The phone rang the other night and I almost missed it.  It’s a big house, so if I’m not right next to the phone I have to run to the nearest one, without running the cats underfoot. But, I got it just as the answering machine picked up. Then, I had to wait for the recorded message to finish before I could hear and be heard.
 
It was one of our good friends, who is a female cop. She’s a sweet girl, but she’s one of those people I don’t hear from, until she’s got some medical problem.  I have more than my share of those. But, hey, it’s good to hear from them, regardless of the reason they decided to call.
 
It seems she was playing racket ball and suddenly felt this lancing pain in one of her calves. Because it was this sudden, hot poker sensation, she was a bit scared.  Who could blame her? She had heard of painful clots in the calves that could be dangerous (deep vein thrombosis), so she was pretty anxious.
 
Well, I asked her a few questions, so I could try to figure out what had happened to her. You may not realize this, but it’s tough to diagnose anything, sight unseen, over the phone. Lay folk simply don’t share the same vocabulary with medical people, so it’s hard for them to accurately describe what they feel, or what actually happened, or even what something looks like.  So, pity the poor doc who’s trying to make sense of what he’s being told and trying to make an intelligent diagnosis, based solely on this questionable information.
 
I’ll give you a great example of what I mean. My father-in-law used to tell me that the outer part of his hips (the trochanteric region) felt “numbish.” Now, to a physician, “numbish” indicates a decrease in sensation; that’s what “numb” means to us–a possible neurological problem. What he actually meant was “dull pain,” which indicated a bursitis, but he didn’t know how to accurately describe it to me. Took me a while, and a physical examination, to figure out what he really meant. The point is, I had to interpret what he said into what he really meant. So, when you’re trying to do this over the phone, it just adds another layer of difficulty to a tough situation. 

Anyway, this sharp, hot pain at the back of her calf was familiar to me. I asked her if she felt a “pop” when she felt the pain. “Oh, yeah,” she said, “now that I think about it, I DID kind of feel a “pop,” when it happened.” I also found out that she was able to walk on it, even though it hurt, and that her calf swelled up and was tender. I should mention that she’s in her forties, now, too. 

Assembling all the pieces, I felt pretty confident that she had experienced a rupture of the plantaris tendon. Given her symptoms, her age, the activity she was engaged in and my past experience with these same symptoms, it was most likely that she had popped her plantaris tendon. So, I first reassured her that she most likely didn’t have anything really bad, and she probably wasn’t going to need any surgery (for a discussion of this and other posterior knee conditions that can be treated without an operation, please see my newest healing program         HOW TO AVOID KNEE SURGERY    http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html )

Then, I explained what had happened to her and why.  And then, what to do about it. First, she needed to get over the acute inflammation, and I gave her a host of the conservative mainstream and alternative methods to reduce inflammation and relieve pain, all the most effective treatments from my new program at  http://drbillsclinic.com/avoid_knee_surgery.html
 
Once the tenderness and swelling were gone, then she could begin the stretching and strengthening exercises taught in my PAIN-FREE PROGRAM, which you can see at   http://drbillsclinic.com?exercise_eliminate.html   The good news is that she’ll be back in action in a few more weeks with no disablity. And she won’t have any residual weakness. 

Of course, she could still rupture the OTHER one…. But with the proper warm-up before any exercises, and the recommended stretching and strengthening, hopefully, she’ll avoid it.

Well, that’s it for today. Til next time, my friend, be well. And have a great weekend.
 
Yours for a pain-free tomorrow,
 
Dr. Bill 
 
P.S. For DR. BILL’S LITTLE GREEN BOOK ON ELIMINATING KNEE PAIN, a concise, but complete handbook on the root causes and the various options for treating knee pain, go to http://drbillsclinic.com/eliminate_knee_pain.html
 
P.P.S. For DR. BILL’S PAIN-FREE PROGRAM: EXERCISES TO PREVENT OR ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN, please go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/exercise_eliminate.html
 
P.P.P.S. For the giant, comprehensive ADVANCED MASTERS’ COURSE: HOW TO ELIMINATE KNEE PAIN–ONCE & FOR ALL!, everything you need to know on causes and solutions for knee pain and the complete exercise program, too, go to
 http://drbillsclinic.com/advanced_masters.html
 
FREE BONUS CD with any order: THE HEALING POWER OF POSITIVE PAIN PERCEPTION
 
Copyright, 2008 by William Thomas Stillwell, MD
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