Working.

Planning to work as long as I could today!  And I already am bad... I did not wear the boot.
Perhaps tomorrow, I will!

Ken at work is so nice, he said that he'll take care of me -- bringing me lunch and water.
I have wonderful friends at work..

Baby steps.

Saw Dr. Nguyen today.  He gave me the permission to walk around the house without the boots.  So when I got home, upstairs, I took off the boot and took baby steps on the soft carpet.  Yeah.  A major milestone..

He also took off 1/2 height off the wedge.

I just tried to go up and down the stairs slowly.  Feeling good, but naturally I do need to be careful.  But still a good feeling.

After all, it's 2 months since the DAY and 7.5 weeks since the surgery.

The scar is healing nicely.  A few hard  bumps along the scar -- inside, but Dr. Nguyen said that it's normal and just massage it nicely...

Yeah, I want to shout...

Crutchfree!

For the last couple days, I walked without crutches... Still with the boot.   Just last week this time, I was still hanging on the crutch or the knee scooter.   Last Thursday, after hopping my way from level 2 of the hospital's parking structure for an appt with Dr. Trong Nguyen's office, I was pretty tired and had to call Roy to rescue me.  During the office though, he thought that I can put more weight, standing as long as the boot is on.  The night before, I read a number of blogs about how much progress people has made, I had a bit more encouragement there from the doctor, and thus the next day, I decided to go to one crutch.  Phil (the physical therapist) was a bit surprised on Friday when I came in with only one crutch....

Then Monday, with a cane...

Then today, look Ma, no cane, no crutch.

I returned the knee scooter yesterday.  Almost 6 weeks!  -- Let just say it's 6 weeks ($210!)  If I were to buy that from Amazon, it would be $450 or so and I had to store it some where.  Just 2 weeks ago, that Roy made this seat for my knee that looks really nice... We keep the seat though.

In the shower, when I tried to apply some pressure to the left foot (the injured one), by gently standing on it, I felt the tight tendon, so I don't want to push that!

Phil thought that I could do 100% weight bearing after another week -- by doing calf raises...

My scar seems to be healing fine as well.  This one is the most recent, taken last night.  My leg looks like a chicken leg.  ew.

 

This is taken last week - on Monday or so, after I peeled off the tapes.

...

Another fellow ATR sufferer at the PT place today.  His surgery was about 4 weeks before mine.  He walked with a noticeable limp.  His first physical therapy appointment.   We joked that it seems that it's more common nowadays--must be because of Kobe Bryant..

Little things that helped..

The lady bug pillow pet was here yesterday.  I took a picture to send to Adrienne and Christne.  It's cute but a bit slippery, though well padded for my knee cap..

I strapped her to the saddle of the knee scooter.
Today I did an exercise of crutch walking -- to drive to Bruce's for some banana with Roy.  This is so that I can drive myself to physical therapy without waiting for ride.. I promise myself to be really careful and not to rush.  Don't want to hurt myself any more.

Last night, I've been restless.  It's like that every night... I had to suffer a bit in the beginning or middle of the nights.  Had bad dreams...   I hope this will pass..

Physical Therapy

Started physical therapy on Monday.  There was a fellow Achilles Tendon rupture sufferer there.  I looked as he walked back and forth in the room with hope.  He got the injury on 7/10 - a good 6weeks before I did.  And he's doing really well.  Walked with a limp but very well indeed.  Phil, the physical therapist, said that he is advanced beyond the normal recovery.  Give me hope that I can do that as well.

So today was the second day as well.  I was the only one there. Phil massaged and stretched my back calf and foot a bit, then I did leg lifts on both legs for a good 20 minutes+.  Then ice for 15'.  One day at a time...

I bought a lady bug pet pillow to see if I can use it to cushion the left knee as I scoot around the house.  My left knee is a big chaffed.   I should try to be careful and not doing much to get hurt again.

fellow sufferers

Guess there are more AT ruptures than I thought...
http://achillesblog.com/crutchman/top-10-achilles-tendon-ruptures-caught-on-tapevideo/

even after it happened, when I watched these videos, I can feel the whole experience again.  Ouch.

http://achillesblog.com/how-did-achillesblogcom-start/
.

