All right, the tennis season is over for me. Prematurely. I had a "big match" set up for Friday evening a week or two ago. What do you do to get better? You practice.
So the Monday before the match I was playing a practice match, it was hot, like one hundred degrees hot. It was humid, like, 90% humid.
So there I was, back, on the ad-court side. A well placed passing shot was hit diagonally cross court. It would've been hard to get to, but a little hustle would do the trick. As soon as I took off, I felt a "pop" dead center in the middle of my calf muscle. My leg gave out and I hit the court. Of course it's embarrassing because everyone within a court or two comes rushing over to make sure I'm not dead.
After a minute or two lying on the 150° court surface I tried to stand and couldn't put any weight on it. I chilled on the sideline for a while, in a lot of pain, but thinking I just had a bad cramp or something. After about an hour however I knew something was wrong and a trip the emergency room was in order.
So after a follow-up visit to a sports orthopedic doctor it turns out I had a "partial tear in my medial gastroc". Sounds impressive, but apparently no big deal. The big deal however is that if it tears anymore, it means surgery.
Consulting the diagram to the left you can see the smaller of the two calf muscles, the Medial Gastrocnemius. See where it meets the white Achilles Tendon? That's where my tear is. If it tears the rest of the way, the tendon and muscle separate entirely and that's not good.
So for the next 4-12 weeks I have this huge, immobilizing power-armored moon-boot that prevents my ankle from any motion. It's quite awkward actually.
The main reason I've been playing tennis these last few months is to get exercise. As you can see from the photo (a sad commentary when you're taking a photo of yourself in the ER because you know you're eventually going to blog about it) I don't have abs of steel, but I can't help but think that if I had just stayed home that night, laying on the couch, enjoying a beverage, and watching television this wouldn't have happened.
Mind you, with that plan of action I'd just be in the ER with a heart attack ten years from now.
