Since my initial treatment, I've been trying to determine if I notice improvement.  Has the sensation gone away?  No.  Then I guess the treatment didn't work.  My friends tell me that I can't expect miracles in one session.

I am skeptical about this course of action which I think is a good thing because I won't fall into the placebo group and get magically cured.  That said, I wish I did and I was.



I was tempted to cancel my follow-up appointment but I felt like I accepted the opening and I should be a stand up guy about it and go.  So I did.  I arrived at the appointment early and killed a few minutes before my appointment playing Doodle Jump.  (Btw, I hate you guys for getting me addicted to this game.  It's awesome though!)

I enter the office and within a few minutes, the doctor directs me to the back.  Before he started, I asked him to explain what he was trying to accomplish.  He explained that he felt the problem was being caused by tight muscles which are tightening the Achilles tendon and that ART will stretch all of this and reduce any friction.  It sounded reasonable so I directed him to start.  Let the torture begin!

Unlike the first visit, this session was long.  I told him to not hold back and he didn't.  At one point, I had to stop talking because a scream might've accidentally escaped between the words of our conversation.  Holy smokes that guy can inflict some serious pain!

Following what appeared to be about 15 minutes of pure suffering, he said he was going to hit me with everything he had.  I braced myself but I felt something smooth on the back of my leg.  Instead of ART, he moved to ultrasound.  I didn't bother asking what this was doing for me because I was just grateful the pain had stopped.  After a few minutes, he directed me to another room.

He asked me to jump up on the table and next to me sat a machine with wires sticking out of it.  Attached to the wires were a pair of pads which he attached to the back of my leg a few inches apart from each other.  I asked... "What now?"  To which he responded:  "Russian stim."

He then explained that back in the days of the Soviet Union, the athletes would use this device to create fatigue in the muscles.  This was done without performing exercise but instead by running an oscillating electric charge into the muscles.  The end result was 20 minutes of my leg contracting all by itself along with the feeling of being mildly electrocuted from the knee down.  I gotta tell ya... that was weird.

At the completion of session numero dos (My wife is learning Spanish.  Hola Sweety!), I asked the doctor when I should start noticing results and when I could start running.  He said I should already notice results and if this session doesn't provide noticeable improvement that we need to look into other possible causes.  He asked if I could wait another week before I started running.  I replied with a firm no.  He explained that it would prolong recovery.  I explained that prolonged recovery meant there 'was' recovery in progress and that was good enough for me.  It's twisted logic but it's my twisted logic. :)

Where does that leave me?  I am left with a little bit of faith in the voodoo doc because I liked his explanation of what this will do for me.  Ultimately it means that I should see results after this session.

Stay tuned.

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