11-Day Check Up

Day 11, and I had my first visit with the Doc since surgery. He said that everything was O.K. after my little stunt yesterday. I had my soft splint and about 15 staples removed. The staples were surprisingly painless as the tech removed them from the incision site. I figured removing staples would hurt like hell, but no...painless. It felt great to have fresh air on my lower leg, and I was able to massage down to my ankle. God that felt good!

I talked the Doc into letting me wear the boot instead of getting casted. I wear the boot for 4-weeks and then get and adjustment to my foot angle every 2-weeks after that. "Frankenboot" as I've heard other blogs call it, is a rather beastly looking contraption. The best part of the boot is....I can take it off to shower. A clean fresh smelling lower leg and foot?....Yeah Baby!!

The physician assistant ask me if I've ever had any problems with the ankle prior to the rupture; tendonitits, etc. They see 6 to 7 Achilles ruptures a year at their office and they were studying why. I sprained my ankle over 20-years ago, ran a 1/2 marathon in May 2008 (ton of run time prior to the event), but no other problems prior. I wonder if the 200-miles of running starting in January had something to do with it. I never had any Achilles problems, just shin splints. So...it was a freak thing...it just popped when I pushed off on my right foot. He also said the best therapy is walking on it, but I'm several weeks away from that.

I hope to finish the Colfax Marathon in Denver in May. Cross your fingers.


August 15th: rupture day
August 15th: surgery day
August 26th: soft splint off, boot on.