Achilles tendonitis

[mikeref]

I am suffering through January having to turn back almost all of my HS and college schedule due to persistant Achilles problems in my left leg. I was wondering if anyone has experienced this and what they have done or been told to do get get relief and healed ASAP. My doctor said it was tendonitis.
I have been on the DL now for almost 3 weeks.I hope to be ready in another week to 10 days. Any advice or knowlege shared would be appreciated.

[Texas Aggie]

Welcome to my world, though it hasn't been enough of a problem to keep me out of action. I have had mild tendinitis in my Achilles almost my entire officiating career.

I can only comment on what I do. It sounds as if your case is a bit more severe than mine. I went to black running shoes to wear on the court. I think they've helped a lot. I also got a stretcher that I keep in my bag sometimes. Its a half circle piece of plastic that has a place for your shoe. Use it to roll your foot backwards to get a good stretch.

Warm up seems to be very important as I'm getting older. Maybe you can get a piece of home exercise equipment like a bike or elliptical and use that everyday in the morning. I'm of the view that once your muscles are warmed up during the day, that doesn't go completely away. Even if your game is at 7, 30 minutes on the bike in the morning followed by a quicker warm up at night is much better than a slightly longer but incomplete warm up before the game. I don't think many of us really have the time or facilities to properly warm up for our games unless we do a half or 3/4 jog for the first period. I've also gone to the heel supports by McDavid. I think they've helped some too.

Finally, when you get home, ice, ice, and more ice. Ice is your new best friend. Use it liberally and often.

[Dan_ref]

- Rest

- Get physical therapy. 2 or 3 times a week. It works.

- Get a prescription for anti-inflammatories. It works.

- After that, *MY* experience: heat then stretch. A lot. Then stretch some more. Inserts, wraps, whatever did not work for me. Get a new pair of shoes. Double up on socks. I didn't try orthodics. 3 aspirin before the game. Stretch, stretch before the game. Ice message after a game (freeze a dixie cup full of water. Unwrap and message the area until it's too numb feel).

Good luck. It sucks. It's bothering me again now but I'll manage until march.

[Mountaineer]

OK welcome to MY world!!!

I suffered from achilles tendonitis for a few years - taking a couple of weeks off to rest it and it always got better. Well, not always - last year it didn't get better but rather worse during basketball. It didn't get better in the few weeks between basketball and softball. I got physical therapy and massage therapy and it started to get better. During a college softball game (1 out before the game was over) SNAP! My achilles tendon completely ruptured on April 29 - surgery on May 4. To add insult to injury - when it snapped and I went down, I landed on my right wrist and fractured it. That made my recovery a lot more difficult.

Now, the therapy and massage treatments were good. The massage therapist specialized in sports massage. She discoverd that my gastrox and solieus (sp) muscles were "glued" together and she was breaking those loose. I have worn orthopaedic inserts for years so while they help they don't keep this from happening. I'm convinced that one of the contributing factors was the shoes I was wearing. I had been wear Adidas shoes that were similar to the Nike Shox. These types of shoes allow the heel to compress more and "over stretch" the achilles. Another thing - do NOT, NOT, NOT allow a doc to inject you with cortizone and take prednisone very, very, VERY sparingly. I am also convinced that my podiotrist sticking a needle in my heel contributed to my demise.

I am back on the court - amazingly - but I am struggling a LOT. Actually I'm having more difficulties from my "good" leg from favoring it so much. Guys, if you are having problems, take it seriously. Get some treatment on your leg! Stretch, stretch, stretch and then stretch some more. Get a trainer/physical therapist to show you the proper stretches. Don't think you know how to do it - get help.

The tear actually isn't as painful as you might think - lol. It hurts like h3ll but the pain sort of comes in waves. The surgery only takes a couple of hours - then your world turns upside down. The recovery is the frustrating part. I'm almost 9 months out from the accident and still struggle going down stairs and walking up and down hilly grades. I go to sleep with ice on my legs most nights. While I have had some normal games this year, I have had games this year where it was difficult to make it up and down the court. My friends laugh because I also joke about loosing that initial quick burst of speed I once had - !

Feel free to ask me any questions that I haven't answered. I am passionate about this as you might guess. I'd even exchange phone numbers with someone that wants to talk about it to get some more details.

In a nutshell: see a podiatrist and get orthotics, visit an orthopaedist and ask him to send you to physical therapy, find a massage therapist for treatment in addition to the PT, walk in a pool, stretch, stretch, stretch and then ICE, ICE, ICE. I actually stretch in the morning before I go to work.

Sorry this is so long but if it helps one person it's worth it.

