Achilles Tendinitis

AndiJoy812

Anyone else suffering from this?

I've been tentatively diagnosed with this, but there has not been much follow up from my doc, other than "this is what you have."

Chronic pain/inflamation in my left Achilles, and it does not matter what I am doing. Nothing helps the pain - it's just there. Starting to wear on my nerves a bit.

My typical exercise routine is walking. I walk 3 times per week in my neighborhood. It is 2.3 miles, and is very hilly. I have rested from the exercise - took two weeks off, and it didn't make a difference. Walking actually seems to help - it feels much more mobile afterwards. However, during rest or normal activities it is pretty painful - stretching seems to help.

Going to call my Doc this week for another appt to see if there is anything else I can be doing. Physical therapy? Brace? I HATE taking meds, but at this point in time, I wouldn't mind doing whatever it takes to dull the pain. Feels like someone is sticking a knife into the back of my heel.

Have a friend (who is in her 60's) who also had this and she said it took her three years to recover. Three years???

Anyone? Any advice/input? I have lost 68 pounds since early Feb. Walking is my thing...and I honestly don't know if there is anything else that I could be doing (besides swimming, which is not an option) that is as low impact as walking, that still keeps me up and moving.

AndiJoy812

Bumping for the Monday afternoon crowd...

KelseyPalmtree

I got this REALLY bad my senior year of high school. I tried to push through it, because it was the beginning of basketball season, and I didn't want to miss any games. Got to a point where during warm ups for a game I was nearly crying it hurt so bad. One of my friends/teammates pulled me out of warm ups.

It's really painful, I know. And can be a huge pain in the *kitten*. I took about two weeks off from both basketball, and club volleyball to let it heal. Rest was really important, but it wasn't the only think I did to help get rid of it. Here's some of the things I did:

Rest - I know you've tried this, but even if it doesn't seem like it's working, it's helping.

Ice - Go buy some of those little paper cups (not big red cups, but kind of medium in size. And paper works best, because you're going to rip it away). Fill them with water and freeze them. Once frozen, rip off the cup, and use the big ice cube to massage your tendon. It's going to hurt, unfortunately, at least it did for me. But, it's helping, I promise.

Stim - I don't know if you have access to this, but it's a machine (you can get portable ones from medical supply websites) that have little electrode pads that will send currents through your muscles, tendons, etc. It feels funny at first, and hurts if you turn it up too high. But it really is GREAT for injuries. I used them in high school, and all through college. If you can't find one, go to Amazon.com and search for "Electric Stimulation Machine". It will pull up several very affordable ones.

Stretch - You're right, there's a lot to be gained by stretching. You should stretch right when you wake up, and before you go to bed. And, for good measure, any time your tendon starts to feel stiff.

Those are the treatments. To prevent getting it again, keep stretching, and look at the shoes you've been wearing. Turns out, the ankle braces that I was wearing to keep my horrible ankles from being sprained AGAIN, combined with my basketball shoes put weird pressure on my tendon, which caused my tendonitis. Try changing up your shoes. Look for ones that don't put any pressure on your tendon, especially while it's still healing. But stay away from cheap flip flops. They have no support, and will ultimately make your tendonitis worse.

Woo, that was a really long post lol. I hope it helps. Feel free to message me if you have any other questions, or need any other advice. I've had just about every injury in the book, so I know how to deal with a lot of them, or how to prevent them from happening again