my feet, my lovely, aching feet!
I hate getting sick. I’ve only ever stayed sick overnight in the hospital once, back in 6th grade, for gastritis. But lately I’ve been visiting the doctor a bit more often than I would have wanted, for miscellaneous aches and a couple of somewhat more serious conditions.
This latest physical challenge, however, has been more annoying than usual. It started about a couple of months ago, when I would wake up with a sore right heel. I wouldn’t feel any pain the previous evening, nothing strange throughout the night, but as soon as my right foot touched the floor, I would feel a sharp pain in my heel.
After bearing with it for weeks, I finally went to my doctor, who diagnosed me as having PLANTAR FASCIITIS.
It started out with just a slight discomfort. However, I started feeling the pain not only after getting out of bed in the morning, but also after I’ve been walking around at work then sitting down for a while. As soon as I got up to walk again, the pain would be there. It got progressively worse until one day, it hurt so much I was limping around and grimacing in pain. The pain felt like someone had put a nail on the floor and I had stomped my heel directly on it. It took 800mg of Ibuprofen that a friend at work gave me to dull the edge of the pain, but it was bad enough for me to call the doc for an urgent appointment.
My first mistake was thinking it was just the usual soreness that disappears within a few days. My second mistake was thinking it was gouty arthritis, which my dad has, and trying to deal with it by watching what I ate. My third, and possibly worse, mistake was not searching for information about it on the Internet. I’m usually an information hound - why didn’t I google “heel pain” several weeks back? I still couldn’t figure out why, but probably it goes back to mistake #1 - I just didn’t think it was that bad.
Since the diagnosis, I’ve also seen a Podiatrist (a foot doctor) who advised rest, ice, and high heels. I’ve also had custom orthotics made, which I now wear when I go to work or out for a walk (no more running for now).
I always try to be compliant to medical advice, but it hasn’t been easy. Complete rest is not really an option for me, as I love going outdoors, or going out for a night in town. The ice I don’t mind, as it really soothes my pain. High heels, though counter-intuitive (as my podiatrist loves to say), actually help, as they prevent my plantar fascia from becoming too stretched out.
The pain is still there, and I still limp from time to time. I’ve had to pay attention to how I walk, so that I don’t overly “guard” my right foot and in doing so put more stress on my left foot (I did it once and I ended up with two aching feet instead of one!). I also take Ibuprofen as needed, but only 200mg each time, which usually works. I’ve just had to make do with easy walks instead of my invigorating fun runs. And these days I’ve been spending more time on the couch, my right foot up on a frozen bottle of water, willing for my recovery to speed up.
And so the public service announcement from my right foot is this: if you or anyone you know has pain in their feet or ankles, do take it seriously and don’t wait too long to go to the doctor. Our feet take so much stress during our everyday lives but they are often ignored, when they should be given much more attention than they usually get. Love your feet, people, and spare yourselves needless pain.
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Here are some more links about heel pain and plantar fasciitis:
FootPhysicians.com
Article in the American Family Physician
Aetna IntelliHealth - featuring Harvard Medical School’s Consumer Health Information
Flip-Flops - Your Favorite Footwear May Be Flawed (from The Stanford Daily)
Science Daily - featuring an article adapted from a news release issued by University of Rochester Medical Center
Plantar Fasciitis according to Wikipedia
Posted under Helping , Navel-Gazing