[Trey]

Figured I'd post in here as I haven't been able to find any other forums active enough on the subject of achilles pain. Here's my story:

I am in the military and although I was able to pass a PT test according to my services standards I could not achieve a score that my unit deemed was satisfactory. As a result I was forced to enter a 5 week PT boot camp.

The schedule was the same for everday for the entire 5 weeks. 30 to 45 minutes of calisthenics working all the major muscles followed by atleast a 4 mile run. 5 days a week for 5 weeks. By the 3rd week almost 90% of the people at the camp had some sort of injury. I sucked up my pain and continued the run until the last week when i just couldnt take the pain anymore.

The first 5 months after my injury consisted of the military doctors telling me to take Motrin, rest and heel lifts. Kind of hard to rest when you are at work on your feet walking in military boots for 10+ hours a day and come home to two kids 4 and 2 years old. But I did as I was told and my symptoms did not improve.

Finally a few months back I had had enough and demanded that I received an X-ray and an MRI to see if there was anything structural wrong. X-ray came back negative and the MRI showed no inflammation or swelling and only mild scarring according to the tech who read the results. I went back to my doctor and was told "motrin and rest".

I have recently started physical therapy which consists of stretching and range of motion exercises, all of which I had already been doing since the injury, and twice weekly IONTO treatments for 3 weeks. So far no change in my condition.

My pain is about at the same level as it was 7 months ago although now the pain has spread to just below the ankle on both sides of my foot as well as being on the back side of my heel and in my achilles. Right now walking, climbing stairs, hell even sitting is painful.

Have you guys ever known someone whose symptoms persisted this long and do you have any advice to give on how to improve my condition. The military doctors either dont know or dont care. Thank in advance.

[deecee]

as with most injuries like this -- rest is really the only way to get better -- your joint NEEDS rest to heal -- if you are always using it then it will never heal.

[MadCityRef]

It's also called plantar fascia, inflammation of where the tendon attaches to the tarsus bone.
I switched to New Balance shoes and my problems have subsided, but they do linger.
I wear socks to bed to keep the tendons extra warm, and sleep on my side. Sleeping on your back or stomach causes the tendons to be tensed, but they are relaxed when on your side.
Stretch a lot with range of motion exercises. I also take chondroitin and glucosemine tablets every day.
Warm up early before games. Good luck.

[Old School]

Originally Posted by Mountaineer

I'm convinced that one of the contributing factors was the shoes I was wearing. I had been wear Adidas shoes that were similar to the Nike Shox. These types of shoes allow the heel to compress more and "over stretch" the achilles.

Bingo! Shoes are everything. Depending on how long you wore these bad shoes, depends on how deep the injury. I'll back off the shoes are bad to just the shoes are bad for your particular type of feet, and mines too. Some shoes I stay away from, and Adidas is one of them. You also have to know when your shoes go bad. The shoe can still look new but internally be no good at all, and if you continue to wear them, the damage it is doing to your feet is unbelievable! All, the minute your feet start to hurt where they had not been hurting before. Suspect the shoes. Doesn't matter if they are new, in between new and old, or old. Get another pair just to see.

Trey. The only thing I can suggest to you that either of you gentlemen has not mention. You need to put some nutrients into your system that will promote strong bones and body tissue. With the absence of this, you just need rest. I think one of the best nutrients you can put in your body to help promote strong tissue is milk. If you can't do the milk thing then do the calcium tables. Research this on the web. That's where you need to look now, imho, if you want to speed up recovery.

Last, I want to tell you a short but true story about me. About 5 to 8 years ago, give or take, I played a ton of sports. Softball, basketball, some football, year round. Over time, my knees just got to the point where they bothered me, and was very weak. When I walked around the office you could hear my knees go snap, crackle, pop. I started wearing a brace when I played. Was able to continue a couple more years after that but the effect of not having strong knees bought my competitive bb playing to an end. So I stop playing for at least 3 years, maybe longer. I kept refereeing of course but being off my knees for so long. They now have completely recovered. My knees don't bother me at all anymore and they are strong enough where I don't need to wear the brace when I do play bb. I never thought I would be able to play again without a brace. I can't believe it! I can even play competitive for about 2 breakaway layups up and down the court before I need an oxygen mask and a chair. My point is the medicine that cured me the most was rest and being off my feet. Let your body heel! It is the most important thing you if you want to get back out there. Amare Stoudemire took off two years because of a leg injury, but look at him now. He looks strong as ever and the Suns will compete for the title with him healthy.

