The location of the PF pain in my feet hasn't changed since it began. It's always been directly in the bottom of both my heels. The first time my podiatrist pressed his thumb into that squishy part of my heel, I realized just how centralized the pain is. He pressed in the middle of my foot (halfway between my heel and toes), near my ankles, and against my Achilles tendon (that bone-like thing that connects the bottom of your calf to your heel) but none of that hurt at all.
The first time I noticed pain in my feet was probably around the beginning of 2016. It started as a dull ache that I thought was because I was wearing the wrong shoes. I mostly wore leather riding boots in the colder months, and either sneakers such as Vans, cheap slip-ons from Target, or flip-flops in the warmer months. I didn't know yet, of course, that the pain I had was from PF, so I kept wearing these types of shoes, unaware of the damage it was causing. (Side note: I can and do wear flip flops in the summer, to the beach or around the pool, as long as they are the thick memory-foam kind like in the picture below. Doctor's orders.)
It got really bad when my boyfriend and I went on vacation to the Dominican Republic in May of 2016. While we had an awesome time, the worsening pain in my feet put a damper on the week we spent there. I remember him telling me, "When we get home, you have to see a doctor. You can't put this off any longer." And he was right.
When we got back to the U.S. I made an appointment with a podiatrist right away. The first thing he told me (I believe I showed up in flip flops to that first appointment) was to get used to wearing sneakers; there were X-rays to be done before we could be sure what was going on with me, but the first step would be to start wearing the right shoes for foot pain. This doctor (and a few I saw after him) recommended New Balance sneakers over any other brand. While NB doesn't offer as many colors and designs as other sneaker brands, I've never had a problem finding a pair that I'm okay with wearing. I mostly go for black sneakers, anyway, and the first and favorite pair of New Balance sneakers I owned were black with a white sole/bottom.
Once the X-rays came back, we were able to rule out the possibility of a heel spur (which is, according to WebMD, "...a calcium deposit causing a bony protrusion on the underside of the heel.") Heel spurs are often painless, but they can cause heel pain. That's when my doctor said the two words I'd been dreading: plantar fasciitis.
At this point, I knew very little about PF other than it was painful. Recently, my aunt had had surgery for it, and so my anxious brain when into overdrive with thoughts like: Oh God, I'll need surgery, too, then. It's inevitable. It's probably super painful. Will it even help? What if it doesn't help? I think my doctor saw this on my face, because he brought me back to the present moment and said, "Okay, now we know what it is. Let's work on it."
One of the first things he did was give me a cortisone injection. He pinpointed the most painful spot on both of my heels, marked it with a pen, and gave me a shot. If you've had even just one of these injections, you don't need me to tell you how painful they are. For those of you who've never had one, and may need to, I don't mean to scare you but I can't lie: cortisone shots are no piece of cake. The doctor sprayed my foot with this numbing stuff, which did nothing to alleviate the pain; it basically just makes your skin cold. Then, he injected the needle and held it there for maybe 20 seconds or so. Meanwhile, he tried making small talk with me - So how's work? What do you think of this weather? - as if that would distract me from what he was doing! The picture below is an accurate example of how my face looked with a needle in my heel.
He repeated the same process on my other foot. Needless to say, this was not a pleasant appointment, and the big plate of pancakes I ate for breakfast at the restaurant next door afterward was much needed. (Cortisone injections are always a reason to treat yourself.)
After the shots, the doctor put a Band-Aid on both of my heels, just as you'd get with any other injection. There was no pain or soreness (from the needle) after I left the office. My doctor told me I might feel a spongy, squishy sensation when I took a step, which I did, in both feet, for the first couple of hours, but that wore off.
The good news is that the cortisone shots made a big difference in both of my feet. The pain went away completely. I still wore my New Balances, as the doctor told me to, but was able to walk without that sharp, stabbing pain I'd been feeling for so long. The bad news is that cortisone injections don't last forever; in fact, for me, they didn't last very long at all. Most of the time, I was ready for another one after 4 weeks. Between both feet, I must have had at least 10 shots (usually 1 in each foot), before I realized enough was enough. By fall of 2016, I decided it was time to try something else. That's when my doctor suggested custom orthotic inserts for my shoes.
In my next post, I'll go over my experience with custom orthotics - how they were made, how much they cost, and how they worked for me.
As always, I can be reached on my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/plantarwhat/ or via email (wsmalls12194@gmail.com) to answer any questions.
Thanks for reading,
Becky
It got really bad when my boyfriend and I went on vacation to the Dominican Republic in May of 2016. While we had an awesome time, the worsening pain in my feet put a damper on the week we spent there. I remember him telling me, "When we get home, you have to see a doctor. You can't put this off any longer." And he was right.
When we got back to the U.S. I made an appointment with a podiatrist right away. The first thing he told me (I believe I showed up in flip flops to that first appointment) was to get used to wearing sneakers; there were X-rays to be done before we could be sure what was going on with me, but the first step would be to start wearing the right shoes for foot pain. This doctor (and a few I saw after him) recommended New Balance sneakers over any other brand. While NB doesn't offer as many colors and designs as other sneaker brands, I've never had a problem finding a pair that I'm okay with wearing. I mostly go for black sneakers, anyway, and the first and favorite pair of New Balance sneakers I owned were black with a white sole/bottom.
Once the X-rays came back, we were able to rule out the possibility of a heel spur (which is, according to WebMD, "...a calcium deposit causing a bony protrusion on the underside of the heel.") Heel spurs are often painless, but they can cause heel pain. That's when my doctor said the two words I'd been dreading: plantar fasciitis.
One of the first things he did was give me a cortisone injection. He pinpointed the most painful spot on both of my heels, marked it with a pen, and gave me a shot. If you've had even just one of these injections, you don't need me to tell you how painful they are. For those of you who've never had one, and may need to, I don't mean to scare you but I can't lie: cortisone shots are no piece of cake. The doctor sprayed my foot with this numbing stuff, which did nothing to alleviate the pain; it basically just makes your skin cold. Then, he injected the needle and held it there for maybe 20 seconds or so. Meanwhile, he tried making small talk with me - So how's work? What do you think of this weather? - as if that would distract me from what he was doing! The picture below is an accurate example of how my face looked with a needle in my heel.
He repeated the same process on my other foot. Needless to say, this was not a pleasant appointment, and the big plate of pancakes I ate for breakfast at the restaurant next door afterward was much needed. (Cortisone injections are always a reason to treat yourself.)
After the shots, the doctor put a Band-Aid on both of my heels, just as you'd get with any other injection. There was no pain or soreness (from the needle) after I left the office. My doctor told me I might feel a spongy, squishy sensation when I took a step, which I did, in both feet, for the first couple of hours, but that wore off.
The good news is that the cortisone shots made a big difference in both of my feet. The pain went away completely. I still wore my New Balances, as the doctor told me to, but was able to walk without that sharp, stabbing pain I'd been feeling for so long. The bad news is that cortisone injections don't last forever; in fact, for me, they didn't last very long at all. Most of the time, I was ready for another one after 4 weeks. Between both feet, I must have had at least 10 shots (usually 1 in each foot), before I realized enough was enough. By fall of 2016, I decided it was time to try something else. That's when my doctor suggested custom orthotic inserts for my shoes.
In my next post, I'll go over my experience with custom orthotics - how they were made, how much they cost, and how they worked for me.
As always, I can be reached on my Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/plantarwhat/ or via email (wsmalls12194@gmail.com) to answer any questions.
Thanks for reading,
Becky
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