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Tendinitis Questions

I'm 25 years old, female, and overweight. No health problems otherwise. Two years ago, I finally got my butt into exercising and have lost 20 pounds. Initially it consisted of either walking or bike riding, but then I hit a plateau and I decided to finally try running and since November, I have been training to run. I have been doing it slow and am still at a run-walk (where I'll jog for so long and then stop when it gets too strenous and walk).

But lately, and I am wondering if it may have been due to the condition of my shoes that I recently replaced, my left ankle has seemed kind of funny and now I am starting to worry if it may be the start of Achilles tendinitis or something with the ankle. It may not be since I can stand up on my toes and there is no pain, when I wake up or get up after sitting for a long time, there is no pain, no swelling or bruising or anything, and it doesn't hurt when I squeeze the area (just makes my blood run cold to touch that area). But I noticed that when I do any type of ankle exercise, this ankle cracks A LOT. If I do the same exercise on my right ankle, it hardly, if ever, cracks. And a lot of times I get the feeling in my ankle like when you need to crack your knuckles and rolling the ankle around will relieve it. But no pain. And then if I flex my foot with my toes pointing down, and I know this sounds really weird, sometimes there is a feeling in the back and towards the left that is so mild, I can't even tell if it is actually pain. Just maybe like a pressure....almost like the feeling of needing to crack something!

All I know is now I am afraid to go out and run for fear of tearing or snapping the Achilles tendon or doing some type of other damage. I do warm up for 5 or more minutes before I run and cool down for about the same. I do stretch, although maybe not as much as I should. I really want to be a runner, though, and have been dreaming of becoming one for many years. I do have new, much better shoes now. I'm thinking of maybe just taking this week off and seeing if it gets better. I have been trying ankle stretching and strengthening exercises, although I am hesitant on doing them as well since I have heard people say before they ended up doing even more damage doing them. I know this is something I should be asking a doctor, but right now that is not really an option- but does it sound like it could be anything I should be concerned about?

Thanks,
Nikki
2 Responses
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Avatar universal
I'm sorry, I keep forgetting details at the time I type. This is the left side and I was doing a plantar flexion of the foot and it was fine at first and then I felt the pain. I did not (at least do not recall which from other people's testimonies I think I would remember) feel the tell tale POP of a rupture or of being whacked in the leg. I can stand up on my toes on the left side, it just hurts so I can't go up all the way. I can stand on my left foot alone and no pain whatsoever, so no problem whatsoever in bearing weight. If I bend my knees or go into a squat position I can feel the pain. I have a hard time believing the tendon could be simply torn or ruptured from doing a plantar flex of the foot that I didn't do it violently or abruptly, but I am not a professional so what do I know?
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Avatar universal
Hm, I don't know what happened here. When I woke up today, I stretched and part of it included my feet, pointing my toes down and while doing so, out of nowhere, I felt a mild pain. And now it hurts to point down, to bring my feet up where my toes are facing up, to move my foot out to the left, and to stand up on my toes. Just those ways. Its in the back, a little more than half an inch below the level of the ankle bone and more to the left. It doesn't hurt sitting down unless I move it in those 4 particular positions. And once again, like I mentioned, it feels like it needs to be popped, just worse than it felt before. No swelling or anything (yet). No pain on palpating the area. It does hurt mildly to walk, usually worse when I first get up. Its in such an isolated spot I don't think it is sprained or anything.

I forgot to include that I have never previously had any injuries in this area. Also I don't know if this would contribute to it since I would think that I would have felt the pain as soon as I got up (I didn't stretch until about 10 minutes after getting out of bed), but during the night I had a brief but sharp pain the left calf area.
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