worst dr visit ever

Why are you blaming someone for a problem you inflicted on yourself?

A tip for you, which you should have known about at your age, stay away from podiatrists and chiropractors.

Why did you see a pediatrician if you're 40?

I went to see a doctor and all he did was drink my blood. Do not go see Dr. Acula!

-Hedberg

Changes Dr if you don't like the one you are seeing

You are 40, and you have achilles tendinOSIS….you might want to take a spoonful of reality and be ready to accept that this little problem isn't going to go away with 6 weeks in a boot.

Just my 2 cents.

"she spent a total of 4.5 minutes with me. 1.5 was upselling her $40 foot lotion."

Haha...that's classic

Bad Wigins wrote:

I went to see a doctor and all he did was drink my blood. Do not go see Dr. Acula!

-Hedberg

Boo Bad Wigins! Hisssssssssss.

So you're the one who used to make that lame comment. You forgot to hide your racially-tinged name this time. What are you doing back here?

Bad Wigins wrote:

So you're the one who used to make that lame comment. You forgot to hide your racially-tinged name this time. What are you doing back here?

1) Jews aren't a race.

2) I am Jewish.

Boooo!!!! Hisssssssssss.

Achilles tendon issues should be first handled by a good chiro who is trained to do Graston technique and can get you working with a good PT on rehab exercises. If the problem cannot be resolved, then it is time to see a foot and ankle ortho to see whether surgery is necessary. Haile G had both tendons operated on. It just happens with some runners.

Podiatrist might help by looking at whether you need a heel lift to take some pressure off the tendon. But most of the time, the chiro/PT combination is the winner.

Podiatrists regularly try to hold themselves out as having expertise on running when they should not. I had a podiatrist once look at an x-ray of my foot and tell me that I did not have a stress fracture. Of course, I later learned that you cannot see a stress fracture on an x-ray. But that is just an example of how limited podiatrists can be.

I would not see anyone unless they were themselves a competitive runner or work regularly with athletes. Sports medicine would be a start, and make sure they're runners. I'm a doc and can tell you firsthand that you will not get the appropriate care with your concerns with anyone else.

A doctor's job is to get people from a state of unhealthy to a state of healthy, not a state of mostly healthy to a state of physiologic excellence. All too often runners go to see medical professionals in an attempt to optimize running performance. This has two effects: first, docs aren't trained in optimizing hemoglobin and relieving minor aches and pains. They are used to dealing with diabetic feet, broken ankles, occluded arteries, the conditions which plague most sick americans. Someone like you walks into the office its bound to get blown off.

I can imagine a doc already busy and behind schedule dealing with serious injuries and sick patients and then a pretty healthy athlete like yourself comes in with aches and pains? You're going to get put on the back burner unless the doctor sees your problem as serious as you do. Only a competitive runner will understand this and as you've seen, even then they sometimes won't. Second, the literature just isn't there for most runner's problems for the same reasons i've already mentioned. There is no clear evidence for how to treat suboptimal running performance and aches/pains besides just saying "take time off", which is also a great way to avoid lawsuit. The rule is "first, do no harm". take time off is their safest way to treat you and also avoid a lawsuit.

You should know that I 100% agree with you on how you were treated, but you need to know why this is happening. My advice would be take some aleve and train through it as best you can, ice after runs, warm up on a bike, and tough it out, because anyone who tells you adjusting your back or whatever alternative methods out there will work is not speaking from evidence based and best practice research, and likely will be telling you what you want to hear and taking your money. Get better and good luck, I mean that.

That's nothing dude, I went in for a root canal and came out with a vagina.

This has certainly been my experience with podiatrists.

I guess the new slogan is "First, do no harm, and second, turn down no opportunity to charge an insurance company, even if you can't/won't/have no interest in helping the policyholder."

ha...good stuff. I used to be a ~2:30 marathoner. I know this is not fast but I want to be able to run in the 2:45 range again. Pains of getting old.

calcaneusita wrote:

...had Achilles tendonitis for years.

Here's something I've learned from my 35+ years of running. When you're seeing a doc with no results........ see another doc.

Precious Roy had some good advice. Follow his suggestions.

Oh, and on the boot... stretching a tendon before it heals can re-injure it, so healing has to start over. That might be what you're doing.

Based on the long time you've had this injury, you probably have some scar tissue buildup. You'll have to get it stripped out by someone who knows how to do it, or it could need surgery. I do know from personal experience that Achilles tendons can take a very long time to heal completely.

It isn't that she doesn't care at all, it is just most are not really trained to treat Achilles issues. Why they even try I don't understand. Walking boot? There couldn't be a bigger mistake after the acute phase is over. As Precious Roy said, Graston is an awesome technique for this, especially if it is not directly over the calcaneus (insertional). PT's can do it, chiropractors can do it. Technically podiatrists could do it, but it takes more than 5 minutes to treat and stretch so most are not interested in doing it. Of course her correct response should have been that she wasn't the best person to treat you and she should have sent you elsewhere.

Yes, I so do hear you on this post.

My 45 plus years as a competitive track/road racer/marathoner and now, more of a rec. hobby runner - early years I would get nagging somewhat painful problems, not completly stopping my training but hard to ignore; go to my GP and yup, get blown off, problem minimized as well as the familiar "rest it" or was even told to stop running forever (age 28) result of x-ray showing chondromalasia of kneecap.

I, naively mistakenly believed it WAS the family Drs'. job to get me to a state of physiologic excellence. It was my job as well as a good PT or a coach for that.

A sports Dr. who is/was a runner is the best answer. However, I have found chiros, deep tissue massage, does help.

Wondering if a well-known Sports Med. Dr., former 2:20's marathoner in Richmond, Vancouver, BC is still in practice. Probably a lot more of these around, especially now that we boomers from a lifetime of running as well as other sports are still actively pursuing fitness.

To the OP here, the best of luck.

Ha..if she really cared about anything but racking up another chargeable office visit, she would have told him point blank that she can't help him. Period.

Tip wrote:

A tip for you, which you should have known about at your age, stay away from podiatrists and chiropractors.

Especially stay away from all allopathic doctor quacks.