Forums >Health and Nutrition>Cortisone shot for Insertional Achilles Tendinitis?
Derek
Good Bad & The Monkey
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
I have an opinion on this, but want to make sure I understand your view before I posit it.
A Saucy Wench
I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets
"When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7
One day at a time
Somewhat threadjacking question....a few years ago I was in PT for achilles stuff and they did a treatment where they applied steroid through a gel and used electric current to drive it in to the tendon. Crap I am totally losing my terminology. It was the same type of electrical PT that I had had before, but they put steroid on the pad. I know at the time they said it was something that was just being tried, not standard yet. I've never heard of it since. Anyway, I only mention it because it seemed to work so well for me and theoretically had the advantage of localized steroid but without the risks of injection scarring. It cleared up my tendonitis in one application. Has anyone else ever had this done?
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Thanks everyone for the advice. I decided to go ahead and get the Cortisone, but please be assured that I took everyone's advice into consideration. I also asked my Ortho about the tendon weakening it and he mentioned that the tendon ruptures are actually associated more with shots into the tendon 2-3″ above where my shot would be. I decided to go ahead with the shot under the following conditions: * I would only get ONE shot in my right heel. I may get one in my left heel in the future, but I’ll only do one shot in any given area. I’m hoping that one shouldn’t cause an issue with tendon weakness. * I’ll see how the shot works out and if I find that it doesn’t help or the pain returns, then I’ll explore other options or simply give up on running. I made the appointment and went this morning to get it. After all the build up of people telling me how it would hurt, including my Ortho who said it would sting, it was actually a very easy procedure. I felt a prick from the first needle that he used with an anesthetic, but after that initial prick, I felt very little. To be honest, I don’t know all the fuss was about with regards to the pain. My heel is a little sore right now (an hour later) and I imagine it will be this way throughout the day, but I’m really glad there was no pain and that it didn’t hurt like everyone else said it would. And believe me, if there was pain involved, I would know…..I’m a huge wuss when it comes to needles and pain!! So, now I will rest the heel for a couple days and my Ortho said I can run again on Saturday. My fingers are crossed and we’ll see how this works out…..
I would take oral steroids or get a shot in the hip before I would get a shot directly into the tendon. I think your concerns are founded and the general education I received was fairly clear that soft tissue injections do very little to help and may harm. (As opposed to joint space injections, which often do help.) Systemic steroids from pills or shots in the hip are helpful and are lower risk. I do not know the latest in the literature on this, but I think it may be worth asking your ortho for some.
Trent, digging up old post but ...
Exctly what does the cortisone shot do and/or why would oral steriods be better? Should have asked earlier but had one directly into my tendon this morning. Since not recovering as I would have liked Dr. said " well we could wait or do the shot" i asked him of down side and he said "none .. either it works or it doesn't" so I thought it was a no lose situation.
BTW ... My shot hurt like a mother for a few seconds. Should have known when Dr. asked that I not kick him. but he said would be normal needle prick, which started off as that and thought to myself why would anyone kick someone from a needle prick, but then dug it into the tendon and $%^#!!!!! Dr "Oh there is a nerve right there might have hit that?" You think. Oh well the major sting only lasted a few seconds, hopefully it helps.
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