Previous Achilles tendon post

At the end of eight weeks I had to attend the Hospital for a check up. I was hoping I could finally do without the Aircast boot. I had been increasing the amount of weight I was putting on my foot after the sixth week.

I was concerned that when I took the boot off in the evenings my foot and ankle were still very swollen. The doctor checked the scar and the area around ankle and I asked about the swelling. He told me the swelling was normal and not to worry about it. I then had to kneel on a chair so he could squeeze my calf muscle, this should cause my foot to twitch. This is apparently the way to test for tendon rupture. If the tendon has snapped then the foot will not twitch.

Unfortunately my foot did not twitch. The Doctor was concerned that it had not knitted together properly so the boot had to go back on until an ultra sound scan could be booked.

Just over a week later I finally got my scan. It showed that due to the tendon rupturing for the second time it was healing abnormally. It was this that was causing the swelling at the back of my ankle.  I had to take things easy for a further two weeks then start gentle physiotherapy. The Doctors decided the lack of foot twitching was due to the tendon being stiff.

The physio was difficult at first and made my tendon and calf ache. I supplemented the exercises with ever-longer walks. Slowly things returned to normal.

I was finally given the all clear by the hospital Doctors last week so I don’t have to attend any further clinics. (Hooray!)

I do still have to continue with physiotherapy until there is sufficient strength in my tendon for me to stand on one foot and raise myself up onto my toes (I cannot do that yet).

I find that after eight months I am nearly back to normal (How often do you stand on one leg and raise up on your toes?) The only adverse effect is I have a limp for the first few hundred yards or so when I walk. Once the tendon warms up I can walk without a limp. I am also paranoid about it going again so I am very careful.

One moral from my sorry tale? If you feel as though you have been kicked in the ankle, it is very painful and  comes up in a bruise. Don’t assume you were kicked and leave it to get better on it’s own. Go to the Doctor immediately. The sooner treatment starts the easier it will be.

Help wanted! I have got stuck with my family trees. I have gone as far back as possible and have now hit a wall (perhaps more a mist of time?) I would really appreciate it if you could look at my trees and see if they relate to your family. Even if you link to the tree way back perhaps you can verify what I have done and push them back a generation or two?

The Rapley family tree goes back to George Rapley 1678 the Osborne one to Thomas Osborne 1705.

If you would like a copy of my family trees to include in what you have already produced you are very welcome. If you have a tree which links into mine please send it to me so I can build it in and get a better family picture.

My trees are here

Rapley

Osborne

I was putting the word count for Guardian Generations on each posting so it is with great pleasure I can now inform you ITS FINISHED and with the publisher for review.

Wow two posts in one day. I need to lie down!

As a follow on from my previous Avatar post I have been paying attention to how science fiction writers and script writers refer to aliens.

It would seem that the majority refer to alien races. Check out Startrek for instance the term ‘human or alien race’ is common and widely used.

So… are they wrong? I think so. Race to me means an infinitesimal genetic difference. No more than the difference between blue or brown eyes, black or blonde hair. The convention seems to be us as humans consist of different races where the only difference is skin colour or facial features. We are all genetically compatible the same family or species.

Aliens would not be genetically compatible with us. They would have evolved on a different planet and environment therefore an alien would surly be a different species?

If we follow what seems to be the generally held SciFi writers convention then Whales or Goldfinches are a race when they are in fact a separate species. Therefore there is no such thing as an Alien race the two terms are mutually exclusive.

The majority of  Science Fiction writers are therefore wrong!

As a member of the Human species what do you think?

Have you seen the film Avatar yet? If not then I would strongly suggest that you do. The film personally blew me away and I intend to go and see it again very soon.

I was idly surfing the net when I stumbled across a review, which really slated it.  (Avatar Review) I was so surprised I had to read it twice! As far as I was concerned the reviewer read way too much into the film that is after all only a science fiction story and good entertainment. There is an obvious undertone of Conservationism in Avatar with a message against our continuing destruction of our environment for commercial gain but it did not detract from the entertainment value in my opinion. However the reviewer above read something entirely different in the film.

He slated it for pandering to racial stereotypes but to my mind the reviewer was the one who came across as being bigoted and narrow-minded. I did consider adding a comment to his blog along the lines of  ‘This is a Science FICTION film for heavens sake, a story for entertainment.’ But on second thoughts someone with opinions so extreme probably has a closed mind and I would just be wasting my time.

What do you think, do you agree with the reviewer or is he way over the top?

One thing that did stand out for me was the remark regarding one line in the film where Col. Quarich turns to Jake and snarls “You don’t want to be a traitor to your race.” It should of course have been “Species”

In my fictional universe where the Guardian books are set, the original people called Lantians found them selves alone. A majority faction hit on the idea of taking the most evolved species on a habitable planet and mixing their genes with Lantian genes to produce sentient beings, a synthetic race.

I have called them all different races as apposed to different species. I have done that because they are all genetically compatible to the original Lantians. They are however not compatible with each other (That was the way the Lantians designed them) So I wonder if perhaps I should have called them different species?

But then my books are only Science FICTION written for entertainment and a good read so it does not matter anyway!

Still, I hope that reviewer never reads one of my books!

Just my luck, no sooner had I posted my last blog then my tendon ruptured again!

I thought it might be useful to post my experience in the hope that it might prevent the same thing happening to someone else.

The tendon in my right leg first went while I was on the dance floor at my daughters wedding. It felt like some one had kicked me in the ankle. As I was in a crowded area   that is what I thought had happened.

I hobbled about for a few days afterwards hoping it would get better. Unfortunately it did not. In fact once the numbness started to wear off  the pain got worse. I booked an appointment with my local GP. He saw me three days later and referred me for a scan. He told me that if it had torn then it would be plaster for eight weeks, if it was broken then I would need an operation. It was a further ten days before the scan appointment. This confirmed that I had ruptured my Achilles tendon and it had pulled away about half a centimetre.

I was referred to my local fracture clinic. It was to be another week before my appointment date at the clinic. The doctor at the clinic told me that yes I had snapped my tendon and the best treatment was eight weeks in plaster with my foot pointing down. (I asked why not an operation as my GP had suggested and was told that they don’t normally operate for that type of injury). Every few weeks I had to go back and have the plaster replaced with my foot being increasingly raised to the flat position. During this time I could not put any weight on my foot.

Two weeks after the plaster was removed I was getting out of my son’s car when it snapped again. I could not believe it! The pain was awful, it made my eyes water to say the least.

This time I went straight to A&E. They put me in plaster and referred me back to the fracture clinic the next day.

The following day at the fracture clinic I saw a different doctor. He immediately said I had to have an operation. He seemed surprised that I had not had an operation in the first place. When I discussed the situation with him he told me that the plaster treatment on it’s own will only reliably work if the foot is put in plaster WITHIN 48 HOURS of the injury. In my case nearly a month had passed before my treatment was started

It is now nearly four weeks since my operation. I have another four weeks to go with plaster on my foot before I can put any weight on it.

So if you snap your Achilles tendon and you get immediate treatment then the non-invasive plaster regime should work for you.

If there is a delay before you get it treated ensure that you get it operated on. If you don’t you may well end up like me going through the whole bloody thing for a second time!

Still this time I have purchased a Mac PowerBook so I can write with it on my lap while my leg is raised.

So Guardian two is now at 29670 words.