Achilles Tendonitis Facts And How Laser Therapy Can Help
When the Back of your Heel and Ankle Hurts
You might have jumped off the pickup bed and landed too hard on your feet. Or maybe you love playing baseball with its sudden sprints, or volleyball with its jumps and spikes, but over time the back of your heel and ankle begins to hurt. These are just a couple of instances which might lead to Achilles tendonitisan inflammation of the tendon at the back of your leg. There are many others. In fact, this injury is quite common in active people, but there are ways to treat and prevent it that will allow you to keep enjoying what you like to do without heel pain.
Achilles Anatomy
This tendon, also sometimes called your heel cord, is the strongest and largest one in your body, and it does a lot of hard work. It connects your calf muscles to your heel bone, moving your feet so you can climb hills or stairs, jump, or just push off for each step as you walk.
Damage to the Achilles often occurs gradually, and for a variety of reasons. It may begin to degenerate as part of the natural aging process. Friction from poor-fitting shoes can rub on the tendon, or on the bursa sac that cushions between it and the heel bone, and they can become inflamed. This is called tendonitis. Repeated stress can cause individual fibers in the tendon to break, weakening it, and as it heals, scar tissue can make it thick and knobby in places (tendonosis). When the tendon is weak enough, it can even rupture and make it hard to use your foot normally.
Achilles Tendonitis Clues
The back of your ankle will probably be swollen and tender. If the bursa is inflamed, you will feel pain right behind your heel bone. When the tendon itself is inflamed, the pain will be a little higherabove the heel bone and up toward your large calf muscle. You will notice it most while you are walking or pushing off for a sprint or jump. The pain may subside when you rest, and get worse again the next time you are active.
Treating Achilles Ankle Pain
Youll want to attack this problem as soon as you first notice the swelling and tenderness. Start by resting from activity, and using cold therapy to reduce the swelling and pain. Then call us. We have had great success with four sessions of laser pain therapy over two weeks time. Most of our patients note a huge difference after the first treatment.
If you wait to see if the tendon gets better on its own, you may end up with worse pain, tendon degeneration, or a rupture. These will require more extensive treatment, and possibly even surgery to repair the tendon. Why risk it when a few simple, painless laser treatments can stimulate your bodys own natural healing processes to recover from the damage quickly?
Call Ottawa Foot Clinic today at (613) 595-9700 and set up an appointment to let us diagnose what is causing your pain. Our foot specialists are experts at finding less-invasive remedies for many foot problems, and you will feel welcome and safe in our clean office environment. Call today, or request an appointment from this website, and put an end to Achilles tendinitis pain.