Posts by Maria Brown11

My right Achilles heel has been acting up since last fall. I’m 50, and this past summer I was pretty active—hitting the Power Plate three times a week and playing tennis twice a week. There wasn't even one specific moment where I felt something snap; it just started as this nagging ache in the tendon first thing in the morning or after sitting still for too long. Once I get moving and warmed up, walking feels fine, and I can still stand on my toes without an issue. Over the winter, I did about ten sessions of ultrasound therapy, but then I kind of let it slide. I eventually went back to a sports doctor who did maybe four rounds of shockwave therapy—sort of like that lithotripsy thing they do for kidney stones—but he basically told me nothing had really changed. I finally went in for an MRI yesterday, and here’s the breakdown: there's a moderate effusion in the posterior paratenon space. The Achilles heel itself shows fusiform thickening, mostly centered in the middle third, measuring 38 mm in the longitudinal axis and 14x9 mm on the cross-section. Within the posterior aspect of the thickened tendon, there's a minor focus of intermediate signal suggesting some slight softening. No signs of superficial structure damage, just some mild peritenonitis. There's also moderate effusion in the sheath of the flexor hallucis longus and tibialis posterior muscles, which looks like sequelae from a partial rupture at the insertion level. Everything else looks normal.
I'm showing these results to my doctor tomorrow, but I'm already bracing myself for whatever he says. Honestly, I'm already looking for a second opinion. Thanks in advance.