I hurt my achilles a few months ago to the point my achilles tendon couldn't even be seen as it was that swollen (I guess you could kinda call me a weekend runner). Ended up going to a Dr who referred me to physio. Along with their magic ultrasound type therapy and massages, the physio gave me the following exercises to help.
My sore tendon was the left leg. So:
1) Standing upright, shift your bodyweight mostly onto your good leg and stand in your tip toes on both feet, but make sure your good leg does 90% of the lifting. Then shift 90% of your weight to your bad leg and then go from tip toes back down to the flat foot. Keep doing this 10 times, it's kinda like a circular motion if you get my drift.
2) Lay on your back. Keep your knee straight, raise your sore leg as close to 90 degrees as you can, then try to bring your toes towards you. DOn't use any straps or anything, use your muscles only. Do this 10 times. I alternated my legs as it's a nice stretch anyhow.
3) bad leg in front of you, about a foot away from a wall. Good leg about 2 foot behind you. Keeping your back straight put your weight over the bad leg and bend your knee until it touches the wall. You should only just about to be able to get your knee to touch the wall, don't push it. Swap around your legs and you'll see how easy it is with your good leg to hit the wall. Do this 10 times. Gently, slowly.
4) Sit on the side of your bed, or on a chair, cross your legs if needed. Just rotate your ankle 360 degrees (Make circles) both clockwise and anticlockwise for 30 seconds.
5) ICE. Try and get an ice pack on it for between 5 and 10 minutes three times a day.
6) If possible, keep your leg elevated. So when watching TV or something, pop your leg up on a chair/table/footstool.
7) Ibuprofen (The cheapo 35p packs from the supermarket own brand) pop a couple if you're going to be using your leg. Pop them half an hour before you start. This isn't a good thing to keep doing and it's not a solution to pain.
Mine took about 8 weeks to get better and during this time I stopped running but walked daily for a couple of miles. Even now, about 3 months on, it's still slightly swollen, but I just take it easy and if going for a longer run I pop a couple of ibuprofen. I'm still doing the exercises, as I'm mostly desk based, it's a nice excuse t get up and move around anyhow while making a coffee etc.
I had I think 6 physio visits, one a week, and the physio was adamant I should not start training until I was 100% pain free. So as tough as it is, wait until you're better, it can't heal if you keep abusing it apparently.
Feel better soon
