Inside sort of to the rear of my right foot. Pretty intense at times. Maybe 4-5 on a 1 to 10 scale.
I rarely wear heels. I wear ballet type slippers at home all the time, and regular dress shoes for work. Low heels if any. Usually flats. I do walk on a treadmill 2 to 3 miles a day, at a 4 mph pace. My walking shoes are good New Balance walkers with insoles that I change religiously. I wear 2 pair of socks recently, since this started.
I have given up the ballet slippers, and now wear sandals with a small lift in the heel or athletic shoes. There is no callus. Internet research shows many syndromes, and nothing I can point to and say “THAT’S IT!!”
I have begun favoring that foot, so before I hit the doctor’s office, any ideas for me?
No…but let me know what you find out! I’ve got something similar! It feels like a bruise…but it doesn’t go away, and it’s much worse the day after a long walk.
Not fun! Good luck to you.
P.S. I’ve had people tell me that mine might be a “heel spur.” I’m not clear on what that means…even after Googling it.
What’s the pain like? Sharp? Dull? Sharp in the morning and then dull later in the day? Worse with exercise or better with exercise? Do you have unusually high or flat arches?
Trinopus, a heel spur is a little, well, spur, of bonelike tissue that grows where it shouldn’t. They often happen where the plantar fascia (tough connective tissue that holds the ball of your foot to the heel) meets the bone of the heel. Most of the time they’re not actually painful, except when they are. It’s speculated, in fact, that many people with a heel spur and pain actually have pain not from the heel spur, but from plantar fasciitis - inflammation of that fibrous plantar fascia.
For reasons we don’t entirely understand, but may have to do with repeated small tissue tears or overstretching or impact, athletes who do a lot of running and jumping are particularly prone to heel spurs and plantar fasciitis. But obesity, age and diabetes make it more likely, too, so it’s got you coming or going. Having either unusually high or unusually flat arches seems to come with heel spurs, too.
X-rays will show many heel spurs. The pain most often associated with them is described as sharp or stabbing, especially first thing in the morning, although it often turns to a dull pain later in the day. It’s generally worsened by exercise. If you have pain like that of people with heel spurs, but they can’t see a little bump or hook of bone on the x-ray, they may call it “heel spur syndrome” instead.
Physical Therapy and NSAIDS work for many people. If those don’t work, there’s surgery they can do to release the fascia, shave down the heel spur or both.
Seconding plantar fasciitis. I have it, and it goes from feeling like a bruise to feeling like someone’s pounded a spike into my heel. Definitely worse in the morning, or if I’ve been sitting for a while and not done any foot stretching while sitting.
What’s helping is heel padding in my shoes (Dr Scholl’s PRO inserts work well for me), reducing the amount of pounding on my feet (no running in my bootcamp class, trying to stretch my feet and calves a lot if I have to be on my feet all day) and periodic icing and advil/tylenol dosing.
When you stretch, you need to pull your toes back towards your shin to stretch the bottom of your foot. My favorite way is to stand on a stair with just the balls of my feet & my heels hanging off the edge. I just let my body weight push my heels down and stretch my calves, and I bend my knees a bit too. Feels great.
I’m dealing with a similar pain, it’s a combination of plantar fasciitis and heel spurs. My Dr told me that all folks my age (almost 50) have heel spurs of some sort, most don’t have the pain that I see so it’s more likely related to the plantar fasciitis. I’m stretching regularly, using orthodics (not store bought, but ones he gave me that are much more stiff) and wear a night boot. I’m also running a 50K race next week so once that’s done I can cut down my mileage and give it a real rest.
Another plantar fasciitis/heel spur victim here. (Every time the heel spur topic comes up, I have to restrain myself from singing, “I know how it feels to have spurs on my heels…”)
Cortisone injections are what finally did it for me. It’s been about 20 year, and I’ve never had a recurrence.
And another Plantar Fasciitis victim checking in. There are exercises you can do, and you should wear shoes at home, but the most important thing to do is go see a doctor.
Could be gout pain. It’s most often located in the first joint of the big toe but I also get gout pain in the ankle/heel area - it just depends on where the uric acid crystals gather.
Plantar Fasciitis here too. The thing to remember about Plantar Fasciitis is that it can be caused by any number of things, which may or may not indicate anything wrong in your foot. In my case, it is caused by a problem in my right hip/buttock area that causes my hips to go out of alignment.
IANAD, but remember that your body parts are all interconnected to a certain degree so you might want to look at things such as posture when sitting, posture when standing, exercises to strengthen your core, and stretching.
If it were me, I would have a podiatrist take a look at it first, then go from there.
What my doctor told me is that when you’re at rest, that’s when the plantar fascia has the opportunity to swell up and it’s the inflammation that causes the pain. That’s why it hurts more in the morning. I went directly for the cortisone shots and haven’t had a problem in 15 years.
Sounds like heel spurs, but an x-ray should verify that.
My brother went through all the pre-op treatments that are recommended. Stretching, icing it, sleeping with his feet hanging off the bed, cortisone shots, and whatever else is suggested. When he couldn’t handle the pain any longer he opted for surgery and, in his words, is like a new man. My cousins wife is going through the same problems and like my brother is opting for surgery since nothing else is working.
