My Achilles Tendon – Final Thoughts (for now) · 22 May 2009
I survived a couple sessions of physical therapy for my Achilles tendon. They were not as bad as I thought they were going to be. I am sure that some of the reason was because I actually did the exercises the doctor told me to do. Some of it was because I have a good physical therapist. And some of it was because I waited to go until I had done lots of exercises to get stronger.
The unfortunate part about having a couple good physical therapy sessions is that I do not have any stories about the pain. I do not have any stories about feeling like I descended into a medieval dungeon to get stretched on the rack. I do not have any stories of overcoming great adversity. I am not complaining. I just did not get any great stories from visiting the physical therapist like I thought it would.
Even though I did not get any great stories from my visits to the physical therapist, I still have a few more thoughts about my whole Achilles tendon experience.
The most important thing that I learned is that being a weekend warrior is only for the young. My doctor said that if I want to play basketball again, I would need to exercise during the week to keep my ankles and tendons strong. Of course, I need to work up to that point since my Achilles did not get to do anything for a couple months. But I am up to the challenge. I can work to get my body stronger. I just need to put the video games away and get out of the house. (I do not wonder where the kids get that from.) And I need to exercise on a regular basis. More than once a week. The doctor said that I need to drill, drill, drill. So maybe I might even learn to play basketball, the game I got hurt playing.
The other important thing I learned is to not downplay the importance of some exercise or another. I told somebody that I did not like doing calf raises because I could never put enough weight on to feel like I was accomplishing anything. A couple months later, I got hurt. And the exercise that will help strengthen my hurt body is the same one that I downplayed. I guess that I do not need to worry about being able to put enough weight on the calf raise machine now. I can barely raise my own body weight with one calf. At least not the thirty or so times I am supposed to do.
The one thing that I do correctly and did correctly even before I got hurt is to listen to my body. I do not always follow its instructions, but I do listen. I hear when it hurts and usually do what is necessary to get rid of the aches and pains. I suppose that like with my Achilles tendon, there will be times when my body does not tell me there is anything wrong. But I will continue to listen. And hopefully, I will do a better job of doing what my body says than I have in the past.
I am not sorry that I did not get any horror stories from the physical therapist. And even though I would not wish an Achilles tendon rupture on anybody (especially myself), I am glad that I got a few stories out of the experience. I just hope that I never have to go through it all again. No matter how many stories I could get.
© 2009 Michael T. Miyoshi
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