One Year After Insertional Achilles Re-Injury

By | July 30, 2014

So it’s been just over a year now since I last aggravated my achilles tendon. As per my other posts – my problem is at the insertion point, not further up the tendon which is much more common (and apparently much easier to treat).

I’m happy to say that I am fully healed. But I have to qualify what “fully” means. My Sports Medicine Doc stated last year that this was a chronic thing for me, that I’ll always have it and it can be re-aggravated at any time. That said, I have been playing squash 2 or 3 times per week now for about 3 months. The first few weeks I did get some soreness at the insertion point as a result. I kept playing and ignored it. I’m glad I did, as I have virtually no pain ever now. And even better, I’m in the best shape of my life, as squash is a very demanding sport, particularly for guys like me that are not all that good at it. As a result of this lack of skill, I have to sprint to get to the ball constantly, making very sharp stops/starts and cuts. Perhaps most jarring is landing with all weight on one leg at times in order to stretch and reach the ball with my racquet.

As I write this, it just hit me that I have not been stretching the last month or so prior to playing squash. That’s probably not a good thing, but goes to show the flexibility and strengthening exercises I’ve outlined on this site before have seemingly worked well for me. Main reason I haven’t continued the stretching is due to time – often I show up and have to start playing right away, after a quick warm-up of hitting the ball back and forth with my partner(s). During the warm-up I do try to loosen up the legs as best I can, but I really should stretch as a precaution. I typically do some static stretching afterward, particularly the gastroc/wall stretches.

So that’s the update. It was last Summer about this time when I re-injured the achilles. I’m so thrilled with my progress since then. I’m seemingly ‘cured’ but I know that at any time it could be re-aggravated. Until then, I’ll take my chances and live my life actively, having as much fun as I can. I wish everyone who is battling this injury the same result.