.

I know it might sound a bit strange, but I do want to get back to work. I'm already getting quite sick of being stuck here in the unit. If we had teleporters and could just zap ourselves to where we want to go then it'd be an easy decision. Driving to work will make it much better, but I'll still have to deal with the stairs here and a bit of a walk at the other end. Plus little things like going to the toilet are a little easier here at home.

Meh, I guess I'll just see how I feel in the morning.

Labels: achilles

Got my new ROM (Range Of Movement) boot this morning. It's kind of like a snowboarding boot, only with a large heel and a mechanism for locking the angle of the foot so it won't flex past a given point.

Here's some photos:



It's currently locked at 20 degrees, as per the doctor's instructions. I've experimented putting some weight on it and so far it seems ok for standing and limited hobbling. I can't exactly walk on it, so I'll definitely still need crutches while I'm stuck in this thing.

Getting around is much easier now tho, mostly because I can bend my knee. It already feels a little strange to bend it, so I'll have to be sure to move it whenever I can just to keep it loose and ready to go when I'm able to walk again. Even sitting on the couch is easier.

On the way back from the hospital we stopped in at Bunnings to get some new rubber feet for a shower stool I'd borrowed from my parents. As we were trying to think if there was anything else that might make my life easier while I'm still crippled (haha, in the carpark I did think that we should have asked about a handicap permit for the car :P) and noticed they had portable aircon units on special. So now my unit has aircon! (of sorts) :D

I think based on our little detour to Bunnings that with this boot I'm not too far away from beginning to rejoin society. Even though I think it's slightly heavier, it's a much better fit than the cast so my foot doesn't throb anywhere near as much now when I'm on my feet (err, foot). Stairs are still a bit of a nuisance, but I'm getting used to them, so I think I'll be able to attempt the walk to the train station (and all the associated stairs) some day soon.

So all that's left now is to wait and see how things go. Next checkup is in 6 weeks time where I go to 10 degrees on the boot.

Labels: achilles

The achilles is definitely separated. The good news is that at the right angle the two pieces still reach each other, so surgery isn't required.

So the plan is:

* 6 weeks in a special boot with the ankle locked at a 20 degree angle
* 3 weeks with the boot locked at 10 degrees
* 6 weeks at 0 degrees

During this time the boot will allow me to put my weight on it, and will allow the ankle to move slightly, but not past the minimum angle (ie, so the tendon won't extend more than the doctor wants to allow). Thankfully the boot goes a bit past mid-calf, so I will be able to bend my knee.

After the boot I believe I'll have a series of heel wedges or something to control the motion of the foot a bit still.

Total time will be about 6 months before it's healed.

I won't be able to drive for most of this.

I'll be on crutches for at least half of it.

But so long as I keep from stretching the tendon past where it's capable of going then all should be good. I will have scar tissue on the tendon, so it will be maybe twice as thick as the other and won't have quite as much power as it used to, but it should be almost as good as new.

We're going to pick up the boot tomorrow, so with any luck I might be up and about a bit more by the weekend. Still going to be an awkward 6 months ahead of me, but I'm relieved that the doctor is confident of recovery without surgery, especially when he described what can happen if the wound gets infected. :S

I'll post pics tomorrow of the boot.

Labels: achilles

I've got an appointment at 4:30 this afternoon with the specialist. His receptionist tried to book me in for Friday, but thankfully the doctor who referred me to him on Saturday night said to press the issue and make sure they fit me in today.

It's definitely sounding like surgery is the way to go. I was doing a little reading yesterday on the net about the injury and the recovery. Without surgery it sounds like there's a fair chance of the injury recurring in the future. With surgery it becomes a slim chance. The only real risks of surgery are infection of the wound, so it seems like it's a fairly safe procedure. It's just a little daunting because I've not had surgery before, other than having my tonsils out when I was too young to remember.

I don't know how long it will take before the surgery happens. I hope it's not too long, because I'm gradually in more and more pain. When the foot is elevated (and I can get it comfy) it's not too bad. My back is actually causing me more grief now than the foot. But when I stand up it very quickly becomes almost unmanageably painful, so I'm dreading getting up for any reason whatsoever.

As a result I'm not spending as much time at the computer as I thought I'd be able to, so I'm not managing to get much (if any) work done. I'm not sure yet whether this will change once I've had the surgery, but for my own comfort I'm hoping it's less painful at least. Though that said I've only had the bare minimum of painkillers so far. They don't seem to be having too much effect on the leg itself, but they do help with all the associated pain - I have sore hands/arms/shoulders/chest from using the crutches, and as I said my back is disliking a) lying on the couch all day, and b) having to lift the dead weight of my right leg.

