On Wednesday March 31 I was working out with Andrew Brown, Ashleigh and Heather when Avynlea FaceTimed me from the Stake Center saying that Kefford possibly tore his Achilles and the leaders wanted me to come and get him to take him to get checked. I immediately turned off my computer, changed my clothes and hopped in the car to go get him. When I got there I could see he was in pain and he was super pale but he was able to hobble out to the car. Once in the car he told me just to go home, he didn't want to go to the ER and he needed time without a bunch of people in his face to figure out what he wanted to do. 11 years ago he tore his Right Achilles and so he knew exactly what happened when he was shooting some hoops and felt a tear and heard a loud pop. He called out friend Adam Cope who is a PT and helped him the last time this happened and Adam told him it sounded like he did it again and he needed to be seen. We decided to go with Kurt Kinghorn who repaired Kenedy's bunion but the only available time he had was Friday morning. When we went in Dr Kinghorn examined him and confirmed what Kefford already knew, it was torn and he needed to have surgery. His surgery was scheduled for the next Tuesday, April 6th and he put Kefford in a boot and told him to stay off of it.
Kefford had a pretty good bruise and had some minor swelling and he had to spend the next couple of days with it elevated and off of it. The good Dr told him to keep the boot on but as soon as we got home Kefford took the boot off and left it off all weekend.
On Tuesday I dropped him off for his surgery at noon and then went to Lana's to have her help me design Ryker's Grad announcement while I waited for the phone call to pick Kefford up. When I arrived to pick him up they had him dressed and ready to go. I got all of the paperwork and was told medication instructions and how to help him. It was pretty overwhelming but I had to be up for the challenge. For the next week I helped Kefford with his medications and anything else he needed. He was a good patient and mostly stayed in bed with his foot elevated.
When we went in for his post-op on April 9th Dr Kinghrn told him that everything looked good and told us what he saw while in surgery, He said that his achilles was completely ruptured and it looked like mop ends. He had to trim them to make them even and pulled them together and attached them as well as he could. He said the final product had an hour glass shape which was not going to be very sturdy so he got a graft jacket (cartilage) from a donor and reenforced his achilles. Pretty crazy and I hope that it is strong enough to not have another rupture ever again.
On April 23 Kefford had another Dr's appointment and this one to to check on it, make sure it was healing properly and to take out the stitches. He had to keep his foot in the boot and not take it out at all up to this appointment and so when it was taken out and we saw his foot we were pretty surprised. His foot was so swollen and bruised and basically looked like a potato. The stitches got taken out and Kefford was given permission to do some light hobbling around on his foot. He still needed to stay mostly off I think but he could do a little bit more movement. He has another appointment in a couple of weeks and hopefully everything continues to look good and his achilles heals quick and strong.
