06/03/2026
A thickened Achilles tendon usually doesn’t happen overnight.
It’s often the result of repeated stress, irritation, and tissue changes building up over time.
This patient had non-insertional Achilles tendonitis with visible bulbous thickening in the tendon. By the third Shockwave Therapy session, he was already starting to feel improvement, especially with those painful first steps in the morning.
That matters because morning pain is one of the most frustrating parts of chronic Achilles issues. A lot of patients describe feeling stiff, sore, or barely able to walk comfortably when they first get out of bed.
For this case, treatment focused on both radial and non-radial Shockwave Therapy to help stimulate healing directly in the irritated tendon tissue.
And while not every patient heals at the same pace, this is a good example of how chronic Achilles pain often needs more than rest and stretching alone.
In the free Healing the Heel webinar, Dr. Pelto explains why Achilles and heel pain can become chronic, what regenerative treatments are designed to do, and how patients can better understand what may be happening inside the tendon itself.
👉 Sign up for the webinar here: https://www.centralmasspodiatry.com/healing-the-heel-webinar
