mewlingcricket
Well-Known Member
Hey everyone...My husband and I went to my doctor the other day and we discussed my options for dealing with my chronic achilles tendon pain (which has been going on for 3 years now) Basically I have three options.
1. do nothing (which isn't going to work for me)
2. get the E.P.A.T treatment: with what the doctor told me and what I have read online it has a good rate of success overall for reducing pain, but not a lot of data on achilles tendon specific results (the procedure fires shockwaves into the tendon to damage it and force it to grow new blood vessels to try and heal itself). If this works out great...if it doesn't I have to have the surgery.
3. Have the surgery- which means 6-8 weeks of not being able to put any weight/pressure on my foot, plus due to my age/weight/sex I hit all the risk markers for potential blood clots and would have to take daily injections of a blood thinner to prevent them....but would fix the problem (of course with physical therapy after the 8 weeks, but I am already in PT now so no biggie)
My husband and I are struggling to decide between options 2 and 3, and there are just so many pros and cons to each that even my doctor said he didn't know which one was best because none of them were good options.
Does anyone know anything about either procedure, or have an opinion on them??? I can use all the help I can get:?
1. do nothing (which isn't going to work for me)
2. get the E.P.A.T treatment: with what the doctor told me and what I have read online it has a good rate of success overall for reducing pain, but not a lot of data on achilles tendon specific results (the procedure fires shockwaves into the tendon to damage it and force it to grow new blood vessels to try and heal itself). If this works out great...if it doesn't I have to have the surgery.
3. Have the surgery- which means 6-8 weeks of not being able to put any weight/pressure on my foot, plus due to my age/weight/sex I hit all the risk markers for potential blood clots and would have to take daily injections of a blood thinner to prevent them....but would fix the problem (of course with physical therapy after the 8 weeks, but I am already in PT now so no biggie)
My husband and I are struggling to decide between options 2 and 3, and there are just so many pros and cons to each that even my doctor said he didn't know which one was best because none of them were good options.
Does anyone know anything about either procedure, or have an opinion on them??? I can use all the help I can get:?
