History

The pain started about 3 years ago when I was a sophomore in high school. Whenever I started to run I would get an aching, burning, and cramping feeling in my calves. I am soccer player and track runner so the pain was obviously interfering with both sports. I didn’t really think much of the pain when it started, except it then became consistent. I was told that I was more than likely dehydrated and needed to drink more water. I also needed to make sure I was stretching out my calves, and to start eating bananas. I believed that this must be the solution, so that is what I started to do. However, no matter how many glasses of water I drank or how many bananas I ate, the cramping was still there.

I played and ran through the pain, stopping in the middle of a soccer game to stretch out my calves, then continuing on with the play. I remember mentioning every time I went to the doctors about this persistent pain in my legs, but again they believed it was dehydration. I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease in 2009, which can cause some malnutrition, so for some time doctors thought it might even be that I was still a little malnourished and in time my calves would get better. At this point, it never crossed my mind that there could be something actually wrong with my calves.

Beginning of my senior year in high school, the pain had been at its worse so I finally went and saw a physical therapist. He diagnosed me with Bilateral Achilles Tendonitis. I had never really had pain in my achilles so was a bit confused with this diagnosis. I started physical therapy for the tendonitis 2 days a week. I literally was bored sitting there doing the exercises for my achilles to strengthen them. It was soccer season of my senior year and I knew I didn’t want to sit out, but I also knew this “injury” was going to keep me out. However, I played through the pain. I eventually stopped physical therapy because it was doing absolutely nothing. Towards the end of my soccer season the pain had gotten so bad that I was only able to play a couple minutes at a time. I tried taping my legs, but that didn’t do anything. My only option was to literally suffer through until the “final whistle.” I vividly remember my last game of the season, and collapsing after the game because my legs were in so much pain. It was then that I knew I didn’t have Achilles Tendonitis, it was something else.

Track season was about to start up, but my legs were so painful that I actually took all of my Indoor Track season off. I rested from November to March thinking that all of that rest would help heal my legs; but it didn’t. As soon as I started to train again, the pain returned. Needless to say, I was frustrated. I finished off senior year and was now starting my training for my upcoming collegiate soccer season. I was training hard, but the pain was still there. As the summer went on and my training increased, so did the pain. I was at the point of not being able to run for more than 10 minutes. I finished my fitness test, but started to have tingling and numbness in my legs afterwards. I knew that I was going to have to miss my first collegiate season of soccer.

I now was on the journey to recovery, and was determined as ever to figure out the real reason behind this excruciating, and debilitating pain. Pain that has forced me to give up two activities I grew up loving: soccer and running. It is not an easy journey, and it is not over yet.