sever's disease

[tonya]

My son has sever's disease and we have tried almost everything to help him. Dr. told him to take two weeks off from baseball, during this time take aleve morning and night, had him doing stretches 3 x day, ice and gave him heel lifts. We thought that was working until last night he was able to return to practice only to have his feet(mainly his right) one hurt. We had the same lift put in his cleats that are in his regular shoes. Our only other choice right now is to have cortisone injections,which i am not comfortable with right now( he is 11). Does anyone have any experience with this, maybe what you tried and helped??

[Heidi]

Hi
I am not a fan of cortisone injections. Everyone I speak to who has had one says they made no difference and in some cases made it worse. Therefore I think this should be a very last resort.

One thing you haven't mentioned if you have tried is massage. A few good deep sports massages will help to stretch the calf muscles alongside his stretching. Also treatment such as ultrasound can work wonders on the achilles to reduce pain and inflammation.

Have you seen our page on severs disease?

http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/back/achilles/achillesapoph.htm

Rest is definately the way forward, at least 2 weeks if not longer. This should be complete rest from anything strenuous (all exercise and even long period of walking). In this time continue with what you have been doing, add some massage and ultrasound from a qualified therapist too. When he does start to return to sport, it needs to be a very gradual process. If he goes straight back in to playing at full intensity the problem will only return.