That Stiff, Tender Spot on the Back of Your Heel? It Doesn’t Have to End Your Walks, Your Golf Game, or Your Independence.
Advanced, Non-Surgical Treatment for Achilles Tendonitis — Serving Marble Falls and the Highland Lakes
You know it the moment your feet hit the floor in the morning. A deep stiffness in the back of your heel. A sharp, pinching pain when you take the first few steps to the bathroom, or when you push off going up the stairs. By mid-morning it loosens up — but it always comes back the second you sit down for any length of time, or after a round at the course, or after an afternoon in the garden.
You can feel it when you press on the back of your heel. Sometimes there’s a tender, thickened lump right where the tendon meets the bone. And lately, you’ve started to wonder how much longer this is going to hold up before something gives.
Here’s what we want you to know: Achilles tendonitis is one of the most successfully treated conditions we see — as long as it’s treated correctly. Surgery is almost never necessary. But it has to be approached the right way, and it has to be approached soon.
Medicare and most major insurance plans accepted.
Dr. Henry on Achilles Tendonitis
Trusted by Patients Across the Highland Lakes
“I’d been limping for almost a year. Every morning I’d come down the stairs sideways, one step at a time, holding the rail. My family doctor wanted to give me a cortisone shot, but something told me to get a second opinion. Dr. Henry showed me on his ultrasound exactly where my Achilles tendon was breaking down — and explained why an injection there could have caused a rupture. The shockwave treatments and the heel-lift orthotics he made for me changed everything. I’m walking the dog around Lake LBJ again every morning.”
— Margaret B., Horseshoe Bay“I tore my Achilles in college and have babied it ever since. When the tendonitis flared up last fall, I assumed I was finally headed for surgery. Dr. Henry took the time to actually look — really look — at how my foot was loading, found the mechanical issue no one else had bothered to check, and built me a treatment plan that didn’t involve a scalpel. Eight weeks later I was back on the pickleball court. He’s the real deal.”
— Jim T., Marble Falls“I had been told it was ‘just tendonitis’ and to rest, ice, and take Aleve for six months. Six months. Meanwhile I couldn’t garden, couldn’t do my water aerobics, couldn’t even walk to the mailbox without wincing. Dr. Henry explained that chronic tendon problems don’t heal with rest alone — the tissue has actually stopped trying to repair itself. His laser and shockwave protocol restarted the healing process, and the orthotics took the strain off the tendon. I have my life back.”
— Carolyn R., KingslandWhy the Pain Keeps Coming Back
If You’ve Already Tried Rest, Stretching, Heel Cups, or Anti-Inflammatories — Here’s Why They Didn’t Work
Most of the patients who come to us with chronic Achilles pain have already tried the standard playbook. Rest. Ice. Calf stretches off a stair. A pair of heel cups from the pharmacy. Maybe a course of anti-inflammatories from a primary care visit. There’s a reason none of it stopped the cycle.
- Rest alone doesn’t work for chronic tendon problems. When tendon damage becomes chronic — what doctors now call tendinopathy rather than tendinitis — the tissue itself has stopped trying to repair. You can rest for six months and the tendon won’t heal because the healing signal is no longer being sent. The damage just sits there, waiting to flare up the moment you push off again.
- Generic heel cups and OTC inserts raise your heel slightly to reduce tendon tension, which helps temporarily, but they don’t correct the underlying biomechanical pattern that overloaded the tendon in the first place. The moment you go barefoot or change shoes, the strain returns.
- Anti-inflammatories quiet the symptom. They do not heal the tendon. And long-term NSAID use carries its own risks, especially in patients over 60.
Cortisone injections in or near the Achilles tendon should generally be avoided. This is critical, and it’s where we differ sharply from many providers. Cortisone has been shown to weaken tendon tissue and significantly increases the risk of Achilles rupture — a catastrophic injury that often does require surgery to repair.
If a doctor has offered you a cortisone shot in this area, please get a second opinion before accepting it. We have seen too many patients whose ruptures could have been prevented.
The real problem is twofold. First, your tendon is being mechanically overloaded every time you take a step — and your foot mechanics are the reason. Second, your body has stopped trying to heal it. Until you address both, the pain will keep coming back.
Why Other “Custom” Inserts Often Fail
If you have already spent hundreds (or even thousands) on high-end retail brands like Good Feet or “custom” inserts from other clinics, here is the clinical reason they didn’t stop your pain:
The “Weight-Bearing” Flaw: Most retail brands and even many medical providers take molds or scans of your feet while you are standing up. This is a fundamental engineering mistake.
- ✕ Molding the Problem: When you stand, your foot collapses into the exact position that causes the pain. If you mold a foot while it is collapsed, you get a device that simply holds you in that same damaging, uncorrected position. It is a “souvenir” of your problem, not a solution for it.
- ✓ The Marble Falls Difference: We utilize non-weight-bearing scans to capture your foot in its optimal, corrected skeletal position. We don’t capture the collapse; we engineer the correction.
- ✓ For Achilles Patients Specifically: The orthotic must do more than support the arch. It must precisely manage the heel-to-forefoot height differential to reduce strain on the tendon — and it must control rearfoot motion to stop the tendon from being repeatedly stretched and twisted with each step. Off-the-shelf heel lifts and generic “Achilles inserts” cannot do this. Only a properly engineered, biomechanically-prescribed orthotic can.
