It’s been 6 weeks since surgery, 8 weeks since the rupture.

I went to see my doctor today. Here’s what I learned:

• I am allowed to put as much weight on my left foot as possible without major pain.
• He told me to go down to one crutch when I feel ready for it.
• I got my “prescription” to begin physical therapy.
• I’ll get to ditch the boot in 4 weeks, and so will end “the summer of the boot.”

It’s still a long, long road back, but each stage is getting more bearable.

I’ll never take for granted the “miracle of walking” again :)

Our 3rd child Camilla Josephine Walker was born on Thursday. She’s awesome, super cute, strong :) It was a little stressful for me to be full-time dad to Emerson and Isabella from Wednesday to Sunday, but we made it through it. I did my first driving since my Achilles rupture!

And on that note, I get my cast off on Thursday – I’m still pretty much pain free, crutches suck, I’m getting a little nervous about physical therapy. Right now my foot is wrapped in it’s protective cocoon. I’m going to feel like a snail out of it’s shell at first :)

Quick update: I’m feeling pretty good. Went out to work @ client location past two days, good to get back out and get off the couch :) Good thing is that if I’m lying or sitting, my foot doesn’t hurt… Crutching around is killing my armpits, and my foot throbs a little when moving around, but at least I can move around. I’m off pain medication for the first time in a few months.

Now my focus turns to taking care of my clients and hope they forgive me for being less than 100% past few months. Oh and of course we have child #3 due to arrive in a week or two! One thing I can say with certainty is that I’m not suffering from boredom :)

Thank you to everyone who has offered help and support. People are great, my spirits are up. Randy Pausch has been an inspiration for how to handle the curveball’s that life throws at you; I really can’t complain that I have it so bad.

My surgery yesterday involved:

• First they gave me a nerve block behind the knee that blocked pain for 24-48 hrs after surgery. A lot of needles while I was semi-conscious—I don’t remember anything about that, but they said I was basically responding to all their questions with sarcastic jokes… I guess the “true me” was coming through :) Then I was given general anesthesia and was out.
• Removal of haglan’s deformity—irregular bone growth on my heel that is the result of my years of achilles tendonitis.
• Flexor hallucis longus (FHL) tendon transfer—they harvested a tendon behind my big toe to lace into the achilles tendon. Basically they drill a hole in my heel and pull that tendon through, which serves as the new anchor. The bone will grow around it to secure the connection.
• Achilles debridement—small cuts are made to the tendon, which stimulates an in-growth of blood vessels and results in a healing response.

I vomited about 6 times after waking up, went home about an hour later. Went right to sleep for about 5 hrs. Watched the Celtics-Lakers game, then the trouble began.

I tried to fall asleep at midnight, but could only sleep for about 30-45 minutes before the pain woke me back up. I took some of the percoset they prescribed @ 5am, but it didn’t help too much. I struggled through it until 6am when I had Shannon go get valium prescription filled, I was writhing in pain waiting for her to get back. Once I got that stuff in my system, I fell asleep until 9am, and my pain level was lowered.

I called the doc, he called me back around noon and he told me a lot of the post-op pain I’m feeling is attributed to the bone work he did. He said today + tomorrow are going to be rough from a pain standpoint, but from there it should slowly subside.

I go in to see him in 2 weeks to get staples out, and then he’ll recast me for another 2 weeks or so. Then I’ll be in a boot for a few weeks before starting physical therapy, around week 6. He thinks there’s a good chance I’ll get back to 100% percent strength, but that’ll be about a year(!) out…

When it rains it pours…

This morning I woke up at 4am with tooth pain (I had my 3rd root canal appt in 3 weeks on Thurs), couldn’t fall back asleep, so went to play basketball @ 6am. Around 6:20 I was running down the court, tried to cut to the basket for a pass, and it felt like someone kicked my calf. I turned back to see who it was, saw no one, tried to take a step, and went down.

I knew immediately that I’d ruptured my Achilles. I just about lost consciousness for a few minutes. They called paramedic and took me to hospital. X-rays confirm it’s a complete rupture, and will require surgical repair. I have a temporary cast, I’m on crutches, and I can’t drive.

I plan to try to get surgery scheduled ASAP (with Shannon due in 4 weeks, timing for this injury is quite inconvenient), and I’ll be in a cast for around 6-8 weeks afterwards (so I’ve read). I haven’t seen an orthopedic doctor yet, so nothing is official on this stuff yet.

Good news is that I’ve got very little pain, and I’m hoping I can work on computer fairly normally. Traveling to work office is probably out of the picture for next few weeks.

Not a good start to the holiday weekend :(