My Achilles Tendonitis Success Story

Just sent this to my friend Dan. Need to have it here so it's easy to point to!
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Dan -

It was great to see you; torture device and all. Kick that boot!

Here's a URL for a description of the Swedish Study, I actually dug up and read the paper from Sweden, and this is a good summary:

http://www.carletonsportsmed.com/chronic_achilles_tendinitis.htm

The key point is that 15 people tried the traditional things at this hospital, they all failed to improve. 15 tried what I did, they all, like me, got totally better. Duh.

Forget about the instruction in the paper, though. Just do what I did. Lifts (as described in the paper) with legs relatively straight, then with knees bent partway, then with knees bent a lot. 10-20 reps each, 2-3x/day. On some sturdy step at least a few inches off the ground. It's going down, not up, that does the trick, so do that slowly & under control. Don't let any other part of your body do the work, so only hold on with your fingertip so that you don't fall over. You can add weight, but you and I are heavy enough as it is.

Count to 8 weeks, notice how much better you are already. Keep it up for a while after that (like 8 months if you can). Once my calf muscles got strong, I didn't have to do any more. But if I lay off DDR, my tendon starts to gripe a little, so I have to do some more lifts. My muscles jump right back, my tendon feels better. It's ironic that when I STOP working it, it gets worse.

It's like magic.

I first saw an orthopedist in January of 2003. I then did everything: saw 3 doctors, months of physical therapy, electricity though the tendon, left leg in a walking cast, x-rays, MRI, massage to break up the scar tissue, medicinal patches. Blah, blah. My tendons only got worse. My MRIs showed several small tears, and one relatively larger one. (But the best orthopedist I saw told me that--even though one other told me it might very well snap at any moment and I should stay off it and surgery was probably in the cards--if he cut away my flesh and tried to pull my tendon apart with his bare hands, he was sure he wouldn't be able to. My kind of doctor...).

I saw Brian, the personal trainer who fixed me, in late December, 2004, 2 years into this odyssey. The next time I saw him it was a month and a half later, and I was well on my way to success. By March or so I was fine (notice how well this corresponds to the 12 weeks in the study). By summer, a year or so ago, I forgot I had a problem with my ankles, and I almost never remember any more. Every doctor told me I would never get to that point, even with surgery. I'm sure they were right, at least with surgery.

- Josh