Bad luck...did I offend a house god?

I thought I may want to capture the trauma, feelings and experience in my recovery of the tear of the left Achilles tendon.

A lot of times, I wondered if I could prevent the accident.  On August 29th, 2013, I was out watering the garden early one summer morning, 6-ish, after logging in to work to anticipate early meetings -- one of which I was the host.  I spotted this one guy who went around the neighborhood to collect heavy metal.  Ever since we remodeled, we put this rusty safe in the garage that I meant to get rid of, so I called out to him.  He said that he'll take a look.  So I sprang from the front yard to the house then the garage.  As I ran through the door, I swung the door back to close it and I felt a snap, then a pop.  I thought that was a strange noise.  At the same time, my left foot felt funny: it was as if the ground pushed up and I couldn't step on it.  So I hopped on one foot to open the garage door.  I talked to the guy while standing on one foot for about fewer than 5' and he took away the safe. So I then hopped back, got a pack of ice, then crawled upstairs and yelled out to Roy.  I told him that I got a sprained ankle.  I was not in pain. Just discomfort and couldn't walk.  So Roy suggested to go to the ER, so I did.

They kept me for 2 hours at the ER.  X-ray did not see any broken bones. The ER doctor suggested that I see an orthopedics surgeon.  He said that I had ruptured my Achilles tendon.   He gave me some name.

I went home.  Checked with the insurance.  Those names did not seem to be in the insurance PPO network.  So I checked for other names.  I recognized the doctor who had done the hip surgery for Roy 2 years back, 2011.  So I made an appointment to see him - at 2:30pm that day.

Naturally, I did a lot of online research to see what Achilles tendon rupture is about and the options for fixing it.  At the doctor's Dr. Trong Nguyen examined me and confirmed that I had Achilles tendon rupture (using the Thompson test) and suggested surgery.  So I agreed to one and it was arranged to be on Friday 9/6.

It was Labor Day weekend after the accident and before the surgery.  I couldn't do much, just pushed around the walker, feeling sad and frustrated.  Online research just made me feel more hopeless.

On the day of the surgery, we woke up early (9am is the scheduled time) - actually I have been up early because of the work schedule with meetings from all over the globe.  After a quick preparation, I was wheeled to the operating room and out even before they put me on the table.

An hour later, I was waken up and Roy took me home (on my walker!).  We got home and laid down on the couch and slept for a few hours.  I woke up in the afternoon, feeling so groggy.  Turned out that I had all the side effects of general anesthesia, being the ripe candidate:  female, non-smoker, prone to motion sickness.  Christine came back to see me, and while I was glad to see her, I couldn't do much, feeling miserable from all the nausea, vomit, sore throat, chills.   I did not feel better until 9-10 pm - a good 12 hours later.  A lesson to remember.

The weekend, Roy and I slept downstairs on the couch.  Quite uncomfortable, so we moved upstairs.  I bought a few items: a bag to cover the leg to allow me to take showers, foot rest to prop my leg up in bed.  I also rented a knee scooter, and that works good too.  I was quite restless at night.  But overall, it wasn't quite painful -- numb, stiff and may be sore back (from lying too much).

On Sunday of that week, I tripped on the stairs while going downstairs.  I was in quite a shock.  That night, my leg was all tingling - feeling electrical shock running up and down the left leg.    Calling the doctor's office on Monday, they suggested to just rest and wait until the post-op appt, which is the next day anyway.

On Tuesday, 9/17, my splint was out, and in with the boot.  It was so uncomfortable that night with the boot in bed.  It did not help that I worked late that night either.

Last night, 2nd night in the boot, I did feel much better.  It could be the wine or the acetaminophen that I took after dinner.  I did get to sleep a bit better.

Physical therapy starts on Monday.  I hope to be on a good road for recovery.  I want to be able to walk soon, and being active again.

The boot...