This is why men have a mid life crisis

Once again I am forced to acknowledge that my body can't do what I'd like it to do. While playing flag football with my elder's quorum and some friends my Achilles tendon decided that I didn't have enough opposition in my life and once again, I needed to learn patience. :] The Achilles rarely ruptures after a hit or "twisting wrong". On the contrary, it usually ruptures when you are running or starting/stopping quickly.

Dave said "hike" and I started to run, it felt like someone kicked the back of my foot and when I whipped my head around looking for the guilty party and saw no one, I knew exactly what that meant. Sometimes having medical knowledge isn't the greatest, there is something to be said for long ER waiting room visits that end with complicated medical terms you can't explain to your family. You can at least have hope that it is something minor even though all evidence suggests otherwise. I couldn't use denial at all. A few orthopedic tests and one incredibly 'gushy' tendon and I knew more than I wanted to.

On the flip side I called 2 of my orthopedic surgeon friends, got an appointment first thing in the morning on the next business day and will have surgery in the coming week regardless of what their skiing plans were.

Prognosis: This will absolutely be another lesson in patience as I will be on crutches for 2-3 months, a normal shower will become an acrobatic event involving plastic bags/shower chair, and my little 2 year old won't be able to figure out why I don't carry her up the stairs.

All things considered I am extremely grateful that we have options like a surgical repair and I think I know of a killer physical therapy office to rehab my injury in, with incredibly friendly staff. Also, the only real pain I have is in my right shoulder after pulling a muscle while using the blasted crutches!! I am in good spirits, which is more than I can say for my best friend Dave, he just lost his favorite target. Many of you may not know that we get up early 2-3x/week just to go practice running routes and drawing up trick pass plays. Yes, we are most juvenile 28-29 year old on the planet, but we have most fun too (and probably have one of the strongest friendships too).

As for my football career as a weekend warrior, both my father and Kenna have officially declared it over. Could someone please retire the number "9" so I feel a little better about that?

For the curious, here is some additional info on my type of injury:

http://arthroscopy.com/sp09009.htm