achilles tendon recovery

[ivanooze]

so i have had this achilles "injury" since new years day. I got stepped on while at a punk rock show.
-for the first maybe 2 months or so, it was hard to put my cycling shoes on due to it putting to much pressure on my achilles.
-for the past month however, it's been feeling much better in terms of me being able to tighten down my shoes normally, yet you can see that my achilles is still swollen when compared to my good achilles.
- It doesn't hurt at all but i'm still worried about my tendon since the swelling hasn't subsided. I do, however, still feel a bit of pain after a run, and it does swell up more afterwards.

-my assumption is that since it has been 3 months since the initial injury, there's a bunch of scar tissue build up. so my question is this, how do i get rid of that scar tissue? I can see that a graston technique works pretty well, but are there any "at-home" treatments i can do at all?

[slowgoing]

I went through Achilles injury/scar tissue break-up about 10 years ago, but by a PT under supervision of an ortho, and I'd recommend you do the same. Scar tissue removal was done by hard massage by the PT's thumbs followed by immediate icing to prevent inflammation and further scar tissue formation.

[berserk87]

I agree with the above. I had Achilles tendonitis last winter and went through the same PT treatment. It worked for me.

I also used Flector transdermal patches on the area, which provide direct infusion of anti-inflammatory medication. These were helpful as well.

An Achilles injury is slow to heal. The tendon is largely avascular and there is not a lot of blood flow there. It's also a area that is subject to a large amount of force when in use. Patience with injury is not my strong suit and it was a frustrating recovery.

[fkelly]

"PT under supervision of an ortho" and patience are the best recommendations. Especially since the ortho will probably start with getting some pictures to make sure there is nothing else going on in there.

[Hilltopperny]

I had my Achilles stretched while having my foot rebuilt last year. I still have similar issues with it but mine is reletively painful everyday. I still get out and ride a lot and physical therapy with a good stretching routine will certainly help. My injured foot and leg seems to have a permanent swelling to it in the Achilles area while it's atrophied at the calf . Over time it should heal up, just be sure not to overdue it. Achilles tendon injuries suck. I put cbd oil in my coffee every morning for pain and swelling. It seems to give me some relief and I don't notice it as much while cycling.

[r_mutt]

be very careful. the last thing you want to do is rupture it. it can require surgery and recovery is long and arduous. after 3 months of immobility, due to atrophy, one of my calves looks like popeye and the other olive oil- even after 5 years! i could be doing more to strengthen it, but riding the bike doesn't engage the calves as much as other muscles. i would see a physical therapist.

[11.4]

Extremely slow recovery and well nigh impossible to accelerate. The Achilles likes to injure itself and stay injured. It also is very prone to developing calcification (aka spurs if they're in the right spot) because of the poor internal circulation. There's pain management, there's inflammation management (which accelerates the calcification process), and there's also corrective therapy. In the latter case, PT in the hands of someone really versed in this can be very helpful, but most PT's really don't know what they're doing. I'd recommend finding a very very good orthopedist and find a PT through her/him. Otherwise you just go around in circles.

[feFIFO]

As others have mentioned, it can be a long, long process. I'm five years out from a fairly severe bout of acute achilles tendinopathy that cropped up halfway into a 16-mile run. Depending on how severe yours is, the prudent thing would be to stop running altogether until the inflammation subsides a bit. The thing that made the difference for me was doing eccentric heel drops religiously, building to twice a day with a weighted backpack. I still do them a few times a week as a precautionary measure, and roll out my calves with a lacrosse ball.

[11.4]

A couple points.

First, one thing that happens with Achilles inflammation is that your plantar fascia tend to become very tight and inflexible. As a result, they basically tug at your Achilles tendon, slowing its recovery and increasing the likelihood of damaging it again. There's a clinical study somewhere showing that the incidence of Achilles tears was much higher in patients with tight plantar fascia. No surprise. So live with a good foot massage tool that you roll your plantar fascia with, incessantly, all the way from side to side and from the toes to the back of the heel. It also helps avoid building spurs on the underside of your heel as well.

Second, weights can do a lot to help with Achilles tendon recovery. There are several parts to your Achilles tendon, and usually you've damaged one of the inner or outer fiber bunches. Like with the biceps, there are several clusters of fibers and several different clusters of muscle attaching to the tendon fibers. You tend to do something that puts all the load on one small portion of the whole tendon injure it. This can happen because you rotate your heel, because you do something that isn't an aligned vertical load on the Achilles, or because you do something with your foot planted at an angle. Cycling itself tends not to give too much Achilles tendonitis but exacerbates things you did from simple activities like stepping off a curb, playing a game where you are changing direction or jumping at all, and so on. Anyway, strengthening the whole ankle joint and strengthening the gastrocnemius and the soleus (and frankly, the peroneus and all the smaller stabilizing muscles) goes a long way to fixing a problem achilles tendon and keeps it from reoccurring.

[slowgoing]

The scary thing about this is you're just guessing about what's going on. You won't know for sure without a doc taking a look.

Two additional things that helped my recovery:

1. Moved my cleats back on my cycling shoes.

2. Took PT's advice and ramped up mileage at most 10% a week. Ignore the temptation to do more because your muscles feel good, they recover faster than your Achilles.

Good luck.