My Achilles Heel - tendon

I finally understand at least one reason for the term Achilles heel.  For about a year now I have had an inflamed Achilles tendon.  I probably wore the wrong shoes last summer, and then really injured it in January walking on the beach barefoot.  Honestly for about 2 years it has been bothering me and I worked through it for a long time which is exactly the wrong thing to do.

Finally in January for my annual physical, I mentioned to my new physician that I had this pain.  She prescribed PT which I did for 6 weeks until the woman gave up on me.  She cured the acute pain, and now I only have the chronic pain and boy is it chronic.

I finally saw an Orthopedic surgeon in March, who gave me a soft brace to wear most of the time and a boot to wear at night.  I have read a lot on the internet  and you really have to stop injuring the tendon in order to get over it.  That is why I wear the brace all day and the boot at night.  I can actually feel the little micro tears when I re-injure it.  Stretching it all the time is also very important and building up strength. And ice, ice, ice.

So anyone who knows me knows that patience is not a strong suit of mine and I am being very patient, in my mind anyway.  I wear the brace and boot, I stretch before and after exercise, and when I get up after sitting.  I am now icing it at least once a day.  I am riding the bike instead of walking on the treadmill, although I do walk some of the time for my exercise.

Just when I think it is getting better I slide back and it hurts again.  I sometimes wonder if I will be wearing this damn brace and boot forever.  I also think maybe I can just continue this amount of exercise and it will always have a bit of pain or tightness.  To be honest, at times it really gets me depressed, that I cannot exercise the way I used to.  I cannot go for an hour walk without thinking of the consequences of maybe hurting it again.

I will not stop playing golf however.  Even though it hurts at the end of a round, I still play every Monday with my lady friends.  If I have to be in a wheel chair on the course I am going to play golf.

For now, I stretch, ice, exercise, and wear the support mechanisms and hope that someday this injury will be behind me.  I will probably have another one to nurse along at that point but for now this injury is my Achilles heel.