Kimchimon and Achilles tendinitis

Last year, Kimchimon was complaining of having pain in both of his feet (heel to be exact) for quite a while and it got so bad that he cried whenever he took a step and refused to walk. 

We first brought him to a TCM nearby as I was alone with Kimchimon with a lot of groceries when he refused to walk. I thought TCM might be a good idea as i don't want Kimchimon to take so much medication. The physician told me that Kimchimon might have flat foot like Dillon, which was why his feet were in pain. He mentioned that kids in his age won't usually experience that much pain and was quite puzzled with Kimchimon's extreme pain. He advised Kimchimon to rest his feet as much as possible, and probably soak his feet in warm water to help ease the pain. He also mentioned that wearing shoes with comfortable sole. He then proceeded to do some Tui Na on Kimchimon's feet. Kimchimon's feet did got a bit better during the weekend with rest, however, the pain did not go away.

Initially i was thinking it was just normal pain and putting some medication on it and the pain might go away eventually. Days turned into weeks and Kimchimon was still complaining of heel pain. This was especially so when he first woke up and took his first step in the morning and after this nap. 

After a month or so, the pain did not get any better, in fact it was getting worst. We brought him to the GP subsequently to get another perspective. The doctor gave Kimchimon some medication to apply on and advised us to get him more comfortable shoes instead of sandals as it would provide more support. I got a pair of compression socks for Kimchimon and some insoles as well as making him wear covered shoes whenever possible. The pain still lingers (though not as bad as before) and did not go away despite heeding the doctor's advice. 

I tried to Google Kimchimon's symptoms, and Sever's Disease popped up in most of the results. It mentioned swelling around the heels and foot discomfort after sleeping. This was caused by the inflammation of the growth plate and symptoms usually resolve within a couple of weeks. But Kimchimon's pain still lingered even after a couple of months.   

The pain got so bad that Kimchimon refused to walk in school and even the teachers got concerned. We decided to let the pediatrician take a look on his feet instead. The pediatrician was quite puzzled as the shoes that he was wearing was already quite comfortable as we  had placed the insoles in it. He ruled out the flat feet theory which was diagnosed by the chinese physician initially and told us to try cold or hot compress on his feet. He also prescribed Kimchimon with some gel to help manage his pain We went home and i applied fever patch for him before he went to bed and wore the compression socks. The pain got a bit better the following day as we noticed he was able to walk better.

After many months of applying fever patches on his feet, Kimchimon's feet finally got so much better that he did not complain of pain. We will continue to monitor for pain and hopefully that was the last of it.

After this episode of pain that Kimchimon experienced, Dillon and I noticed that Kimchimon can't tolerate pain. Perhaps the pain wasn't that bad, but his threshold of pain was lower than what we expected. 

The symptoms and suggestions (larger fonts and in bold) by the doctors hit me while writing this blog, it was only now that i realised he was suffering from Achilles tendinitis (i know this was a bit too late, which is why i want to share what i had learnt). 

Achilles tendinitis is the inflammation of the Achilles tendons, which connect the calf muscles to the heel bone. 

 As mentioned earlier, the symptoms include:

- Pain in the morning, when weight was first place on the foot
- Pain in the achilles tendon when touched or moved, as well as
- Swelling and warmth in the heel or along the tendon

For treatment we applied fever patch overnight that stretches from the back of the heels (highlighted red in the pictures) to the bottom of the heel for Kimchimon and made him wore compression socks to keep the fever patches in place. We also tried to give Ibuprofen, but we felt that having too much medication might not be good for Kimchimon. Other remedies include wearing supportive and comfortable shoes as suggested by the doctors and rest.

Thank you for reading my blog and let me know your comments!