Spondylitis Association of America Forums General Discussion General Message Board for Ankylosing Spondylitis and Related Diseases Achilles tendonitis secondary to stiff ankle?

Hi, I've been having problems with a swollen and painful achilles tendon, which has been limiting my walking for the last couple of months. My crp inflammation levels are up and I assumed my immune system was attacking my achilles. Just saw a new physio at the hospital who says the ankle joint on that side is really stiff with much less rom than the other ankle and the foot is quite stiff too and that is what is putting the pressure on the achilles. The achilles itself is functioning fine. So he did some manipulations to mobilise the joints in my ankle and feet.

Assuming he's right, I found it quite interesting that the problem's in the joint not the tendon, since the symptoms are in the tendon. And I hope that it's ok for him to manipulate the joint? He told me he doesn't see AS very often - and I'm not the most typical AS patient anyway with all the peripheral symptoms as well as the spinal stuff.

Does make me wonder what he knows about enthesitis, but I suppose he could be right.

I know I had mobilisations on a shoulder that had got incredibly stiff because of what I assumed was inflammation/enthesitis, and it worked quite well. I wouldn't have let them do harsh manipulations, but it was very gentle mobilisation and it really did help.

Shirley I have had exactly what you are having with my right ankle for years, either swelling in the joint or tendinitis or both at the same time. It has done a lot of damage to the tendon in that side, to the point that a doctor told me jogging is now permanently out for me because of the long term damage to the tendon.

I probably have that damage because I never went to physio, or when they did never followed their advice.

Hi, just came back to this post. Cemc's instinct was right - he didn't recognise the term enthesitis, although he did recall that the tissues around the joint tended to be affected in AS. But the great thing is that my achilles is way better now that my ankle joint has freed up = yay!

lets hope he went away and looked it up and learnt from it, so he doesn't appear stupid (or worse still, do something damaging) to the next patient with AS!

Amen, cemc!