posterior tibialis tendonitis--does it ever heal??

I've had PTT for about 11 months in varying stages of severity. Right now it's about the least painful it's been since it started up, but I still have pain at least a few runs a month. I tried some strentgthening exercises, ice, etc., but they didn't have any effect, and otherwise haven't changed anything. I've just kind of accepted it as 'the way it is'. Different shoes seem to bring on symptoms, so I avoid those shoes. Sorry, no miracle cure I have found.

Hmm...good to know, sounds a little like what's been going on here. Also have found that a lot of uphill bothers it as well. It would be great to totally get rid of it though, it's driving me nuts.

I did a lot of treadmill running when it was really painful, about four months worth. Once it settled down, I gradually made my way back to the roads. Mine was initially aggravated by a bony growth on my anterior/medial tibia. The growth is still there, but the PTT pain is mostly gone. Softer surfaces might help. Almost no hills around here, so I can't say if hills aggravate mine. Good luck.

can someone explain to me the difference between posterior tibials and anterior tibialis (in terms of the specific location of pain)

anterior tibialis is on the anterior (a.k.a. the lateral, or a.k.a. the outside) of your shin. Posterior refers to the portion running along the medial side, or inside. Just anatomy lingo.

I had pain for about 10 days and i just got over it(mine was anterior). Basically my shins were tight because my calves and gastrics were tight so it was putting more pressure on the tendon. Stretching helped and once i did that, it fixed itself. Icing and massaging/rolling the shins helped a ton. It was least painful running on the track and turf. Hope this helps.

i had this problem for years and kept getting misdiagnosed with stress fractures when it got really bad. to be fair, i dunno if it was tendonitis, but the pain at the attachment site on the tibia of both shins ranged from irritating to excruciating whenever i got above 35mpw or so for more than a few weeks at a time.

after i diagnosed myself (thanks, "Gray's Anatomy of the Human Body"!), i started religiously ice massaging (pushing hard as hell, to really loosen up that tissue behind the tibia) and it started to get better.

i only got totally over it, though, when i made the minimalism switch. ever since i started training in flats, i haven't had a single overuse injury and i don't even need to ice massage anymore.

bump

I dealt with it on and off for a couple years, the only thing that really got it under control was ART (Active Release Therapy) hurt like hell when i was getting it worked on...but after three/four sessions it was basically gone and hasn't really reappeared too much.

common wrote:

Mine was initially aggravated by a bony growth on my anterior/medial tibia.

Big mistake here. Should have been posterior/medial tibia.

holy shins. wrote:

I've had some posterior tib tendonitis on the medial side of one ankle for several months. After allowing the initial injury (a slight tear) to heal completely, which took about 3 months, I got orthotics and made sure I was in the proper shoe, do the strengthening, ice it everyday, etc etc etc. Then I started running again and am nearly back to my pre-injury mileage (about 80 mpw). Since then, after almost 9 months, I have been running but will often have some pain in the tendon during a run, it'll go away, come back, go away, come back, and it'll usually be sore post run but doesn't really seem that much worse for the wear by the next day. Just really annoying and unsettling. Anyone ever have posterior tibialis tendonitis that ever went away?

I had it and pretty much followed the same treatment as you. The pain will go in time but with me it took a couple of years at least. I still wear orthotics but I'd try and not to get reliant on them if possible. I now have to wear some all the time and its a bit of a pain. There might be something you can do to reduce reliance on the tib post or, if the injury was down to a trauma rather than a underlying biomechanical prob you might be able to phase out the orthotics gradually over a period of several months.

I still get pain every once in a while but you learn to live with it.

this has pretty much ended my running career - i've tried orthotics, strenghtnening, rest, everything. it seems like it never goes away...maybe i'll try ART or ice massage..5 years of this shit really sucks though.

Hey 'where's the problem' are you able to train as you normally would and race as well? The trouble is I can't figure out if it's just kind of a nagging pain that will always be there despite the damage being healed (it was a a bit of trauma in combination with some mechanical stuff, from some sharp turns on a race course in addition to the affected foot being much flatter than the opposite), or if it isn't all the way healed. I have seen quite a substantial amount of improvment over the last few months, it just seems as though I've sort of hit a block. I don't know if this is as good as it gets or if I still need to be cautious. Can't really decide my stance on orthotics though. I had them several years ago for a knee issue, orthotics really helped that and I was injury free for 3 years, so I got rid of them a couple years back and am wondering if that may have contributed to this--probably. So it's win-lose with those things. But I am doing a ton of foot strengthening as well so maybe I can reduce reliance on them. Anyways sorry about that tangent.

Hey, struggling, if you are stil there after two mos, can you do ANY runing? After months of hassle trying to figure out how I woke up disabled one day, I've been able to pretty surely diagnose this as PTT. Months of PF treatment till they told me it wasn't PF and "we don't know what it is"

Anyway, do you--any of you--recomend trying to run thru the pain, or are you likely to tear? Can you just shuffle a little? Fast light steps, wearing a brace? Anything?This is hell. It hurts all day long and all might, like a throbing toothache and giant canker sore on both feet.

Sorry about previous post misspellings, atrocious and rather funny-sounding. Just typos, lots of sticking computer keys, and no reviewing.

My daughter had posterior tibialis pain that was diagnosed by many professionals as tendonitus, stress fractures and none of the doctors could figure out how to cure her. She had this same pain in her calf for over two years, and missed most of her high school career after being a state champion early on. Several months ago she was cured. We saw a new chiropractor who practices ART and the Graston technique. He said immediately that she had a mild form of compression syndrome. After only two weeks of ART and using what looks like a butter knife on her, her pain went away and has not returned. She is now training on a D1 team. The symptoms described sound similar: pain in the PT area either during a run or immediately after, but the pain was usually gone in one hour or by the next day. She wears orthodics because of a biomechanical issue and a low arch. I'd highly recommend ART.

Wow...interesting this post came back. Finally got orthotics and did a lot of strenghthening and am back to where I was before with almost no pain. Took a very long time to go away. Whoever asked about "waking up one day disabled" and trying to run through it, are you sure you're dealing with ptt??? Sounds more like an sfx or something. PTT tends to be a bit more gradual most of the time as it is tendonitis. Wouldn't recommend running through this one, it's the easiest tendon in the body to rupture, it's a bitch to heal so get treatment asap.

Holy Shins - What strengthening exercises did you do?

I'm wondering how the chiro. did the work: would he be pressing into the upper calf(and ham)while she was face down, and slowly flexing the foot as he pressed in? This is the treatment I had about five times so far and there is no pain relief. He's also done Graston, applied only to my arch so far, and to no avail.

My pain is mostly residing in the arch, where the tendon wraps itself, and I cannot even walk for days if I try to run a mile or two. This has been going on for months. Did your daughter have any arch pain, and was she ever in foot pain throughout the day?

I have not been diagnosed with PTT; it is just a self diagnosis, so I am wondering if it can manifest itself with mostly arch pain. If not I gotta figure out what I have(PF was ruled out by various podiatrists, who are baffled).