I just want to pass on FWIW, that I’ve had a podiatrist and two orthopedic surgeons specializing in feet tell me that many people have heel spurs and most of them don’t cause any problems so if you go to a doctor who wants to operate get a second and even third opinion.
I too have been dealing with plantar fasciitis, made worse by the fact that I was going into the room by our bedroom one night and didn’t turn on the light so as not to disturb Mrs Piper.
So in the dark i kicked my wooden bagpipe case. Hard. The doc doesn’t think I actually broke any toes, but deep bone bruises, on two of the toes on the foot with plantar fasciitis on the heel.
I had plantar fasciitis for about 8 months last year. At the 3 month mark I went to the doctor and she told me to do the stretches where you point and flex your foot over and over, pulling your toes up towards your knee, etc. I did them religiously and 5 months later I was completely healed. I still do the stretches out of habit.
Lots of good advice so far. I don’t have much to add, except:
[ul]
[li]As mentioned, the heel spur, when present, rarely contributes to the pain of plantar fasciitis. As you can see here, the spur is directed forward, not plantarly, where it would cause problems. Lateral x-rays are taken to help with the differential diagnosis, and to help pinpoint the chronicity of the problem (i.e. if a large spur is present, it means the fascia has been pulling for a long time; no spur usually indicates a more acute situation, probably easier to relieve.[/li]
[li]Very often a shotgun approach (using a variety of treatments) is the best and quickest way to relieve PF symptoms.[/li][li] [/li][li]RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) is effective for inflammatory conditions, but if you don’t get enough relief from an ice pack, try soaking your heel in an ice/water slurry (it’s more penetrating). But keep your eye on the clock; frostbite is worse than fasciitis. [/li]
[li]Stretching: do it slow (~90 seconds) and steady. No bouncing: it’s not effective and can hurt your muscles. Be persistent, it takes a long time to stretch fascia (weeks/months), but it’s often worth the effort. Always consider a night splint (a device to stretch the PF for hours while you sleep), before considering surgery. [/li][li]Think twice before spending hundreds of dollars on custom-made orthotics. Unless you’re an Olympic sprinter where every millisecond counts, most people don’t need that degree of biomechanical control. A well-made off-the-shelf orthotic is often just as effective in controlling excessive pronation (rolling in on your feet) and can prevent or relieve pathology caused or aggravated by excessive pronation (PF, bunions, hammertoes, neuromas, etc.).[/li]
[li]NSAIDs can help, but often not with analgesic dosage. Higher anti-inflammatory dosage is usually needed, but don’t dose yourself, consult with your doctor. [/li][li] [/li][li]A series of anti-inflammatory heel injections can break the inflammatory cycle and afford more than just temporary relief (but, not always). [/li]
[li]Wear good, supportive shoes. The human foot really didn’t evolve to walk on very hard surfaces (grass and sand, ok; concrete and asphalt, not ok). A good OTC orthotic in good walking or running shoes is a good idea.[/li][li]For resistant cases, consider finding a doc who uses extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT). It’s a new-ish modality that is showing good results. It appears to work counterintuitively by creating local micro-trauma to the PF insertion area of the calcaneus (the benefit comes when your body sends in the troops to heal itself). [/li][li] [/li][li]When all else fails, surgery may be the final solution (lower case, not in the Nazi sense). It’s usually effective and nothing to dread as long as you find a good surgeon. Don’t settle on one who wants to operate “open” for PF. The minimally invasive procedure, endoscopic plantar fascioctomy (EPF) is the way to go and you’ll walk out in time to go home and make dinner (unless you prefer to ham it up and tell your family you need them to do all the chores because you need time to convalesce). Also, request that your surgeon reduce the spur while he’s in there cutting your PF. If he’s in a rush to make tee-off time at the club, he may not normally bother, but it only takes a couple extra minutes with a reciprocating rasp and I believe it slightly improves the cure rate.[/li][/ul]
I think I had severe plantar fasciitis early last year: I say “think” because when I mentioned it to my doctor she pressed a spot on my foot that she said would have hurt if that’s what I had, and it didn’t. But I was in constant pain, to the point where I was avoiding doing things with friends that involved being on my feet for long, so I decided to try orthotic shoes (I swear by the Vionic line) and insoles. I even bought orthotic slippers and sandals to wear around the house, and after a few months I felt much better. A little over a year later I don’t remember the last time I woke up with heel pain, which is something like a miracle. I still wear the orthotic shoes more often than not, but these days I can even wear “bad” shoes from time to time without the pain recurring.
So even if your doctor says you don’t have plantar fasciitis, I recommend trying orthotic shoes/insoles just in case.
Twenty-fourthing plantar fasciitis. I wear prescription insoles which spread out the weight across my foot and help mitigate the pain, and recently my physical therapist had me start applying athletic tape to the bottom of my foot which helps as well.
That’s undoubtedly true, but clearly the OP is having problems. The fact that nine out of ten people with heel spurs do just fine doesn’t mean a thing to the tenth. Often the bone spur is a symptom of the problem, not the cause. It could be insertional Achilles tendonitis.
Right, but the point is that the bone spur may be present, but not causing the problem. Lots of people get focused on the spur and surgical correction of the spur, which does nothing if the pain is caused by the fascia or the Achilles or…
