… I am not getting comfortable and don’t take the easy road in life.

What happened?

Sunday I decided to participate at the Handball practice with the boys (NZ National team) who are preparing for the World Championship qualifiers. After almost a year of hard work in the gym and 3 months of preparation for the 6.5km Round the Bays event, I am probably in the best shape since 7 years.

The beginning of the Training went really well, I felt well, I was very euphoric about my extreme good condition and enjoyed each bit of it, I even was able to push for a few things that I didn’t do in ages. Then we went to fastbreaks, I sprinted down the court, caught the ball, jumped and throw the ball as hard as I could, all seemed perfect. I landed, turned around and wanted to sprint back to the middle line. Then something happened. I felt something on my right heel. First I thought some of the guys who was standing in that corner of the court thrown a ball and hit my right heel, so while laying on the ground and holding my foot, being slightly in pain, I turned around and said with an angry voice “Who the fuck throw a ball at me”. All the guys looked at me more puzzled as anything else and one of them said “Nobody”. In this moment I knew something happened that I won’t like. So I checked my ankle and it seem fine, but then I realised that there was something missing in the back of my foot – called the Achilles tendon. So I checked my other foot to compare and confirmed, my Achilles tendon seemed to have disappeared.
My first thought was “When can I be back on court playing after a torn Achilles tendon?” … so immediately I thought of a couple of people I knew who had that injury – one of them was Kobe Bryant. So I realized I am looking here at 9-12 months recovery. With this information in my head, I actually just tried to start planning the rehab phase :-).
So I called my physio who lives not far from the Sports Centre and asked him if he could come over as this little accident might be a bit more serious and lucky me, he came straight over. He checked my leg/foot and was pretty certain to confirm torn Achilles tendon.

Plan of attack – going to the hospital to see if they start treating me – let’s say their reputation of patience care and service isn’t the best, so my Physio provided Plan B to see him in the morning and go from there. So I turned up at the Emergency Centre at the Wellington Hospital and surprisingly a nurse (Nurse Jaquie, a hottie, just saying) called me in very shortly, and took my details regarding the accident and potential injury. Then she informed me that there is at least 3.5to 5 hours waiting time before I doctor will see me (that was around 9pm). So even she suggested to go home and come back in the morning. How could I say no to a hot nurse like Jacqui? 😉
Next morning, my friend Matthias came over to pick me up, and drove me first to my physio (Gavin) and then to the hospital (Thanks Gavin for getting me an emergency appointment there!). Arriving there, again surprisingly quickly, I was called into the treatment room and after a few questions by a nurse and a short check (pinch test) of my Achilles tendon, she informed me that there are two other patients before me. So the waiting began – thanks Matthias for putting up with that.
Then after roughly 90 minutes the Junior Doctor came and again asked me some questions and doing the pinch test and advised he things it’s just a partial rupture because he could feel something still left. (by the way – my Physio felt the same but he assumes that this is the tendon from my big toe). Anyway the Junior Doctor advised that it doesnt matter if completely ruptured or partially, the treatment will be the same – foot in a cast. I asked him to do a Ultrasound or MRI, but again he advised me that this wouldn’t change the treatment plan. I made him aware that I did some research the night before and through multiple opinions it was clear that some say a conservative approach – just a cast and a special boot – would be always the first choice. Some other said surgery. What I took from it, is that it probably depends on the circumstances, means if the lose tendons are close a conservative approach is preferable, if they are reasonable far away from each other then a surgery is almost a must.
So back to the Doctor – he listened, nodded and then he said “Hmmm probably you know then me, but our treatment stays the same”. I found that very odd that a doctor told me (it seemed he meant it too) that I probably know more than him.Not sure if I felt good treated but I knew that my foot needed some kind of treatment (fixed position) no matter what.
So I got a cast and lots of instructions … roughly 30 hours after the accident happened.

Now I am looking at first to 2 weeks of cast, then I will see the Doctor again and we’ll go from there 🙂
I’ll do some more research and will see what I can dig out … taking Kobe Bryant as an inspiration – he made it back on the court in 9 months after his torn Achilles tendon, so I’ll aim for 9-10 months too. Determination, patience and positiveness will get me there – I know that and I believe in that! End of Story … 58 hours done – 275 days to go (~6600 hours).

Life will teach me a couple of new lesson:
1) patience
2) determination

Let’s bring it on!