Hopefully before the appointment this afternoon I can manage to have a shower. I had a shower saturday night cos I was all stinky from my (brief) run around at netball, but it was so difficult that I've avoided having one since. I've been managing to bathe to an extent, but I'm starting to feel very blergh and hope to address that before venturing out into public this afternoon.

So only a few more hours until I learn some more about what the near future will hold for me. I'll post again later tonight with the outcome.

Labels: achilles

"I've never had something hurt this much, but I'd rate it about an 8.5"

That was the conversation with the nurse at Greenslopes hospital yesterday evening after I injured myself during netball.

About 10 minutes into our Grand Final, I went to run into a gap from a standing start. As soon as I pushed off with my right foot I heard a snap and I thought I'd busted my shoe, cos my heel went straight to the floor like there was nothing to push against all of a sudden. As soon as I put the foot down a second time (to stop from face planting) I knew it wasn't the shoe. I let myself collapse into a heap because I knew right then that the next few months are going to be about the hardest in my life so far. :(

I couldn't understand why people didn't seem to agree with me when I said I thought I'd snapped my achilles. I think that was simply due to the fact that I wasn't screaming. I wasn't making much noise because I was focusing all my energy on not fainting. There wasn't actually as much pain as I thought for this sort of injury, but that may have been that I was in shock. The desire to faint was I think mostly from shock, plus having gone from running around to dead stop.

I moved to a bed in their like "sick room" I guess, and lay down for a little while and started to feel much better. Then for some unknown reason the muscles in my leg started spasming. That's what I rated as the 8.5 out of 10. It was quite excruciating, and I could do nothing to stop it. Thankfully that stopped after 5 minutes or so and I managed to not cry (though it was very tempting)

Once the game was over I hobbled over with the rest of the team to get our 2nd place trophies. I could walk on the leg, but so long as I walked on the heel only and didn't move the foot at all. But walking the 15 metres or so to the presentation area was enough to leave me very light-headed and again I struggled against the urge to faint.

Thankfully Andrew and I carpool, so he had his first chance to drive my car. He was having fun in it I think. I wasn't appreciating the bumpy ride too much though, but that was thanks to my car's suspension and Brisbane's crappy roads.

At the hospital emergency room I was subjected to way more questions than I wanted to answer while standing. Again I was starting to get light headed and some of the questions were almost too much to answer through the blur of the pain.

I finally got given the ok to sit down and wait for the nurse, but literally 5 seconds after hobbling to a chair the nurse called my name so I had to hobble over to the examination room. She asked a few questions about it before a doctor joined us. He got me to kneel on a chair, then pinched first my good leg, then the bad one and immediately said "that's bad." :(

So a bit under 2 hours later I was hobbling out to the car on crutches in a cast from my toes to a bit up my thigh and a referral to see a specialist this week.

Andrew snapped a few photos on his phone:





So absolutely everything is really awkward now, and simple things like showering is an ordeal. Sleeping last night was uncomfortable, but thankfully mostly pain-free. Until this morning that is - I got up to go to the toilet (a mammoth task in itself), and for some reason my leg decided to thank me with a pain of about a 7 out of 10. :( I hope that's not a regular thing.

Right now I've got it up resting on a chair beside me and I'd say it's maybe a 1 out of 10. I've managed to go this far without any sort of pain killers (not even a Panadol), and I'm hoping to continue doing so. When it comes to pain I'm much more about addressing the cause, not the symptom, so I'm just trying to be nice to the leg and hope that it's nice to me in return.

The next step from here is to make an appointment with the specialist and discuss my options - basically either leave it in a cast and let it recover on its own, or have surgery to repair the damage and speed up the recovery. Apparently surgery is the more common option, so I'll probably be going that route. It's a little daunting tho.

So the next few months are going to... well... suck. I'm glad right now that I have LOTS of sick leave at work, and can pretty much work from home, so I think I'll be doing that for at least a week or two to start. That's good and bad - good because I won't have to go up and down the stairs at my unit here, but bad because I have no aircon and summer is starting to make an appearance.

I'm really pissed at my body that I've been trying to lose some weight and get into shape and it keeps breaking on me whenever I make an extra effort. It's got me wondering about my future in netball. I'll miss at least 1, more like 2 seasons because I won't want to risk further injury by pushing it too much too soon.

At least today is Bathurst, a day where I was hoping to be glued to a couch all day, so the leg won't influence my life too much in the next 8 hours. The next 8-12(-?) weeks will be a totally different story. :(

Labels: achilles, netball