Heel/Achilles Problem (a thread for people who stand all day)

[Bombared]

So, my heel hurts. Had somebody tell me it's heel spurs, and that just didn't make sense.

A little back story:

I'm pretty sure this is a result of my poor foot placement in combination with working food service. I'm always on my feet, and I know I put entirely too much of my weight on my heels. Almost all of my weight, to be more accurate. While working food service I'm standing all the time.

For a little while, I thought that it may have been a direct result of a vehicle collision from sept 2007. I've been getting the pain for sometime. After awhile, the location of the pain, and the fact that it in the bad leg, the good leg, or sometimes both made me wonder. I had trouble finding anything about it, so I gave up research. I started looking it up again recently, and I think I have a better idea now.

The pain in particular is right at the bursas. Sometimes it goes away, but it usually comes back. I had one hell of a sesh last night, but about halfway through my achilles really started to hurt. This was the first time it has ever been painful to the touch, but it still has never swelled.



SO! Input? Nurses, food workers, service, retail, etc.
Anybody have the same problem?
How did you deal with it?

I have a doc appointment on the 4th, by the way.

[BlueSteel82]

I know a little something about Achilles' pain. I snapped both of mine, one after the other, playing basketball after I deliberately ignored the pain and warning signs. Achilles' tendon tears are NOT fun injuries.

I busted the first one, my left, during a game of pickup basketball at the Y. It snapped after I landed when jumping for a rebound. It made a loud noise that other people heard, and it felt like someone had kicked me really hard in the back of the leg. When I was unable to control my foot is when I knew the tendon had torn and rolled up into my calf. I got surgery 3 days later to repair it. This was followed by 6 weeks in a hard cast, ~5 weeks in a boot, then 3 months of rehab.

After I finished my rehab and was fully re-covered, I ventured back onto the basketball court. The very first pick-up game I played, I snapped the OTHER achilles'. My doctor thinks it was because I had put so much weight on the other foot during my first injury. Well, there went another 5-6 months of surgery, cast, boot, and re-hab.

So, to take it form someone who's snapped both of his Achilles' within the same year, stay off your feet as much as possible, and don't try to push yourself. If I could go back and listent o my body's warning signs, I would in a second.

The doctor told me that Achilles' injuries are one of the worse leg injuries, worse than breaking your leg, or tearing an ACL, because of the way the have to set your foot after surgery, with your toe pointing downward so the tendon does not stretch before it is fully healed. This makes it really easy to re-injure the tendon during the healing process, as you cannot put any weight on that leg for 6-7 weeks after surgery. Both my injured legs atrophied in the process, and rehab was a painful process trying to get back to walking and running.

So again, just make sure you listen to your doctor, and try and stay off your feet and away from any really strenous activity (on your legs) while you heal up.

[teejmac]

So, my heel hurts. Had somebody tell me it's heel spurs, and that just didn't make sense.

A little back story:

I'm pretty sure this is a result of my poor foot placement in combination with working food service. I'm always on my feet, and I know I put entirely too much of my weight on my heels. Almost all of my weight, to be more accurate. While working food service I'm standing all the time.

For a little while, I thought that it may have been a direct result of a vehicle collision from sept 2007. I've been getting the pain for sometime. After awhile, the location of the pain, and the fact that it in the bad leg, the good leg, or sometimes both made me wonder. I had trouble finding anything about it, so I gave up research. I started looking it up again recently, and I think I have a better idea now.

The pain in particular is right at the bursas. Sometimes it goes away, but it usually comes back. I had one hell of a sesh last night, but about halfway through my achilles really started to hurt. This was the first time it has ever been painful to the touch, but it still has never swelled.



SO! Input? Nurses, food workers, service, retail, etc.
Anybody have the same problem?
How did you deal with it?

I have a doc appointment on the 4th, by the way.

I have noticed this in me too. I am a server so I am on my feet all the time and when I do skate, I notice around my ankles will start hurting and burning like hell. Usually I will just jump off of my board and take a little break but I also have a tendency to just ignore it because I want to skate.