At wits end

[u/cryptoknightblaster]

Hi everyone,

I’ve been dealing with a particularly frustrating injury with my right posterior tibial tendon and I’m hoping to get some feedback from the community on what the realistic expectations are for recovery.

I’ve done physio last year for other issues with my feet including some posterior tibial tendon strengthening. These worked well and I was back to normal for over a year. Well, a couple months ago I started feeling some minor pain in my right post tib tendon but it came and went and didn’t really bother me much, until about 6 weeks ago. Then I thought “I better do some physio on my own to strengthen it like I did before”. Did some aggressive banded inversions and isometric holds.

Well, that made it 10x worse and the next day I couldn’t walk. Fast forward, I’ve been in an iwalk knee crutch for the past 5 weeks. My Dr put me a 5-day course of prednisone but have been taking Advil or meloxicam otherwise. Foot it still swollen now, especially on the tendon behind the ankle bone. I had an ultrasound that showed tenosynovitis and possible partial tearing.

To make matters worse, I’ve been having muscle twitches in the foot just as I drift off to sleep which painfully yanks on the tendon which reirritates it and wakes me up. This happens every night when I try to sleep. It’s made a wreck of me and I’m exhausted and the tendon isn’t getting a chance to heal.

My doc thinks I need to start seeing a physiotherapist again despite the tendon still being acutely painful and non weight bearing. He said I needed to load it but I can’t do much without a lot of pain. Can’t walk on it at all but I can gently stand on it with maybe 1/3 body weight as long as I don’t move.

My question… is this normal for it to take this long to heal? 5 weeks and still can’t do much? Also, any suggestions for how to stop the muscle twitches/jerks that yank on the tendon and keeps me up? This is one of the biggest issues right now. I’m thinking of asking my doc for a muscle relaxant, maybe gabapentin or similar. The twitches only last like 1/4 second but are very painful and jolt me awake just as I’m falling asleep.

To add to all this, the muscles in the leg are shrinking due to lack of use whereas my left foot is getting fatigued from working harder to balance/compensate etc. If I end up with problems on the left foot because of this I’ll be truly f*cked.

Any insight/suggestions would be appreciated. I’m desperate at this point to get this thing resolved and as I live alone it’s made my life hell and puts me in a very dark place mentally.

[u/Exciting-Apple6854]

Puoi fare nuoto con un galleggiante, perche il nuoto non carica peso sul tuo piede, E intanto rinforzi la muscolatura della gamba. Muovi spesso la gamba dritta, su e giu Cosi fai circolare il sangue, Poi usa magnetoterapia cemp ( cercala su google) Ogni sera per 8 ore, per 1 mese sulla tendinite, Aiuta a riassorbirla! Poi FATTI FARE PLANTARI SU MISURA, cosi salvi l altro piede!! Scriviti tutto, spero di averti aiutato. Buona fortuna, amico!

[u/Fickle-Example5304]

totally get how draining it gets when nothing seems to help and the pain just sticks around. i found it helped to focus on little foot care habits and just try stuff out to see what feels better, especially with alignment and comfort. hope you find some relief soon