May 3rd: The Surgery

I woke up at 6am and was driven by my parents to the hospital in NYC to get prepped for surgery.  I had several questions for the anesthesiologists.  My biggest concerns were waking up during surgery and not waking up, period.

Meeting the anesthesiologists

Two anesthesiologists walked into the waiting room to greet me.  The first was a well put-together man in his 30′s who looked educated and ready to answer all of our questions.  The second was a disheveled woman, definitely in her 50′s, pushing 60, with frizzy hair, googly eyes, and skin that had been lifted from the lobby to the penthouse.  This is the closest thing I could find to explain what the anesthesiologist looked like:

She slurred every word of her much anticipated intro, “Herrlooo thauyre, haveeshhsh youaa evuhrrr gone unduhrrr buuhforee?  I replied, “What the…Mom?”  The other anesthesiologist stepped in, answered all of the questions we had about getting put under, and we continued the prep…

May 1st: In the moon boot until surgery

They put me in a boot to stabilize the affected area and take all weight off the foot.  This state of having no weight on the foot is called “non weight bearing” by the pros, or NWB.  Also part of the orthopedic vernacular is “partial weight bearing”, PWB, and “full weight bearing”, FWB.  It’s pretty sad to be NWB.  Here’s what the boot of a recent NWB patient looks like:

Non Weight Bearing Orthopedic Boot

You’ll notice that the boot starts below the knee, so I still had a pretty good range of motion when flexing my knee.  There is also a comfy liner under the external cage that makes that boot more bearable to be wearing 24-7.  Crutches take some time getting used to.  If you have decent coordination it should be natural.  Watch out for chafing just below the armpits and chafing on your palms from gripping hard.

April 30th: Diagnosis at the Hospital for Special Surgery, NYC

I met with Dr. (name left out for now) at the Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York, NY.  Read more about HSS at http://www.hss.edu/.  HSS is considered by many to be the world’s best specialty hospital for orthopedics and rheumatology.  As soon as I walked in I knew the place was professional evidenced by jerseys of pro athletes hanging from the walls in neat glass frames.

The doctor looked at my calf, performed a Thomson’s Test just as the the doctor had at the ER, and recommended surgery within 5 minutes.  We went over the pros and the cons of surgery.  The pros – quicker healing, shorter rehab time frame (could be the difference between 2 months and 5 months in some cases), higher quality of healing in the tendon, better chance of playing sports again period.  The cons – chance of post-operative infection, chance of post-operative blood clots, chance of injury to the sural nerve during surgery.  The sural nerve is often referred to as any of a series of nerves in the lower calf that run the length of the tibia.  Their purpose is to send sensory data messages from the receptors in the lower foot, up the leg, and to the brain to allow proper motor function.  (For more information on the sural nerve and surgery – http://ajs.sagepub.com/content/34/5/793.abstract)

I’m neurotic, so I asked a million questions and posed scenarios for how I could die in surgery or worse, wake up from surgery to find they amputated my leg because “something went wrong” during surgery.  I debated just telling him to finish me if they had to amputate.

I chose the surgery.  The date and time were set for Monday, May 3 at 8:30 am, at the HSS clinic in NYC.  Prep started at 7:30am, so I left the house at 6am.

April 29th: My first splint, home from the ER at 4am

I was in no pain by the time I got home from the ER.  There was minor swelling, but really I was just feeling the awkwardness of having a foot that was disconnected from my leg.

April 28th, 2010: The moment my achilles tendon ruptured

Leading up to the accident

In the week leading up to the accident I had just started to get back into “basketball” shape, playing in my first “open run” since college (2005) at the local JCC.  Running on a treadmill 3 days a week at 8.0 mph is NOT the same as playing full court basketball, especially when the winner stays on.  I lasted two consecutive games to 15 points, and when it was over I held onto the water fountain for dear life.  I decided to practice getting my hoops legs back by shooting around every day leading up to the next game…

When I got to the gym early on April 28th I was feeling real good.  My jumpshot was looking nice again – others have said that it “resembles a lazer,” “has no arc,” and “doesn’t belong on the court,” but I think it’s nice.  I’m 5’8″ and 168lbs, so a low ceiling for my basketball potential was constructed in the 8th grade.

The teams were made and we took to the court with hopes of staying on the court all night.  In the third game I felt strong but I had a bit of soreness in both tendons – nothing out of the ordinary.  Then, after our team scored point 12, I started jogging back in a straight line to play some defense…

The sound of the achilles rupture

I was simply jogging, that’s all.  No explosive step to the basket or awkward hedge around a screen.  The best way I can describe the sound of an achilles tendon rupture is the POP! you hear when you smash a racketball as hard as you can.  It’s not a whack on the neck, it’s not a cracking sound, it’s that POP!  The achilles tendon is often described as a big rubber band, and when the band snaps, it can make a loud sound.  This isn’t the case for everyone, but it was the case for me.  When I heard the pop, my first instinct was to yell at someone for throwing a basketball on the court.  Before I could yell, I collapsed to the gym floor like I got shot in the ankle.  It felt like my foot was detached from the rest of my leg.

My pal Andrew (who was lighting it up that night) dropped me off at home and my dad took me to the ER at Overlook Hospital in Summit, NJ.  The diagnosis took less than 10 seconds.  I was asked to lie on my stomach, and the doctor squeezed my calf muscle.  When he saw there was no tension in my achilles tendon, it was diagnosed as a “Full Achilles Tendon Rupture.”

Here is a link to a short video that shows the Thompson’s Test that was used to diagnose my injury on the spot that night: http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/back/achilles/totalrupture/1-thompsons_test.php

I got home from the ER at 4:00 am.  This is my first breakfast in my splint, Thursday morning:

Eating breakfast and posing the splint for the first time

The Achilles Tendon Rupture Blog – introduction

About me and the injury

My name is Andrew Tucker.  I’m 25 years old and I tore my achilles tendon (full rupture) April 28th, 2010 playing basketball in your typical pick-up league.  I have always been active – I played soccer and lacrosse for 4 years in high school, worked-out all through college, and continued working out at least 3 days a week, lifting, running, and playing sports up until I tore my achilles.  You will find out in reading this blog that you DO NOT have to sink into a couch-ridden melancholy stupor for 6 months (although these times will come in the beginning).  I have been staying active and fit in my first 5 weeks, and I’ll explain how in posts to come.

The purpose of the blog

I will use my words and some images to describe what has happened since the tear (Weeks 1-4), and I will be posting videos every week to document my rehab from Week 5 until I am playing sports at FULL SPEED again.  For those of you in rehab like me, for those of you who just ruptured your achilles, and for those who are simply interested in reading, expect this blog to be as honest and descriptive as humanly possible.  I hope it serves to answer any questions you have about the achilles rupture, the surgery, the rehab, and everything else in between.

Thank you for following, and if you have any questions that you want to ask in confidence, email me at atucker1785@gmail.com.