I can’t schedule a doctor appointment until after Memorial Day now, so I figure I might as well ask about how worried I should be in the meantime.
I have no history of foot problems, and I’ve taken 15 mile walks, and long hikes, without complication before. Out of nowhere, a few days ago I can’t take walks any more. I can take really short walks just fine, but after 30 minutes (if I’m unlucky) or 1-1.5 hours (if I’m lucky) my foot suddenly starts hurts really bad. There’s no pain until that point, but once it hurts a little, it only takes maybe 5-10 minutes until it hurts to the point where walking is really hard and I start to limp. It’s the right side of my right foot, the pain spreads under the arch, and occasionally to my ankle.
Further, the right side and arch swell really bad. I was at Phoenix Comicon today (I took ibuprofin hoping it would make the pain go away or make the swelling not happen, didn’t help) and stood in a line for an hour or so after it was already hurting. There was this… uncomfortable feeling I can’t really describe, kind of like the feeling when you put a little pressure on styrofoam when I was standing it. It also slightly tingled. It got worse the longer I stood. After I got in the show and sat down for about an hour, the swelling was almost completely gone, and while it still hurt a little bit, I had no problems walking to my car about 10-15 minutes away without limping (even taking the stairs at the garage).
Now it’s been about 2 hours since I’ve walked any amount of distance and it’s back to completely not hurting.
I haven’t done anything strenuous, no jumping or running. I didn’t hit it on anything. Does anyone know what could cause something like this out of nowhere? I’m going back to the con tomorrow, but with crutches so I don’t walk on it and risk aggravating whatever it is until I can see a doctor.
You may have just bruised the arch somehow. I did this once stepping on some small innocuous item while barefoot. I put some padding in my shoe to support the arch, limited walking, and a few days later it was fine.
INAD, but it sounds like some sort of issue with your Planter muscle (The one that runs up the arch). Sometimes they get cramped up, and it doesn’t feel like cramps in other muscles, or it could be a bruise or something like that. I’d lean towards cramp, just because you might have a slight cramp often, and then using it in certain ways for a few hours makes it worse. (I sometimes get the same thing if I haven’t been doing my PT exercises for my ankle for a few months)
There’s a few ways to stretch out this muscle - one of the ones that works for me is to sit on the floor, with your feet together in front of you (Like butterfly pose to stretch out your hips). Weave your fingers between your toes (or just grab them, but the weaving makes it easier to get the pressure even across the foot), with your thumbs on top. Gently pull your feet apart, like you’re opening a book. You can try it with different placements of your heals and different amounts of pressure. One note, if anything hurts like pain, then stop immediately.
Another way to work out the cramp is to rub your foot on a ball of some type - I use a tennis ball, but I used to use a foam craft ball. It just kind of lives under my desk, and I run my foot over it as I’m sitting here, varying the pressure and being sure to switch feet. I find it very nice. Again, if you’ve got a severe cramp, this can hurt like pain, and you should stop.
I had similar pain and swelling, it turned out I had a stress fracture of the calcaneous. It took about 6 weeks of non weight bearing to heal. I also had no incident that caused it that I know of. I generally run 3 miles 4 or so times a week and the orthopedist thinks that I may have hit a strange stride perhaps off of a curb during a run. I am thankful it was a broken bone rather than a tendon or fascia issue as it was fairly easily resolved. Hope you are better soon!
Eta the hallmark of a fracture rather than plantar faciitis according to my Dr is pain that worsens as the day progresses. Usually a fascia issue is most painful upon waking.
Def. call your doctor on Tuesday. Sooner if one legs swells and the other doesn’t, or if you get sharp pains in your calf or behind your knee.
IANADoctor, either, but the words I’d use to describe your situation to a doctor are “intermittent claudication”, which generally, but not always, indicates the circulation in your legs is poor, possibly due to vascular disease.
While this may be the issue, I certainly wouldn’t use this description when visiting the doctor. It seems a little extreme to jump to a circulation problem at this point given the OP’s history as recounted here.
“Intermittent” means “comes and goes” and “claudication” means “pain”. As I said, it’s not always caused by a circulatory problem, but it does bear looking into, especially as it’s a new problem.
I figure I’ll check in. I never went to the doctor, but I had a hunch that fixed it. It went away when I got new shoes. It still hurt for a couple days, but after three days or so I started being able to walk on it for hours without problem. If I put on the old shoes for long enough, sure enough, it starts hurting.
The shoes causing the problems were over two years old.
