A Minnesota man is getting closer to enjoying some of his favorite activities once again after a tough injury earlier this summer.
From hunting, to playing sports, to spending time with his kids, Ben Nath has an active lifestyle.
He was playing softball this summer when the unexpected happened.
“We were halfway through the game, playing short stop and there was a shallow fly ball to center field, and I ran out, caught it, and quick threw it in, kind of back pedaled a couple of steps, and I planted to take off and run back in and my foot just popped. I felt it pop, I fell over and buckled, looked down and thought ‘is my leg broken,’ something is definitely wrong,” Avera patient, Ben Nath said. “It was still in the right position so right away I thought it has to be something with my Achilles, calf, somewhere in there.”
The next day he went to the hospital. That’s when Kevin Mahoney, DPM, explained he had ruptured his Achilles tendon and it would need to be repaired surgically.
“We can use what we call bone anchors or soft tissue anchors to help anchor it back into the heel bone, also known as calcaneus, and those newer technologies allow us to speed up the rehab process, be a little more aggressive with rehab, get them back to sport activities a little sooner, and also helps prevent future injury or re-injury,” said Mahoney, podiatrist and foot and ankle surgeon with Avera Orthopedics in Marshall, MN.
“Did the surgery and then I was in an annoying splint for a week that was not very comfortable and then I went back to a walking boot for another month with crutches and then I was in that walking boot without crutches for another month, about three or four weeks without anything and then walking in a regular shoe,” Nath said.
So how common is this type of injury?
“Tends to fall under a certain age range and activity range, and kind of the joke in textbooks is the weekend warrior injury, so people who maybe used to be very active athletes that still do it, but maybe only occasionally on the weekends is sort of the stereotypical injury, so like in Ben’s case, slow pitch softball, we see a lot of basketball, volleyball injuries, a lot of running and jumping activities will be more prone to that type of injury,” Mahoney said.
While Nath is still in the recovery process, he notices improvement each day.
“Every day it gets a little better, with how my flexibility or strength is, I can start to run and jump but it’s still weak,” Nath said.
Mahoney says it’s about one full year for a complete recovery. Until then, Nath is taking precautions, but still enjoying what he is able to do despite his injury.
“I’ve had to be careful on how I hunt, I have a couple ponds where I can pretty much hunt from shore and I bought an extended pole so I can throw decoys within 10 feet and then pull them back in, I have a dog that will retrieve them and I’ve taken my son hunting a couple times and he helps pack things up and carry things out so I don’t have to make as many trips,” Nath said.
“Our whole goal is to get people back to moving and in foot and ankle surgery that’s kind of all we do. Your feet and ankles take you everywhere you go, so trying to get people back to the activities they enjoy or the activities they have to do, in both cases is very rewarding,” Mahoney said.
The technique used to repair Nath’s ruptured Achilles tendon is the same used for NFL player Aaron Rodgers who got injured earlier this season.
