Achilles Tendonitis Treatment in Rome, GA

How to Know If Your Heel Pain Is Achilles Tendonitis

We tell this to people who come to our chiropractic clinic in Rome not knowing what is wrong with their feet. First of all, not all heel pain is equal. A heel spur may be what you are thinking is wrong. Perhaps it is plantar fasciitis. But the first step towards achilles tendonitis treatment is understanding what it is you are struggling with.

The Achilles tendon goes from your calf muscle to your heel bone and when it gets inflamed, or irritated, the most common area in which it shows pain is a specific area at the rear of your heel or above it. Not to the underside of your foot like other issues may show pain.

This is what we see most of the time:

• Your heel tendon is stiff and tender to the touch, especially in the morning
• The pain gets worse while running, ascending stairs, or bearing down on your foot
• Swelling occurs that doesn't go away throughout the day or with rest
• When palpating your tendon, it feels like it's become larger or even bumpy

We see this every week. It'll be someone from the West Rome area who has been walking funny for the last three weeks and was hoping it would go away without getting medical treatment. It hasn't gone away. And now it hurts to even get up to the mailbox.

The thing that confuses most is the warm-up effect. You stand up in the morning and the heel tendon hurts like crazy, then after about ten minutes you are walking around and it loosens up. So you think it is fine and it is NOT. People think it is fine and this is why they wait too long.

The following is a test you can perform in your home. Stand on the foot with the issue, lift up, and raise your toes to the ground. If that produces any sharp pain or deep pain, or feeling of pulling up the back of your ankle, that is very suspect. Do not use your own judgment though.

According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, achilles tendonitis that goes untreated can lead to partial or full tendon tears [1]. It's a bigger deal, which is why it's always a good idea to get medical advice sooner rather than later. If we get in there and can see for ourselves what we are doing, and treat it at that point, there are a lot more options available to you when treating achilles tendonitis, and it won't progress as much.

Why Rome Residents Keep Aggravating the Same Tendon

Most of the people that walk through our doors in Rome have been in pain for weeks, even months with their heel tendon feeling tight, and painful. It'll feel like it is going to get better, it might have stretched a little, they may have taken an ibuprofen, and it feels a little bit better, and then you wake up on Tuesday morning, get out of bed, take your first step and feel like someone is driving a nail into your heel.

It happens to us every week. The Achilles tendon is the largest tendon in the body, and yet it gets beaten up. The folks in Rome are out hiking the trails near Berry College, or climbing the hills near downtown, or helping their kids play weekend soccer at the recreation fields off Shorter Avenue. The repetitive stress from those things adds up fast when the tendon doesn't get the rest it needs to repair.

And yet here is the thing that most people miss. It is almost never as simple as overuse. Almost always, something more is going on. Some of the most common reasons for reoccurring Achilles tendon issues:

• Tight calf muscles cause a lot of constant strain to the tendon.
• Limited ankle motion due to a past ankle sprain.
• Poor posture in the lower back and pelvis that can impact the way that force is distributed down the leg.
• Old or worn-out shoes that have no more arch support.

That last one might seem trivial, but the difference it makes is significant. The connection to the lower back and pelvis also surprises many people. Your sciatic nerve runs all the way down to your foot. So, when you have even a minor shift in your lower back or pelvic alignment, the muscles around the Achilles will not engage as they should. The Achilles tendon has to work harder than it needs to. Over and over again. And so, you ice, and take some time off, and things feel better. You jump back into the same activities with the same contributing issues, and the cycle begins all over. Most of the time that is how things play out. It is the pain that is not the problem; it is a sign of something upstream that has not been treated. This is the main reason why only addressing the local symptoms of pain rarely results in long-term success for local Romans who want to remain active.

What to Expect During Your First Visit for Achilles Tendonitis Treatment

There is no need to bring anything in with you. Simply roll up in loose pants or shorts and talk with us about what is going on. We start by learning about your history. Where is your pain? What were you doing when it started? Is the pain worse when you run? After a long day at work? When you first get out of bed? That last one is what we hear a lot from Rome-area patients. You have a difficult time sleeping because of the pain, and when you get up for that first step out of bed in the morning, you wonder if you ripped the tendon. Most of the time, it is not. It is a tendon that has been inflamed and in need of healing for weeks.

Once we are done taking your history, we will move on to a hands-on exam. What does this involve?

