Insertional Achilles Tendinopathy?

Kayleen

After months of heel pain and numerous sessions with various physical therapists/physio, I had an MRI at the sports surgery clinic in Santry and was told I have Insertional Achilles Tendinopathy.
That was two weeks ago, I haven't ran since, been doing Achilles stretches morning and night and am wearing an ankle splint every night.
Just wondering if anyone was ever given this diagnosis and how long recovery took
Any tips/advice would be most welcome

tunguska

Kayleen wrote: »

After months of heel pain and numerous sessions with various physical therapists/physio, I had an MRI at the sports surgery clinic in Santry and was told I have Insertional Achilles Tendinopathy.
That was two weeks ago, I haven't ran since, been doing Achilles stretches morning and night and am wearing an ankle splint every night.
Just wondering if anyone was ever given this diagnosis and how long recovery took
Any tips/advice would be most welcome

Yeah Im only recovering from an insertional tendonopathy now(having had it for 3 years). Its a nasty and deceptively complex injury.
I went to SSC in march, wore the boot for a few weeks, then had Shockwave therapy. Didnt run for months then gradually started back again, literally running just once a week, take a week off, run again and so on. Was told not to do achilles/calve drops, did raises instead as they work better for insertional problems. For me the tendonopathy created a problem further up the chain in my calve, so that it became very weak and would tear easily.
Your best bet is to give it 3 months of no running. All the while do calve raises(weighted). Then start back running but only do 20min strarting off, see how that feels. You gotta use your own discretion though, you have to feel things out for yourself and make decisions based on that. Its a bitch of an injury so you have to be really careful with it and not overload too soon.

Kayleen

Oh crikey tunguska, many thanks for your reply even though it wasn't what I wanted to hear:(

I am doing raises rather than drops and am going for work on it every week with a physical therapist. I will listen to my body and hopefully recovery won't be too long.

Cycling shorts and gloves arrived today from sports direct so in the meatime I am going to use the bike as exercise:eek:

tunguska

Kayleen wrote: »

Oh crikey tunguska, many thanks for your reply even though it wasn't what I wanted to hear:(

I am doing raises rather than drops and am going for work on it every week with a physical therapist. I will listen to my body and hopefully recovery won't be too long.

Cycling shorts and gloves arrived today from sports direct so in the meatime I am going to use the bike as exercise:eek:

Yep the rothar is the best option. If You're a member of a gym the spin bikes are great. Best thing to do is to work off the Watts as opposed to calories(pretty meaningless as you're not entering your specific details). A good session I did during my layoff was 5k warm up then 20k @ 350watts. Its very tough but will keep your heart and lungs in good shape for when you do get back running. Good to wear a HR monitor aswell while on the spin bike which will give you a good indication of how hard you're working. HR for the bike is a good 10-12 beats less than it is for running though. So if 185 BPM IS A Max out for you running, this might only be 173 BPM on the bike.
Shockwave therapy is really good for insertional problems so I'd look into that if I were you. But overall be careful when you do get back running, build it up gradually and dont be afraid to take days off at a time to let things settle down if they flare up after a run. Strangely enough though I've found that the lighter the shoe you use the better it is. Shoes with too much cushion on them cause me problems and shoes with less heel on them leave me in better shape after a run. Do it gradually though if you do normally use shoes with heavy cushioning, dont go from a big heel to a flat in one go. But I'd definitely drop it down and work towards a flatter shoe in the lng run.

sam30

Worth looking up some of Jill Cooks work on achilles tendonopathy on google