Please Help!! Insertional Achilles Tendonitis Not Going Away

Looks like I'm late to the party...but just incase there's anyone here still suffering with an Achilles injury, wanted to share what worked for me. I use the BFST from King Brand and I recommend it to everyone. I had tendinitis in my wrist in 2018 and I went from shooting pain with any movement of my hand to being able to use my hand and wrist without even thinking about it. From my understanding it works the same on any muscles, tendons or ligaments. It was such an easy treatment compared to some of the things they want you to go through at the doctor's. So few people know that it's even an option for soft tissue injuries and if I'd known sooner I would've spent a lot less time in pain.

Best of luck to you and I hope you can get back to your routine soon!

any update on your situation BumAchilles?

Looking for some advice on my Achilles pain have a bump at the Achilles insertion point. Got an ultrasound came back with fluid in the retrocalcaneal bursa and distal focal tenditis with tendon thickening. Been about 2 months haven’t seen any improvement. Have had X-ray aswell and shows no calcification around the insertion point of the Achilles came back normal. Will the bump go away ? How long take for symptoms to decrease haven’t run in 3 weeks now.

I am the original poster. It has been so long and I’m using a different laptop, so I guess I can no longer post under my original name.

My main piece of advice is to attack the problem as soon as possible and as aggressively as possible. My second piece of advice is to fully accept that it might be a year or more before you’re running comfortably again. It could very well be less, but I wish looking back that I had just accepted the fact that treating tendons is a long, slow process. I kept getting my hopes up, putting races on the calendar, and then just would obviously end up scratching everything since my pain never improved. Honestly, that made it so much harder than just acknowledging that achilles issues suck and you really can’t rush them. Find other things to focus on the meantime while you heal! I moved to San Francisco and spent all my time studying for the MCAT. It was a good distraction.

It’s great there’s no calcification around the insertion. Mine was the same. I had significant thickening of the tendon with basically no blood flow to the area. I ended up going with tenex (I think there was a thread made on this a few months ago already where someone was posting updates?). I had it done at the end of last summer. Just started running two weeks ago. Mine was slower to heal than most. My most recent ultrasound shows a bit of thickening tendon and still some areas of no blood flow, but it looks more normal than before. Honestly, I took so much time off that I’m not sure if the tenex did anything or if it was all of the rest that I took. I still do recommend it though. I tried everything else. Pain is probably a 2/10. I don’t believe it’ll ever be 0, but a 2 is significantly better than before. Also, I still have the bump. It’s a bit smaller, though. Not sure if that ever goes away completely.

So, in my experience, 3 weeks is nothing for achilles injuries. Look into tenex. I feel like all of those eccentric exercises that everyone recommends are for more mild cases of achilles tendonitis. Start doing them in PT after you have tenex done. I didn’t cross train at all, but I surprisingly don’t feel that out of shape. I spent a lot of time doing some hip/glute/core work and a lot of general strengthening instead. PT is extremely important after the procedure as your ankle range of motion and calf/achilles strength will be very weak.

My pain point: please don’t be me! Don’t just rest and wait for it to heal. That could take a year or more for it to heal on its own. Good luck! Achilles injuries are the worst, but you’ll come out of it with a new appreciation for running.

Wishing you the best! If you have any other questions, I'll check back on this thread in a few days.