Thoughts on recurring achilles tendinitis

Discussion in 'Injuries' started by Wingu, Nov 13, 2012.

  1. Wingu

    Wingu Regular Member

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    Hi all,

    During March this year I did some Chinese footwork exercises and whilst doing these, I injured my left achilles tendon. It was very painful and the first two weeks I could hardly walk. It appeared that it wasn't on the middle or upper parts of the tendon, but where the tendon and heel bone connects.

    It took me about five months of rehab until one morning during August, I finally woke up without any pain at all. It came quite suddenly and I felt overwhelmed and so happy about it. However, I made one mistake after that and that was to not continue my rehab/exercise of my left leg. As a result, the pain came back when I had a singles game about two and a half weeks ago. I thought that this was it, the end of my badminton "career". Fortunaly, it doesn't hurt as much as it did before, but I can still feel it from time to time, especially when I play. At first when I got the injury problem back, I was very afraid of even doing any fast movements on the court. However, since the pain has started to fade again and it doesn't that much anymore I'm playing at my usual pace again... But I'm still afraid of what might happen.
    I'm back to doing rehab again of course and this time I won't make the same mistake of quitting the rehab too early.

    Has anyone had these kind of problems with recurring achilles tendinitis, or any injury at all? How does one cope with them especially psychologically?
     
  2. coachgary

    coachgary Regular Member

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    I'm now 2 years post achilles rupture on my left leg. It's probably taken that long for my confidence to get back to normal with it. The main problem I have now though is that my other leg has been over compensating and so I am picking up all sorts of irritating injuries, such as torn calf muscles, tight hamstring in back of knee etc etc. I am also having achilles tendonitis of the good leg! I worry so much more about the good leg now that I have forgotten all about the repaired leg!!
     
  3. Wingu

    Wingu Regular Member

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    Hi coachgary, thanks for sharing.

    Once you knew your achilles was all well again, did you go all out at once or did you work it up slowly?

    From what I've learned, having tendonitis doesn't prevent one from actually doing sports. Accordingly to Swedish medical researches, continuing playing the sports while doing rehabilitation haven't proven to be bad for the tendon. The healing process takes about the same amount of time as if you rest from sporting and only do rehab as it would if you continue to do sports while working on the rehab.
     
  4. London_Player

    London_Player Regular Member

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    Hello Coach Gary,

    I now have started playing, after my achillies rupture on my left leg in Feb this year. Now after playing for a month, I noticed now my good left leg, I seemed to have developed achilles tendonitis.

    It's seem quite bad that I skipped a playing for a week and but it still its there and last week had to finish my session early, due to the bloody pain! Like you I worry about possible rupture to my left leg.
     
  5. shooting stroke

    shooting stroke Regular Member

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    Between 2009-2011, i had a bad experience with AT in my left foot. Hardly can move around not to say playing badminton. It's even worse in the early morning after waking up. It's like having a knife stab directly into the tendon especially at the heel area. Was on Nsaids for certain period of time to relieve it and in my mind, if i don't do anything serious about it, i can forget participating in tournaments and even worst it could lead to a rupture if not treated well.

    Currently, after certain approach, I've able to experienced free AT attack until now and until today, this are my routine approach to ensure it would not happen. Discipline is the key to this.

    1. Before bed

    I applied warm ointment to the area and wear socks to promote heat. This to ensure more blood supply goes to the area of inflammation

    2. Early morning or after long immobilization

    After waking up, i don't straight away applied weight to my foot from standing. Due to long foot immobility due to sleeping, I simply again applied that warm ointment to the affected area, do a gentle downward massage and make some circular movements clock and anti clock wise to promote movements. The moment i stand, i walk slowly and i accommodate my paste of movements depending on the intensity of the pain.

    3. Before playing

    30 minute heat compression to the area to promote blood supply and a lot of weight and non weight movements exercise.

    4. After playing

    10 minute of cold compression to reduce inflammation.

    SS
     
  6. coachgary

    coachgary Regular Member

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    There are two problems in my case. Age (43 now) and loss of fitness. I'm almost 100% confident on the strength of the repaired achilles. I'm trying to play to the level that I was at pre injury but my fitness levels are just not allowing it. I spent 2-3 months doing the Insanity DVD's which to be honest are too dynamic for me at the moment. Very hard on the calf muscles, so I will probably hit the road on the racing bike for a while to lose weight, about 1 stone, and maybe then pick up the Insanity dvds before I go insanely bored!
     

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