I have tendonitis in the top of both feet, to be specific it is the tendon which runs along the second toe on both feet.
I don't really know how it happened. But I do know it is far worse pain in ballet shoes an anything else even pointe or barefoot is better- so I've changed ballet shoes the ones I had were cut slightly differently to pairs I've had before and ,aye rubbed a tendon I don't know.

Certain things really hurt and I was wondering if there are excercises I can do to build up the strength there or is resting the only option? My doc wasn't much help all I got was, it's not broken if something hurts don't do it. Useful.

I'm taping along the tendon which helps a little but jumping and especially hopping are excruciating so I try to avoid both - tough when your teaching ballet.

Does anyone have any experience of this? Is rest the only answer? There is a holiday coming up which I'm sure will help but any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Can you see a physical therapist directly through your health insurance, or do you need a referral? If you can, go see a physical therapist or a sports doctor. There are exercises you can do to strengthen tendons and they could help you with those. If you have to get a referral, see a different doctor.

I have tendonitis in my right ankle, on the tendon that runs along the ankle bone. What helps me is to take an anti-inflammatory like aspirin or ibuprofen before I work out, to reduce inflammation. I have strengthening exercises I do with a theraband as well. When it flares up, I wear a brace to stabilize my ankle, and I do 20 minutes of ice followed by bengay. That helps a LOT. This was all recommended to me by my physical therapist way back when I first injured my ankle, 8 years ago now. I barely have flare ups now.

Thanks for your speedy reply! I'll definitely look into physio I don't have insurance though I'm at the mercy of the NHS so it depends if I can get it on them. I will see a different doctor though, he did suggest RICE and ibuprofen which may be enough for someone with a desk job just not for a dancer I don't know if there are any sports injury clinics in the area so I will look that up too

^When I first injured my ankle, I was running cross country and training for a big race for my school, so I feel your pain. I was probably working out a total of 4-5 hours a day. What got me through was taking anti-inflammatories before practice and then icing and bengay-ing afterwards. Wrapping my ankle to stabilize it helped as well, though I admit I don't know how to stabilize the particular tendon you're talking about.

Man, your timing could not have been more perfect--I was just coming here to ask about this. I'm going through this exact thing right now (as well as a partially torn hallicus longus and messed up post-tib--fun stuff, right?). I've been icing it a lot, and keeping up with my pain meds (1 500mg Naproxen 2x daily).

With tendonitis, those two things and rest are really the only answers, even if you go to a PT. They will tell you to rest it, and they might do some stim/deep tissue massage if they think it will help. They might also use Kinesio tape to stabilize it, but I'm not sure exactly how that would work for tendonitis on top of the foot. The advantage is they can help you get back on your feet faster after the tendonitis gets better.

Good luck, and I know this sucks but you have to take it easy for a bit. Feel better soon!!!

I struggled with tendonitis in the tops of my feet for several years. Loads of ibuprofen was about the only thing keeping me on my feet. Finally, I sprained my ankle (unrelated) and was forced to rest for three weeks. The tendonitis all but disappeared during that time. So yes, rest is the best treatment.

Since then, I have noticed that the tendonitis flares up when I'm not wearing my arch supports in my shoes. I have to be careful about how often I wear flip flops, or I'll be in pain. The orthotics were courtesy of my physical therapist, who figured out that I had a collapsing arch which was exacerbating things.

Check with your local hospitals. Self-referral to physiotherapy is a huge thing they're rolling out around the country now - the hospital I used to work at was a trial site so I was able to do it a year ago, but a lot of other hospitals are doing it now too.

If you can't find anywhere to self-refer to, then one thing that always speeds up GPs is hamming it up, a lot. The injury is impacting on your daily life, you can't drive without pain, your work is compromised...really over-exaggerate how bad this injury is. They'll refer you to get rid of you, lol.

Tendonitis is a bit of a debatable term - the "itis" suggests an inflammatory process which, if occurring in, say, a joint, you could work through and as long as you didn't push too hard you wouldn't do too much extra damage through different strengthening exercises. However, there's generally no inflammatory process and as such it's referred to as a tendinopathy (this is all currently being researched highly and as it's a new concept it's a little controversial, but this is what I believe after some fairly extensive research). It's degeneration of the tendon tissue. That means you have to rest it until it is pain free, otherwise you'll just be doing more damage. Once the pain is under control you can start with isometric strengthening exercises (should be pain free) then moving onto concentric and eccentric exercises. All exercises should be pain free (I can't emphasise that enough).

Also, I'd make sure the chance of the pain being caused by stress fractures is definitely ruled out.