Achilles tendonosis!

[toots_jwu]

I will try to keep this short.  It's been 5 years since I injured my achilles tendon in my left foot.  I was rushing to work one day and thought I would do sort of a speed walk so I wouldn't be late.  Out of nowhere I felt a sharp burning pain at the back of my ankle and that was the start of problems for the next five years.  At the beginning I would take ibuprofen, stay off my feet and ice it and spent most of my walking time wobbling to take pressure off the left side.  Eventually as time went by, the burning pain only came when I was standing or walking for more than 2 hours.  Staying off my feet relieved the pain and it never hurt when I was sleeping and flash forward 5 years and I am still having a hard time walking/standing up to 2 hours and if I do the burning pain returns and I feel a tightness from the bottom of my heel all the way up to the calf.  When I am sitting i sometimes randomly feel an electric shock or tingling by the tendon.  I've had acupuncture with electricity, Graston deep tissue massage to break up scar tissue, and doing the stretch exercises.  I recently had an ultrasound and MRI and everything looks normal.  They did an EMG(sp?) to see if I have a pinched nerve but that came back normal.  So what could be wrong???

[osteon80]

I agree with Dr. Yena H Do, DPM   and would suggest you see a Board Certified Neurosurgeon who specializes in peripheral nerve microsurgery. It sounds like you LBP is being caused by malalignment in your gait. I would also suggest a differential nerve block to confirm the diagnosis .I have attached a link to help with your knowledge.


http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=dxq2p2a0f27we888&size=largest

[toots_jwu]

Thank you for replying.  I had a MRI and nothing significant showed up.  Is there another test that can show nerve damage or entrapment?  Whenever I stand/walk for a long period of time my lower back starts to hurt. Is this pain also connected to the nerve?  I also wear custom orthotics with a bit of a heel lift and they haven't helped much.  Lets say it is a nerve entrapment..what are the treatment options? Would PRP work? thanks.

[Yena H Do, DPM]

there is a sural nerve that courses next to the achilles tendon. it sounds like this nerve may be irritated by the scar fibers of the achilles tendon.
get an mri of the ankle to assess the tendon.  if the pain is near the scarred tendon, you probably have a nerve entrapment of the sural nerve.