One other thing that I almost forgot to tell you about since it's been in my shoes for so long is a heel lift. If you noticed a difference with wearing sandals, you'll definately feel a difference within a week from doing that. Mine is only about 1/8-1/4 inch tall but it works great.

When doing the negative calf lifts just make sure you never push up with either foot. I have no idea why it works but BELIEVE me, it made a huge difference over doing regular calf lifts. You can do them by pushing up on a rail to get back to the starting point or the way I do them (sorry it's really simple but I can't think of a better way to explain it): 1. Put your foot on the edge of the stair with your heel high (not weighted yet). 2. Put full weight gradually on your foot. 3. Once all of your weight is on one foot, slowly lower it until your heel drops below the step. Never relax your calf fully, otherwise you may overstretch your achilles. You do want to feel some stretch, just not your whole weight bouncing on your achilles. 3. Then place your other foot on the step flat footed so you don't use that achilles either and push up to return to the starting point.

I started doing this 3 X's a day (1 hr after I woke up, lunch, and sometime in the evening) with 6-10 reps each and it worked great. I did normal calf lifts for about two months and it seemed to make it worse so that's why my PT made me switch. Let me know if you have any other q's!