Bilateral Achilles Tendinitis

© Mayo Foundation

That's what the doctor says is causing the pain in my heels. Per the Mayo Clinic website:

Achilles tendinitis is caused by repetitive or intense strain on the Achilles tendon, the band of tissue that connects your calf muscles to your heel bone. This tendon is used when you walk, run, jump or push up on your toes.

Cuz ballet dancers don't jump or push up on their toes, right?

For those who are curious, here's a list of symptoms:

• First step in the morning is usually painful and can be sharp
• Hurts to touch the area above your heel
• Pain with standing or walking, especially when pushing off with your painful side.

Check, check, and check; I have all three of these. How about treatments? Per my doctor's print-out:

• Stretching and flexibility exercises. These are key to helping your tendon heal without shortening and causing long-term pain.
• Strengthening exercises. They will help you regain strength you might have lost while the tendon was healing. And they will help protect you from another injury.
• Deep massage. It helps you increase flexibility and blood circulation in the lower leg. It can also help prevent further injury.

But first on everyone's lists seems to be avoid activities that hurt.

Getting out of bed in the morning hurts, but I think that's not something I'm willing to give up. I have discovered that doing some gentle stretching -- just extending and flexing my ankles several times -- before getting up helps a lot.

Avoiding ballet just isn't going to happen. The best I can do is back off a bit while ramping up the stretching.

Among the stretching exercises recommended to me is the "calf stretch on a step". I recall coming across a list of ways to identify a dancer that listed: "views every staircase as an opportunity for a calf stretch". I guess this is why.

For strengthening I've been given a "heel raise" exercise that is basically relevés in parallel that we all hate love to do. The only real difference is whether it's done on two feet or one. I did these for years as part of Susan's Beginner II classes, and only stopped when I switched to daytime Advanced Beginner classes. I guess I'll start doing them again.

Deep massage? I wonder if I can get the doctor to write a prescription for that so it's deductible as a medical expense. Please?

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So now I have two goals for the spring:

1. Treat (and hopefully cure) my tendinitis
2. Improve my petit allegro
   

I find petit allegro frustrating, but that's probably because I'm not good at it. Like most things, if I practice it I'll get better at it. Getting better should help with the frustration.

You might note the absence of auditions from this list. Yeah, I've made the conscious decision not to audition for either TWSB or Ballet Embody this month. I find it difficult throttle back in these environments, and I need to let myself heal first. Maybe I'll audition for The Maryland Nutcracker again in September.