• Check for proper range of motion of the foot and ankle.
• Palpate (touch) the tendon to determine exactly where it hurts.
• Check the strength of your calf muscle and watch how you walk.
• We examine your posture and alignment, starting from the low back and moving downward, because issues higher up the kinetic chain often contribute to Achilles tendon problems.
• We formulate a treatment plan to address you the same day.

Many of our patients who come to our Rome office aren't aware of how intricately the lower body is interconnected. The force transmitted through your legs can be affected by a limited range of motion in your hips or misalignment of your pelvis, resulting in excess stress on your Achilles tendon, so it's necessary for us to see the big picture.

If you're a suitable candidate for shockwave therapy, we may initiate treatment on the very first day. Inflammation can be reduced quickly by employing cold laser therapy during the initial treatment visit. Chiropractic adjustments may also be used to the joints of the foot and ankle to regain motion that may have been lost. Current clinical guidance by the Mayo Clinic on evidence-based approaches for Achilles tendinopathy supports combining load-based rehabilitation with targeted therapies like these for the best outcomes [2].

First visits to our clinic generally take 45 minutes. When you go home after your first visit, you will know exactly what your problem is and how we are going to help you.

There's no need to wait and see if your Achilles pain is something to be concerned about. We're here to take out the guesswork, that is why you're here.

Why You Shouldn't Wait Too Long Before Seeking Treatment for Your Achilles Pain

This is a common complaint: "I assumed it would go away." By the time our patients typically make it into our Rome clinic, the Achilles pain has been present for weeks and sometimes even months.

This is what happens when you wait. What begins as simple irritation in the tendon, causing micro-tears, your body begins to repair, but you continue to walk on it, and it continues to be damaged at a rate much faster than it can repair itself. Your first symptoms of morning stiffness can progress to intense pain, which is present even when you're sitting still.

It gets worse from there. Tendon damage becomes chronic. The tendon's actual structure becomes altered. The tendons can become thickened with scar tissue and lose some of their ability to expand and contract when necessary. Untreated tendons can suffer degenerative changes that are almost impossible to undo. We often see North Rome area patients who have waited so long that even walking up steps is a problem.

Failure to get help includes:

• Potential partial or complete tendon rupture necessitating surgical intervention
• Altered movement that results in increased strain and pain in the lower back, knees and hips
• Lack of muscle mass in the calf due to lack of movement
• Persistent swelling that restricts your choice of footwear and day-to-day activities

Compensation issues are very commonly found when treating patients. Your body has the ability to compensate, shifting your body weight away from the painful region. However, your opposite leg now has a bigger load on it, your walking pattern becomes altered, and your lower back becomes tight. One problem treated has turned into three or four. In nine out of 10 cases, people who come to treatment early are able to respond more quickly. If it is not treated and you keep going for six months, then the recovery will take longer. In Rome, if you have been hobbling and thinking that it is not a problem, then it probably is. Do not let a fixable issue turn into something that sidelines you for good.

Maintaining a Healthy Achilles After Treatment

This is where most people fail.

It gets better, it feels fine, and they go right back to their same life. We see this in Rome frequently. Patients finish treatment for their Achilles tendonitis, feel fine for a month, then we see them again with the same thing. This can be avoided if you want to. You have Achilles tendonitis for a reason and the work that was done changed your body's tissues that respond to stress. Your Achilles does not keep the tissue resilient for you; it requires you to keep the tissue resilient. So here is how to keep your Achilles tendonitis from happening again:

• Do your home exercises, but keep doing them. Keep doing them every day, not just for a week or when it feels good.
• Warm up before activities. Walk for five minutes before a run, no matter how small.
• Have supportive footwear. Do not wear flat sandals and run in sneakers that are old, because you will be putting stress right on your Achilles.
• Do not increase your activity level at once; you do not go from sitting on the couch to running a 5K in a day and expect to be okay.

And, if something comes back up that is feeling a little tight or sore, do not go and wait three months to call us. A short visit to check in before something is bad is better than waiting three months. We would much rather have you come to West Rome for short appointments to fix your problem early than six months from now when it gets much worse.

You can choose to add other care, such as cold laser therapy or rehabilitative exercises in Rome as part of your maintenance routine. This is optional, but it is good for people who are active and keep using their feet.

We have been able to make sure that our patients in Rome do not go back to being in the same state. Once we get a person out of the pain, the goal is to keep them out of the pain. Your Achilles tendon sent you a sign to pay attention to it. Learn more about all of the services that a chiropractor can help you with.