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
Full Achilles Rupture 