Surgery for thickened Achilles with tendonitis
Posted , 2 users are following.
Morning,
Am a very keen runner who has struggled in past with arthiritis in hips and had an arthroscopy in Dec 2020. Made a recovery of sorts and got back to running marathon in March 2022. Took a month off to recover and restarted training in May for next one in September.
On the very first run back my Achilles and plantar were extremely painful and despite taking a further 2 weeks off my next time out had the same result.
At this point I saw a consultant who said that my left tendon was clearly thickening and I started physio, eccentric, isometric - any kind of -metric you can bet i did. There was some run / walking and the plantar pain did go away. Covid in August knocked me off my stride literally and when I came back in September the tendon was very painful. Since more physio followed, tried a run walk in November, no luck so had a steroid and high volume saline injection - more physio - failed at first run/walk attempt in Feb. 4 sessions of shockwave in parallel to phsyio. No success. Full blown steroid injection at beginning of April - zero impact. Moved onto pregabalin 150mg a day and deponit patches on both tendons. No joy after a month.
Just for a "laugh" went for a 20 min run / walk and very painful during and even more so the next day.
All I have left according to consultant is platelet injections or debridement.
For clarity I have not torn my tendon.
Latest thickness measurement is 1.2cm as opposed 0.9cm when I started and the target 0.6/7cm
Any experience of this surgery where you are not fixing a torn tendon?
And of course the unicorn in the room - any stories of people successfully returning to running?!
Thanks
Mark
1 like, 1 reply
barbara66703 Elguiri
Edited
Give it time to heel and stay off the running . it will heel on it's own if you give it the chance.
Everyone thinks surgery will help it get better. Chances are it could and then again it may get worse after surgery. how long would rehab be after surgery.. I have had the same issues on and off.
The best you can do is get proper shoes and separate arches to place inside your shoes . see a podiatrist for custom arches. or go on line for walk fit arches. I have a pair of walk fit in all my shoes.
Also to treat the tender thickness /swelling in arch to heel ... get a pair of rocker shoes. They will help you reset the arch , teach you how to correctly walk ....heel to toe, and take the pressure off the tendon for better movement , and zero pain with improved mobility. That's what I did to get my arches and plantar issue heeled.