Retrocalcaneal Bursitis

[physiobob]

I was hoping for some positive replys, but to suggest I put my runners in the cupboard and to start from scratch!!!

Thanks but no thanks for your help

Indeed, no one has bursitis the day, weeks,months, year until they get bursitis. Is is a slowly progressive set of issues that over time can be tipped over the edge, like you did with the long hill run. This means your mechanics weren't great in doing so but that in the past you have been getting away with it. Now that time has passed and so you need to take a look at your running style, footwear, diet etc. Remember you are now getting older as well and tissue regeneration is not as rapid and the tissue itself not as resilient as it once was.

No one is saying stop running, everyone is saying you don't just treat the symptoms, you look for the cause, especially if running is something you have a a passion. The choice is yours suffice to say that this issue will be a recurrent one if you don't look at the big picture

[mIrAge]

littlered,
Hope your heel pain would have settled by now. Perhaps you should tackle this from your running. As a runner, I can recommend you to try some interval work to boost your speed rather than running long hill intervals. Hills make you stronger but speed comes from the turn over or cadence of your legs. In light of you heel probom, unloading the calf and the achilles tendon from long hill effort would have been a good strategy to settle your heel pain. Some ideas to boost your speed are fartleks, tempo runs, yasso 800 and the good old 800m intervals x ?. good luck with running.

[uanto23]

Forget about Surgery, Cortisone Injections, Braces and Splints, Orthotics or Ultrasound Therapy.

I invented this new treatment for myself and I am almost cured in only one month. It will only cost you about 3 dollars and 15 minutes of work everyday.

I know what you are thinking... I must be crazy or trying to sell something. No, this is not an infomercial...

The 3 dollars are for a jar of Vaseline Petroleum Jelly. The rest is a daily massage that you can do it by yourself.

I have had retrocalcaneal heel spur for almost a year. I visited my doctor a couple of times, he suggested stretching exercises, advil, etc. I gained a little flexibility but no improvement in my pain.

Then I decided to tried something new... Researching online I found that the Heel spur is an accumulation of calcified deposit that attaches itself onto the calcaneus. That the tissue surrounding the calcaneus is not very vascular, and the exudate -- a by-product of inflammation -- has very few ways to be carried away from the area. After a period of time, this exudate will calcify (or harden) and, after repeated trauma, greater amounts of this calcified deposit will create what we call heel spur.

I thought: Maybe with massage I would increase blood circulation and hopefully dissolve the calcification. I was not very optimistic but there was not much to lose... the other option (surgery) could be worst. Three days later I realized that I was right on the money. The improvement I had in one week exceeded my expectations.

This is what I do everyday: Before going to bed I use a little vaseline to massage the heel spur and the surroundings areas. I use only my fingers and most of them from both hands. It has to be a deep massage and this requires a lot of work and they got fatigue very quickly.
After one month of this treatment I can see that the bump in the back of my heel is almost completely gone. I could say that I am 70% cured.
I hope that this information could be useful to someone with this problem. It is not life threatening but it diminish your quality of life.

[kmolter]

This reply is directed towards uanto23's comment about treating Haglunds with aggressive daily self massage. I am a marathon runner and have been fighting haglunds for about 15 years and each year it seems to be a little worse. Have you continued to have long term success with your massage treatment? Has anyone else found long term relief from massage?
Thanks!