[Karin]

2 years I suffered with this.Had electric pulse,massage,acupuncture to no avail.Some ideas heelraiser inside the inner sole of shoe,I used to get a heel lock strapping prior to games -this immobilised the tendon from over stretching through game.ICE for ever after the games.Also a great therapist put me onto a set of reps for your achilles and calves that to this day (3 years later)I do every day and touch wood I have had no repeat problems.They came from the Australian Institiute of Sport.Exercises are -get on a step that you can drop your heel from but with support for both hands e.g a doorway or stairs-let the non painful foot hang loose and use the sore foot to let your weight hang by staying on the step with the ball of your foot and your heel dropped behind.Count 10 then place non affected foot on step to take weight of your return to both feet beside each other.At first you think it is a crock but even after acouple of days I noticed an improvement.I started doing 10-15 reps each day but now it is easy to do several more and has become automatic when going upstairs at home.May not work for all-but other refs I have shown to have had success also.Good Luck

[Mountaineer]

Originally Posted by MadCityRef

It's also called plantar fascia, inflammation of where the tendon attaches to the tarsus bone.
I switched to New Balance shoes and my problems have subsided, but they do linger.
I wear socks to bed to keep the tendons extra warm, and sleep on my side. Sleeping on your back or stomach causes the tendons to be tensed, but they are relaxed when on your side.
Stretch a lot with range of motion exercises. I also take chondroitin and glucosemine tablets every day.
Warm up early before games. Good luck.

Actually, plantar fascitis is an inflamation of the tendon connecting the heel and the toes. The achilles tendon connects the calcaneus (heel) and the gastrox and soleus muscles in the calves. While both cause pain in the heel, they are completely different injuries.

[fonzzy07]

I suffer from plater facitus I am one of the youngest my doctor has seen. One thing that helps after a game when I get home is in the morning fill a water bottle and freeze it, then when I get home I roll the ice bottle underneeth my feet. I did the whole PT thing even had medicine magnetically forced through my foot some how and that did not help. Aqua therapy did help a little but the best thing is just to put them up, let them rest and change your shoes often. I can tell when my shoes are getting bad because my feet start to hurt. One last thing do not spend 100's of dollars on custome orthodics, I did then went to the shoe store and they recommenede an inser that cost me 20 dollars it was called super feet, they have 2 types, the green works best for me.

[zebraman]

I had achilles tendonitis so bad that I would just about go through the roof when my achilles got bumped at all. Even the sheets rubbing against it in bed were hurting. It started about 8 years ago and just kept getting progessively worse.

After resting my leg an entire off-season (which was very tough because I am an avid weighlifter and a golfer and biker in the summers), it settled down a little bit. Then when I stared reffing again in the fall, it immediately flared up and I was back to square one.

Two off-seasons ago, I had achilles debridement surgery. It has made a world of difference. The only time I even noticed my achilles so far this year was when I had 6 boys games in a week (snow make-ups). Other than that, the pain is completely gone.

Surgery is a last resort, but it sure worked for me.

[Terrapins Fan]

I thought I had a problem with my Achilles tendon, but after seeing 3 or 4 doctors, and having tons of tests done, it looks like a pinched nerve in my lower back. I start PT Monday....I'm 51....I expect pain, we are on a 1st name basis.

[fonzzy07]

Originally Posted by Terrapins Fan

I thought I had a problem with my Achilles tendon, but after seeing 3 or 4 doctors, and having tons of tests done, it looks like a pinched nerve in my lower back. I start PT Monday....I'm 51....I expect pain, we are on a 1st name basis.

Just a warning makes sure they know exactly what is wrong with your back before they start therapy. This fall i had a freak accident where the disk inbetween 2 of my vertabrae in my lower back slipped. When they MRIed it all they saw was a blob and sent me off to PT to help get over a slipped disk. Well the pain go worse, and worse and when I went back in for another MRI it showed one of my vertabrae in my lower back touching the other. I feel this when I reff if I make a quick turn around my entire rightleg goes numb from the damage that the slippage cause the nerve.

[buffett]

Karin had some great suggestions. The 2 I have used are the heel lift and the
straps. In 2004-05 I limped through the 2nd half of the season because of achilles problems. After a long rehab that included wearing specially made boots for both ankles, I was able to start running and reffing again. The therapist fitted me with heel lifts early in the rehab. My doctor directed me to wear an ankle strap which has worked out nicely. He had me perform 2 achilles strengthing exercises. You stand on a raised object (stairs) with just your toes touching the stairs. With your legs 1)bent and 2(straight, you slowly raise and lower yourself up and down 15 times. I was ready for the 05-06 season and it went well. I am still wear the lifts and use the straps every time I officiate or run. The achilles are fine today. The lifts I use are 1/2" ones. Check with a doctor, therapist, or a store that would sell such items. I purchase my straps from an online company. Here is their website: www.medspec.com/. The product I use is the ASO ankle stablizing strap which comes is black or white.

GOOD LUCK!!