Get used to it.. wrote:
OP...how many Graston treatments have you had? Did the treatments result in pettechial rash? Was the practitioner certified? We're treatments followed by stretching? The point of Grafton is the same as PrP, prolotherapy and the surgery are the same but you at least need several treatments in most cases to see if it will work, es0ecially if you are continuing to run. Dry needling isn't as helpful on a tear. I would certainly get an MRI before letting someone cut into you. You may also want to look into extra corporeal shock wave therapy.
Thanks for the replies.
I had many Graston treatments over the course of some years; the most frequency was about 1-2 times per week for some months, perhaps 20 in total for that sequence, and over the course of the last 3 years, maybe 40 altogether, with 3 different doctors. Actually one of the chiropractors said his normal policy was to treat someone no more than 8 times, because if he hadn't fixed it by the 8th visit, you needed something else. This particular doctor was certified and has quite a name in the field, nationally, giving talks and conferences to other doctors in various locales. He did it intensely; I had bleeding/bruising below the skin.
The Graston and ART always helped it temporarily; I often felt that if I could "freeze" my Achilles right in the condition it was walking out of a Graston treatment, I'd be set. But within a day or so it would revert to the same moderately uncomfortable feeling it normally had. It was explained to me that an actual tear wasn't going to be fixed by Graston.
I used to do the minimalist shoes/barefoot stuff, with great success for about 4 years, but then over the last 3 years I've had this problem, so recently I switched to the built up/large heel-type of trainer for walking around or for those brief 20 minute runs I do 1-3 times per week.
I have scheduled a dry needling appointment, to see if it would help me avoid the surgery.