How to deal with Achilles Tendon soreness

[Medira]

The stars are all alinging for you Elise.

[elisedance]

lets hope that all the tendon fibrils do the same thing

I'm up for renewal next year at work so a bit of alignment would be a nice change

[Bordertangoman]

lets hope that all the tendon fibrils do the same thing

I'm up for renewal next year at work so a bit of alignment would be a nice change

Is that the Elise-Nexus 6?

[elisedance]

I'd settle for Nexus 2.5

going for ultrasound on the achilles today....

[elisedance]

so update.  The ultrasound did not detect a tear - so doc thinks its a minor one (yay) but I still have to be careful and work the foot up gradually.  Fortrunately, pro is going to blackpool for two weeks and I have to do some traveling too so that will hopefully give it time to heal (er, if you excuse the unintended pun!)

[Vagabond]

so update.  The ultrasound did not detect a tear - so doc thinks its a minor one (yay) but I still have to be careful and work the foot up gradually.  Fortrunately, pro is going to blackpool for two weeks and I have to do some traveling too so that will hopefully give it time to heal (er, if you excuse the unintended pun!)

Found this treatment online. maybe a good guide for your recovery;
Achilles Tendonitis can be a pernicious injury, one that can take weeks to heal. At the fir sign of soreness, try these stretches to help alleviate symptoms and prevent a rupture, which would require surgery and an even longer layoff. Stretch both the gastroc (upper calf muscle) and the soleus (lower calf muscle). Do them just about anytime you’re near a wall. Stretch the Achilles tendon once a day for one minute.
1. Gastroc stretch. Lean into wall, keeping affected leg back straight, heel on floor and turned slightly outward. Stretch should be felt in calf.

2. Soleus stretch. Similar to above with affected leg back but knees slightly bent; lean into wall until stretch is felt in lower calf.

3. Achilles tendon stretch. Stand with toes on stair, heels off the edge. Raise up on toes, then down as far as possible. Return to starting position.

[elisedance]

thats what I have been doing - as you say, whenever you are near a wall but I did not have these specific stretches - though amazingly I've been pretty close - but I had not done the knees-bent one.

thanks for them (and the thought;))!!
ee

[Bordertangoman]

thats what I have been doing - as you say, whenever you are near a wall but I did not have these specific stretches - though amazingly I've been pretty close - but I had not done the knees-bent one.

thanks for them (and the thought;))!!
ee

and stick to simple positions!

[Peaches]

Wow, don't those symptoms sound familiar.  I found I'd started having problems with the back of my ankle a little while ago--and I haven't really been dancing so that wasn't it (although even when I was dancing a lot I never had the problem).  Every morning I wake up and I literally hobble around for the first few minutes because of this.  Well, this in my left leg and my right ankle being all wonky lately. 

I wonder if it has to do with exercising (a rarity) without sneakers on.  Prolly didn't help.  See...I knew exercise was bad for me.

[cornutt]

Wow, don't those symptoms sound familiar.  I found I'd started having problems with the back of my ankle a little while ago--and I haven't really been dancing so that wasn't it (although even when I was dancing a lot I never had the problem).  Every morning I wake up and I literally hobble around for the first few minutes because of this.  Well, this in my left leg and my right ankle being all wonky lately. 

I wonder if it has to do with exercising (a rarity) without sneakers on.  Prolly didn't help.  See...I knew exercise was bad for me.

Could be.  Or maybe your shoes are irritating it?  I had a problem with the Achilles in my right foot for a while last year... traced it to a pair of high-cut sneakers that were rubbing it.  They weren't rubbing hard enough to blister, so I didn't notice it was happening.  After it started to hurt, I had to do some investigating to figure out what the problem was.

[Peaches]

Maybe.  I tried the exercising thing a bit at roughly the same time I got myself a new pair of street shoes, so it's hard to tell what the cause is.  I don't like wearing sneakers (well, athletic ones) because I find them horribly uncomfortable (and my freakin' toes always end up kind of numb, no matter how loosely I lace them), so I tend not to exercise in them.  That could be the problem, too.  Jumping jacks and other inane forms of hopping about like a flippin' idgit could be aggravating things.

But in my case it's not right down by my ankle--it's maybe a hand's-with up from where the top of a sneaker would be anyhow.

[MusicChica]

Hmm...you wear reasonably high heels on a regular basis, don't you?  I've noticed that when I spend a prolonged period of time in heels that are 3" or higher, my Achilles tendon gets sore and feels kind of bunched up, then gets a bit overstretched when I get back to barefoot or flats.

[Peaches]

Hmmm...will have to ponder.  I know they have started feeling tight on a regular basis, so I've been switching between the heels and sneaker-y thingies. 

[elisedance]

Hmm...you wear reasonably high heels on a regular basis, don't you?  I've noticed that when I spend a prolonged period of time in heels that are 3" or higher, my Achilles tendon gets sore and feels kind of bunched up, then gets a bit overstretched when I get back to barefoot or flats.

Good point - if you wear heels all the time the tendons will shorten excessivley - and then you really are vulnerable to an injury if you excesize without them.

P you might want to do heel-stretching excercises first thing - the one where you stand with your soles on a stair (facing upstairs) and gently lower your heels below the edge.  It really works.  Reading your post made me realize that my tendons feel fine again - I really should go back to stretching to so that I can avoid that again. 

[pruthe]

I'm a lead, so I don't really understand all the problems follows have with high heels, but I would recommend using something with arch support when not in high heels. I don't know if sneakers have much arch support. My wife bought me some Uggs slippers about a year ago, and I was walking around the house a lot with them as they were very comfortable, and with zero arch support. But after a couple weeks I started getting pain similar to my earlier bouts with plantar faciitis. Finally deduced it was because of no arch support. Went back to wearing my Birkenstock sandals around the house and pain eventually went away and hasn't come back since.