…and that’s about all it’ll do.

While this isn’t my first time in a walking boot, it is my first time since my junior year of college, and boy did I forget how non-comfy these things are. It even makes lounging around the house sort of a pain, and I can tell you that lounging has become enough of a pain over the last several months without the added weight/bulk/whatever of a walking boot.

But, at least it’s (oh so hopefully) for a good, productive reason. I’m not being totally dismissive of the doctor’s orders. Even though I don’t necessarily agree with the dude and have an issue with the blatant sales pitch for custom orthotics, I have been taking his advice for the most part.

The boot was not one of the doctor’s recommendations, but something I have decdided to give a try after his advice on stretching went poorly. I have made a point not to stretch the achilles for a month or two after coming across a great deal of literature on the subject that cautioned against it. However, since the doctor told me I should, I decided to give it a try; but it was within minutes of stretching that I began to notice the first real acute pain on the achilles in over a month.

I’m no professional, and won’t claim to be under any circumstances (hell, I haven’t even taken a biology class since sophomore year of college), but this seems to me confirm my amateur self-diagnosis that there is some sort of partial tear. Hence, I have put on a boot to immobilize the afflicted area and hopefully allow it to heal itself. This shoud work, no?

In lieu of custom orthotics, which I won’t be picking up anyways since insurance won’t cover them, I have picked up the Green Superfeet insoles that the doc recommended as a serviceable alternative. With the boot on now, I’ve really only been wearing the one in the left shoe but get to see how it feels on the right (more severely f-ed up achilles) when I lift at lunch every day. While there’s not really any pain when walking around the weight room, I can’t say they that I was really feeling an pain when doing that little on my feet at any other time. So I’ll reserve judgement on the insoles until I do more than just walk 30-50 feet at a time in them.

The other treatment of his that I have obliged to give a try is medication. After calling him to explain that attempting to stretch the area seemed counter-productive and painful, he A) once again stressed the need for custom orthotics and B) told me he was going to phone in a prescription for what he said is more or less an oral form of cortisone shot. So I picked up that prescription up on Friday and have been taking it as instructed, but am noticing little difference. The inflammatory medication also came with vicodin, but I see no need for that so have left that bottle unopened.

When talking with the doc on the phone, he made mention of wanting to give me a cortisone shot should the oral form not help. I have not spoken with him since then, and won’t until I get the call to pick my “night splint” up this week. However, getting a cortisone injection is where I’m going to have to draw the line. I have yet to read/hear anything good about using cortisone injections for tendon problems, and have primarily heard that it increases the chances of a complete rupture. Even though I’m sure he’s not planning on injecting the achilles directly, I will not be letting him give me a cortisone injection. I don’t the risk is worth the reward, and don’t really think there will be a reward with it based on what I feel is the problem, since cortisone is used to treat inflammation.

If I do go in and he tries to get me to buy into getting an injection, and I’ll just tell him that I won’t even consider that until I’ve and MRI and we can see exactly what the problem is.

Progress is hopefully being made, and if nothing else I can say that this walking boot has at least got me feeling optimistic once again. My present plan is to reassess the mess at the end of June and go from there. Until that time, I believe I’ll become well acquainted with the weight room.

I’ve realized that there seems to be a pretty large amount of similarity between the walking boot and one of the latest technological innovations in running footwear:

Left: Hoka One One Mafate running shoes. Right: Walking boot.

Are Hoka One One running shoes just a low-top version of walking boots? Who knows, but it could explain why elite ultra-runners like Dave Mackey and Karl Meltzer claim such vast improvements in their post-race/run recovery. I’d love to toss a pair of the Hokas on for myself and found out at some point, but since this Euro company only manufactures up to a US size 12, it looks as if I’m S.O.L.