Met with my podiatrist today, and the news remains the same: No good solution.
The pain that encouraged me to quit my job is with me for life. The picture attached to this post isn’t my foot (those files are locked in some medical system), but it should give an idea of what the kind of spur I have looks like.
In short, normal wear and tear, and sometimes trauma, causes irritation at the point where the Achilles tendon attaches to the heal bone. The body responds by trying to re-enforce the bone. Over time this becomes a boney spur growing inside the tendon. And in my case there are additional boney deposits above the spur. Strain on the tendon causes considerable pain.
Surgery requires detaching the tendon, cutting out all the boney bits inside the tendon, then reattaching the tendon with anchor points into the bone. This puts me off my feet foot for a month and after that I’m in a hard plastic boot until the tendon naturally reattaches itself. Once it’s good, it’s rinse and repeat for the other foot. I’ll be out of commission for at least six months as long as nothing goes wrong, like the tendon ripping loose from the anchor points.
The “fix” isn’t possible for me. As a single parent, I have to get my kids to and fro. I don’t have anyone else I can rely on, dependably, to take over that responsibility for six months. That leaves me with the alternative of just stretches, massages, shoes inserts and specialized shoes to try and reduce the strain on my Achilles.
Stretching and massaging that tendon is … well … it’s fucking painful. I don’t like it. It’s like willingly jabbing a knife in my foot. I suspect not many are super keen on shoving a blade into their Achilles. I could be wrong, and in that case, to whomever would like that, I wish we could swap feet and you could enjoy all the glorious pain by just bending your foot. However, I’d recommend seeing a therapist.
The doc did give one additional idea, and he warned me it was pricy: Hoka shoes. They are shoes specialized for runners by having a thicker, softer cushion on the heel, offering to reduce stress on the tendon. He wasn’t kidding; these shoes run $150 plus, without some overpaid athlete’s shadow stitched in. But when you live with this kind of pain, you’re willing to try anything if it reduces the pain and helps prevent further damage. I’ve already started looking for a pair.
Meanwhile, I need to obtain a habit of causing myself pain in hopes that it keeps the tendons loose. Sounds like a guano-crazy idea but I got married twice, so willingly causing myself pain shouldn’t be anything new.