[jorian]

I did mine 10 years ago. Ruptured playing basketball. Made a quick brake for the hoop and it snapped. Took a step and fell on my face. It felt like someone hit me across the ankle with a two by four. Hurt like hell for about 30 mins.

I was in the US at the time and went to a US hospital. They stabilized it for me and I drove home to have the surgery back in Canada. I think I had to wait about 4 days for the swelling to go down. I had the percutaneous surgery - several small incisions rather than one large one. I hobbled around for about 6 weeks in a cast. Got back to active sports within about 6 months but it has never felt the same. I hear that the surgery is optional now.

The guy in the bed next to me also snapped his. He was driving and saw a woman stalled in the intersection. He got out and helped her push the car off the road and you guessed it, snapped his achilles. No good deed goes unpunished....

I hope things go well for you. One thing I would do differently is increase the amount of physio I did. I got lazy with it and returned to sports a bit early. My ankle never regained 100% full range of motion.