August 4, 2007
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Achilles Tendonitis
Achilles tendonitis (or tendinitis) is inflammation of Achilles tendon. Achilles tendon is the tendon (tough fibrous tissues) that attaches the calf muscle with the back of the heel bone. Having Achilles tendonitis is no fun. I know because I have it for two months now, with no relief in sight. I experience a pull and pain in the back of my heel when I try to take a step.After trying some commonly recommended home remedies with no relief, I had to see an orthopedist for specialized treatment. He said that as the site of my inflammation is right over the heel bone (back of the heel), injecting cortisone locally is very difficult. So he prescribed me a contraption called “removable walking boot”. The purpose of it is to immobilize the area (ankle joint) without using plaster cast, thereby allowing the Achilles tendon to rest and heal by itself. I am immensely grateful to my orthopedist for not putting the plaster cast on my leg in this hot (and mostly humid) weather.
The nurse showed me how to use this contraption and put the thing on for me the first time. I was turned into a clown immediately. First of all, the thing is so bulky (and it literally comes upto my knee) that my trouser leg do not go over it. So my trouser leg had be pulled up above my knee and had to be left there. Secondly, the sole of the contraption is so thick that my affected leg instantly became longer than the good leg because on that good foot I had my regular dress shoe with a not-so-thick sole. Thirdly, the “removable walking boot” has a hard (plastic) and curved (convex) bottom so that it can rock (to compensate for my immobile ankle making forward movement possible). It is impossible to walk “normally” with this boot on. If you have to walk with this thing on, you are bound to amuse the onlookers without any special effort from your side.
So I walked out of the doctor’s office with different kinds of footwear on my two feet, trouser leg pulled over the knee on one leg, and a terrible gait. Even the taxi driver felt sympathetic when I had great difficulty in getting into the back seat of the taxi with very little leg room and a huge knee-high boot in summer! When I arrived in front of my house and was struggling to get out, the driver suggested that I first lie down on the back seat, and then gently slide myself out of the taxi!
The next thing I had to do was to go out and buy myself a whole new wardrobe. This is because I realized that I cannot go to work with one leg of my dress pants pulled over the knee for the next six weeks! (The orthopedist said that I had to use this boot for at least six weeks.) My wife and I figured out that wearing shorts was the only solution. But as I never wear shorts (it is just not my style), I had no shorts. So that evening we went out to the Mall and bought a few pairs of shorts, some T-shirts and knit shirts to go with them (I normally wear dress shirts), and a few pairs of over-the-calf all cotton socks. Long socks were suggested by the nurse. She warned me that I might have skin irritation if I did not use long socks with this boot, because the boot is made up of all man-made stuff, nothing natural!
When I arrived at the office the next day, it was a hilarious scene. Everybody started laughing seeing me in my new style – boot, shorts and all. Noticing my terrible gait, because of unequal leg length, a colleague became so sympathetic that she offered to loan me a pair of crutches that were lying in her basement. I gratefully accepted her offer. So from next day, I am compensating the shortness of my one leg (the good leg) with one crutch.
To make my Achilles Tendonitis days memorable, another colleague took some pictures of me. I am posting some of these pictures here, so that everybody can have a laugh at my expense! With me in the pictures, is a third colleague. She fell down from a bus two days before I got my boot. A large part of her skin on one arm, from elbow to wrist, got scraped off. She will be in bandages for some time now. Suddenly, our office room started looking like a hospital room.
You don’t want to have Achilles Tendonitis.
