Anyone deal with achilles tendonitis?

naybride04

I have self diagnosed myself with this and will likely make an appt with a podiatrist because my feet are a mess. I have been experiencing pain in my achilles and behind and along the outer edge of my heel. It is worse when I first get up in the morning or get up and walk after sitting for a while. I took 2 weeks off of running to see if it would help and the pain isn't any better. It isn't excruciating-more of an ache. I worry about aggravating it even more with running. When I run it doesn't really hurt and I only get little twinges of pain here and there. My question is-how long does this typically take to heal and could I still run with this type of injury? During my 2 week break I have been trying to build up strength with some yoga along with stretching and icing (which I haven't been as diligent about as I should be). Any tips on speeding up the healing process? With 2 small kids and being an RN, I am on my feet a lot and wearing supportive shoes all the time aggravates my Morton's Neuroma. Thanks!  

2bearichards

I had it and still feel twinges every once in a while.  I was out a little over a month. 

I would highly recommend NOT running, you risk the chance of rupturing it and then you may never be able to run again.  Go to your doc and have it examined.  I did about a month of PT and do exercises at home.

shorewife

My hubby does.  It is the gift that keeps on giving unfortunately.  I second the PT and continuing to do the exercises at home though.

aswartzw

Unfortunately.  I have to stretch everyday and sometimes I have to ice it.  I have Naproxen if I ever need it but it's not that bad. 

When I first experienced it, I was unable to walk normally for 3 weeks and was able to slowly get back into running around 5 weeks.  

I have a heel spur which aggravates the tendon so I have orthotics I wear and just continue to stretch like my podiatrist said.  

ETA:  It is also easy to overstretch the tendon especially during yoga which isn't good either.  

BridgetMc

It took me forever to get over it, something like 6 months.  Icing seemed to help a lot.  In retrospect, I suspect yoga made it worse, not better.  I don't have many problems with it now, as long as I'm careful not to wear heels to work on a day that I run; that really aggravates it.  When I eventually started running again, it still bothered me a little, but I kept running, just 3 miles or so a few times per week, and it eventually went away.