Strassburg Sock for Achilles Tendinitis

Partial tear of Achilles playing competitive tennis. Still feeling the effects over two years afterwards. Have tried many treatments. Orthodics, NSAIDs, and high quality brace have been the most helpful but not enough to resume competitve play. Discouraged.

I had a similar issue and after months of not getting better had to lay off completely for a.few months. I ice with a bag of peas twice a day. Chose shoes with a very soft straight up and down heel counter (nb minimus) and Brooks pure cadence because shoes with a hard heel counter was mechanically irritating the heel. I used a Strasburg sock and night splint while relaxing in the evening and tried to sleep with it sometimes. Highly recommended.

I struggled with insertional achilles tendinitis for 2.5 years. What eventually got it to go away for good was when I took 4 months completely off having had knee surgery for a very chronic tendinitis that had lingered for 7-8 years that I could no longer run through (the cyst didn't help things).
My doctor tried nitroglycerin patches on the achilles to promote blood flow (like what older people wear on their hearts), no benefit was seen. IT tape gave me a mental boost, but was more like a band aid to the issue, exercises and icing (both ice bags and ice cups) were also band aids to the issue. I was doing heat pads before any run, stretching, rolling out with the stick, and tons of eccentric exercises every day). I even tried sleeping in a Strassburg Sock every night. They got me by where I could still compete for my University (except xc my senior year and a couple of indoor seasons) but the only thing that solved the issue for me was knee surgery and the subsequent time off.
(Disclaimer: knee surgery worked for me, but if you don't have a reason to get knee surgery, don't!)
Things I learned from this ordeal: 13 miles at 2:30 in the morning on an iced over track the day before we left for an indoor meet was a bad idea. Stable surfaces are your friend. Middle Tennessee has arguably the worst indoor track on the planet. If you are extremely tight the day before a race, talk to a trainer, they can help (I chalked it up to sitting on the bus for a while). Finally, if your achilles looks like someone stuck a purple golf ball in it, then DON'T RUN

Tried ALL therapy, recovering now from surgery.

Hurt Achilles playing in softball league. Quick start push off. Struggled with pain , inflammation. Did 15 PT sessions , two Dr visits. Anti inflammatories , stem , exercises , stretching. Finally pain/inflammation gone but tendon is thickened with lump. Some slight swelling.

July 2014 will be 2 yrs with achilles tendonitis. I sustained the injury not from running but from being too aggressive on the treadmill. I have been to 3 doctors, physical therapy-ESTIM, ASTYM, a walking boot, sleeping boot, acupuncture then finally surgery consisting of shaving down a thickening of the inner heel bone from achilles bursitis and repairing an achilles tendon and then there was the Brisment procedure where by 50 pinholes are made in the achilles to stimulate healing and still no relief. I just purchased the Strassburg stocking and have started wearing it. It does help with the morning stiffness. Most of my pain is walking after a rest period. It can take almost 24 hrs to ease up but then it starts up again. Ice is my best friend. My freezer is full of ice packs but of course it is only temporary relief. The only shoes I can wear are athletic shoes with an orthotic and now was recommended a heel lift (i already had several of them) I am starting eccentric exercises (for insertional tendonitis) now to see if they help and am going to purchase a foam roller to use. If any of the reader have any other suggestions I am open to them.

I've had it for a couple years with a couple of bad bouts. Eccentric heel drops and the Strassburg sock were most effective for me.

Other things that were helpful: Ibuprofen (800mg 3 times per day), foam rolling, stretching, light running/biking/etc (when you can do so pain free).

Don't rest it too much. The achilles needs blood flow to heal itself.

For chronic achilles tendonitis...

Things I tried that didn't work:
? eccentric heel drops
? rest
? ice
? heat
? sports massage
? heel wedges in shoes
? cast/boot

Things I tried that did work (in order from best to worst):
? strassburg sock
? graston (got it from a PT first then did it on my own with a butterknife)
? ibuprofen (especially before bed, after graston/scraping. 800mg three times daily for a week or two)
? foam rolling (twice a day)
? consistent stretching (3-4 times a day)
? continued easy running
? eccentric heel drops (3x15 twice daily progressively adding weight to backpack. 12 weeks minimum.)

A few disclaimers... eccentric heels drops didn't work when things were really sore/inflamed, but did help as a preventative once things calmed down a bit.

My main problem was lack of flexibility, which I believe is why the strassburg sock/stretching/foam rolling etc was effective. If you're tight, you can do anything you want, but until you increase your range of motion, you'll continue to have problems.

Anything that got blood flow to the area made the quickest, most drastic difference with recovery. The tricky part is doing that without making it worse. Also, in my case, I noticed some "gentle" activities like biking actually made me more tight, which was counter-productive. And that's the main reason I continued to run instead of bike. Waiting until you can run pain-free is important.

I eventually learned what kind of "discomfort" I could and couldn't train through. It's a really tricky injury and can last for a long time (years).