A Complete Approach to Resolving Achilles Tendonitis
1. The Blueprint
High-End Custom Orthotics: Healing cannot happen on a foundation that keeps re-injuring the tendon with every step. Following a thorough biomechanical evaluation, we engineer prescription orthotics designed to precisely correct the foot mechanics overloading your Achilles. This physically reduces the strain on the tendon so it can finally rest and rebuild.
2. The Signaling
Restoring the Healing Response: Chronic Achilles tendinopathy is a problem of failed healing, not active inflammation. We use advanced restorative interventions to deliver a focused biological signal directly to the damaged tendon, triggering it to begin laying down healthy, organized collagen again — the way it’s supposed to.
3. Specialized Tools
Shockwave and Class IV Laser: Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy is considered one of the most evidence-based non-surgical interventions for chronic Achilles tendinopathy in the medical literature. We pair it with Class IV Laser Therapy to reduce inflammation, accelerate cellular repair, and rapidly improve function — without anesthesia, without downtime, and without the risks of injection or surgery.
Meet Dr. Frank J. Henry DPM, FACFAS
“After 30 years as a foot and ankle surgeon, I can tell you this about the Achilles tendon: it deserves respect. It is the strongest tendon in the human body, but it is also the one most often mistreated by quick fixes that make the problem worse. My job is to fix it properly, the first time, so we can keep you walking — and keep you out of the operating room entirely.”
Dr. Frank Henry DPM is a board-certified Foot and Ankle Surgeon and a Fellow of the American College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons. Over more than 30 years of practice and 40,000 patients treated, he maintains a 95% surgery avoidance rate.
Today, Dr. Henry uses his extensive surgical background to do the opposite of what many specialists do — he keeps patients out of the operating room. You’ll never feel rushed in his office. You’ll get a real evaluation, a real explanation, and a real plan.
What to Expect at Your First Visit
We know how frustrating rushed, ten-minute medical appointments can be. Your first visit with us is different.
- A thorough, unhurried evaluation. We sit down with you, listen carefully to your history, and take the time to understand exactly how the pain is affecting your daily life.
- Immediate diagnostic clarity on the tendon itself. Musculoskeletal ultrasound lets us look at the structure of your Achilles tendon in real time, right in the exam room. We can see exactly where the damage is, how severe it is, and whether there’s any threat to the integrity of the tendon — no waiting, no separate imaging appointment, no radiologist’s report days later.
- Immediate offloading test. We perform a specialized strapping technique that reduces strain on your Achilles tendon. If this gives you immediate relief, it confirms to both of us that your tendon problem can be successfully managed by correcting the mechanics — without surgery.
- A clear plan and honest pricing — before any treatment begins. We outline your options at your first visit. At your follow-up, we review how your tendon responded to the offloading test, walk you through your exact treatment plan, and give you a complete breakdown of costs. You’ll never be asked to commit to treatment without knowing what it involves or what it costs.
- Honest answers about whether surgery is or isn’t on the table. In the rare case it is, you’ll know why. In the much more common case it isn’t, you’ll know that too.
Common Questions About Achilles Tendonitis
Is it safe to keep walking and exercising with Achilles tendonitis?
This depends entirely on the severity and the type of damage, which is why an in-office ultrasound at your first visit is so important. In some cases, continued activity is safe and even beneficial when paired with proper offloading. In others, continuing to load the tendon risks progression to a partial or complete rupture. We will give you a straight answer based on what we actually see — not a generic “rest for six weeks” prescription.
Could my Achilles tendon rupture?
Yes — chronic, untreated Achilles tendinopathy meaningfully raises the risk of rupture, and certain interventions (particularly cortisone injections and some oral antibiotics in the fluoroquinolone family) raise it further. This is one of the reasons we treat Achilles problems early and aggressively, and one of the reasons we will not inject cortisone into or near the tendon.
Why does it hurt going up stairs but feel fine on level ground?
Climbing stairs and pushing off requires the calf and Achilles to generate significant force. Walking on level ground requires far less. Pain on stairs, on inclines, when getting up onto your toes, or first thing in the morning is the classic Achilles pattern — and it points squarely at the tendon as the source.
What’s the difference between Achilles tendonitis and a heel spur?
They can occur together, and they’re often confused. A bone spur on the back of the heel (sometimes called Haglund’s deformity, or a “pump bump”) can irritate the Achilles tendon where it inserts. The good news is that even when both are present, surgery is rarely necessary — proper biomechanical correction and shockwave therapy address both problems together.
I’ve heard about the Alfredson protocol. Should I just do that at home?
The Alfredson eccentric heel-drop protocol has good supporting evidence for mid-portion Achilles tendinopathy, and we frequently incorporate it into a patient’s home program. However, doing it incorrectly — or doing it for an insertional Achilles problem rather than a mid-portion one — can make things worse. We’ll show you exactly which protocol applies to your specific tendon damage.
Can I get back to pickleball, golf, hiking, or tennis?
This is one of the most common questions we hear, and the honest answer for the vast majority of our patients is: yes. The goal of every treatment plan we build is full return to the activities you love. We’ll be straight with you about the timeline.
Do you accept Medicare and insurance?
Yes. We accept Medicare and most major insurance plans. Our team is happy to verify your benefits before your first appointment — just call (830) 265-6000.