The day finally arrived… my follow-up with my Orthopedic doctor on whether or not I was at a good point in my recovery to start running.
Since I would need to travel to his office, I woke up a little earlier than normal to give my faithful dog, Molly, time for her regular walk.
Following her walk… time for a quick breakfast… brush teeth and time to head down to the train station and a trip to the Medical Center and my much-anticipated follow-up appointment.
I arrive on time… and get immediately taken to a waiting room.
The PA arrives… she asks me how I’m doing and then wonders out loud how long post-surgery has this visit been. As she turns to the computer, I immediately speak out, ‘Today is 19 weeks and 1-day post-surgery.’
She turns around and gives me a somewhat surprised look.
‘I checked last night’, I state. She smiles and takes what I said as solid truth.
She asks me to remove both shoes and socks, and then after a quick inspection, asks me to turn about and lay on my stomach. She then squeezes my calf to check on my response… first the ‘good’ ankle and then the surgically repaired version.
‘Very good!’ she exclaims. ‘Your ankle is responding very well and is exactly where we expect it to be’.
Good news!
Returning to a seated position, she commences to ask me a series of questions…
- How do I feel?
- Any pain?
- How is my physical therapy coming along?
- Any questions?
I basically had 1 comment I wanted to bring up… and this involved the feeling of ‘pins & needles’ pain I experienced quite significantly following the removal of my walking boot, but with additional physical therapy and daily park walks of 3+ miles over the past 2+ months, these specific feelings have been experienced less and less.
She responds that such pains are normal… basically the nerves reconnecting/finding their pathways again.
She gets up from her chair… and then pauses, turns back toward me smiling and saying, ‘You are doing very good! You need to be proud of what you’ve accomplished during your recovery. I’ll get your surgeon for his review/comments.’
She leaves my room and I find myself with large smile on my face too. My recovery was hard… between the injury itself to surgery to the initial splint to the follow-up cast to the walking boot to no boot/get stronger. Each step in my recovery had its own challenges.
Alone I wait for about 10 minutes until a gentle knock on the door, and in walks my orthopedic surgeon.
He also has a big smile.
The first words out of his mouth are also ones of congratulations. He states that he knows how hard these past 19 weeks have been and that I should be proud of what I’ve accomplished.
During my early January appointment- the appointment where my walking boot was permanently removed, i.e. ‘booted’- I made him aware of my plans to have a half marathon ‘comeback race’ at the end of October. He remembered this goal and asked me if I wanted to start training for my October race.
I think my exact words were ‘You’re darn tootin’ I am!’
His smile got a little bigger.
He sat down and reminded me of the type of injury I had. My ruptured Achilles- while severe- was a 70% rupture of the tendon to the bone. The 2 worse scenarios involving an Achille injury were either a 100% rupture from the bone or an intramuscular rupture. These 2 Achilles tendon ruptures would require a much longer recovery time. However, mine has a relatively shorter recovery time.
Then the words I was hoping for were uttered… “Ken, based upon your hard work in your recovery, I am releasing you from my care. You may now run without restrictions. Start training for your half marathon… call if you have any questions… and I wish you the best of luck.”
Halleluia!
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!
For the ‘first time in forever’, I have the green light to run again!
Let the training begin!
Let’s talk! Email me at RupturedRunner@gmail.com
Ruptured Runner 
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