Mike R

I tore my Achilles' tendon in mid-January. They did x-rays and an MRI at the hospital, and I was told it's only a partial tear, so they didn't do surgery. I was put in a splint for about six weeks, and now I've been in an air cast for about a week and I have a follow-up appointment with the orthopedist in two more weeks. The orthopedist said after my next appointment that I probably should be ready to start physical therapy. I've been on crutches since the injury and haven't put weight on it. It's still quite swollen, though (my whole foot, actually), and I've noticed an occasional tingling sensation but otherwise almost no pain.

So, my question is, for anyone who's had this injury: What type of physical therapy should I expect?

Obviously, I want to make sure I do the right thing, so I don't re-injure anything, and I plan on asking the physical therapist about prevention and proper footwear as well as making sure this injury heals properly. But since I've never had this injury before, I'm not sure what to expect as far as recovery. (My orthopedist seems competent enough, but he's not the most talkative doctor ever...)

Next month I am flying from Boston-Rome on Aer Lingus, with about eight hours connection time in the Dublin Airport. Is this enough time to get into the city center for a couple of hours? I see there are a couple of bus lines from airport to city center, and it appears they run fairly frequently with a 30-40 minute travel time; has anyone done this before? Is this information accurate? And if it's true that this would leave enough time to see Dublin for a couple hours or so, what should I do/see? Even if it's only to stop at a pub for a Guinness, I'm happy doing that, but if there's anything else I should experience in Dublin for a couple hours, what should I do?

How much would it cost to have a suede jacket professionally dry cleaned in Boston? I know it's expensive... and my normal dry cleaners (in Brighton) said it would cost $50 and although I trust them to do a good job (I've taken my shirts and suits there for years and love them for cleaning and alterations), I'm not sure what a reasonable price is. Their prices for other cleanings are average to just above average (worth it for excellent service) but I want to know if that's a reasonable price or if I'm getting ripped off. Thanks in advance!

I will be in Toronto for three days the weekend of September 24-26. The Harbourfront marathon is that Sunday and I'm running the half marathon part of it, but will have most of Friday and all day Saturday to see Toronto. I would like to see a Blue Jays game (I'm a diehard Baltimore Orioles fan and they're playing in Toronto that weekend) - is it easy to get last minute tickets or should I get tickets online in advance? I'm not sure how much that stadium sells out. I also would like to see the Ontario parliament building since I work in state government in the US - I always like to see state houses and provincial parliament buildings. Is that worthwhile? And also what else should I see/do in Toronto? I've only heard good things and am very excited about visiting. Thanks in advance for any advice.

I just found a prescription that I was given in Feb. 2006 for Epipen that I never got filled - I had forgotten about it until I was just cleaning my desk drawer. Can I still get it filled or do I have to ask my doctor for another? Just wondering if the pharmacy will care about the date on it. Obviously it's not urgent but I should have an Epipen with me - I'm allergic to bees and now that it's summer I want to get it filled.

I download the installer and it goes through the installation process and tells me that the installation process is complete and that I should now be able to use Yahoo Messenger. However, it does not put an icon to open Yahoo Messenger on my desktop... if I click on the installer thing again it just goes through the installation process again. So I must have Yahoo Messenger but I can't figure out where it is?

Actually, I tried installing it and it put this icon on my desktop. Every time I click on the icon, it just starts the installation process over again and it doesn't seem to finish the installation process. There is nohwere for me to even enter my Yahoo ID or anything. It's doing this with both versions 7.5 and 8