Extreme heel pain (plantar fasciitis?) Help!

Foot care
1

I have very painful heels in the morning and throughout the day. I get slight relief from trying to stretch my heels. The problem has lasted for the past 6-7 months.

I used to get very painful knees, hips and calves too - so went down the route of rheumatology, x rays and blood tests first of all for these issues. However, nothing came up that could cause the symptoms. It was a relief to find out it wasn't arthritis. Though in the last couple of months, I realised it could be my flat feet that were causing the problems.

I have noticed that sitting down for long periods of time does make my calves and hamstrings tight. I think this in turn also worsens the heel pain.

I recently had custom Langer orthotic insoles made (through private podiatrist), which does really help my balance and gait - especially as my calf, knee and hip pain is significantly reduced with the insoles in. However the heel pain still exists. The podiatrist said this is because the insoles are holding my legs in place. I do agree with that, but it doesn't make it any easier to live with the heel pain.

At the moment, I find it really difficult to stand on my feet for longer than 10-15 minutes. I'm hoping pilates stretching will really help, because I miss running an awful lot. I've been wearing the orthotics now for 2 weeks. Could it be that it will just take many months for my feet/legs to adjust to the right positon? I hope I'm not being impatient.

I notice that if I stay off my feet i.e. cycle, then the pain the next day is significantly reduced. But if I try to go for a walk (nothing more than 2.5km) I will be in a lot of heel pain the next day. Clearly it helps to not be on my feet, but I can't exactly live like that every day of my life! 

I worry because I have events in the summer like weddings coming up and will be on my feet for long periods of time. I've had to go home early from events or just stop walking because I've been in so much crippling pain.

I'm thinking of seeing my GP to ask for some scans of my feet, as this is the only thing I can think of. I've seen some causes can be due to pinched nerves or microfractures. You do start to question yourself when you've been to see the GP so many times to no avail.

As someone in my early twenties, it's affected my daily life/work for so long now, I do get despondent.

Has anyone of a similar age or indeed anyone with this problem had any positive outcomes? Motivation and perserverance is definitely key.

2

Have you tried night splints?  Worked wonders for me. As did deep tissue massage of my lower legs and feet.

3

I've bought some night splints - I think I need to be a bit more patient with them!

Deep tissue massage is a good idea. I may give this a go!

4

I had severe plantar fasciitis for two years.  It took about a month of the night splints every night, the massage 3 x per week and I had to stretch my achilles every day.  I also had my orthotics adjusted and it finally worked.  - It had gotten so bad some days I had to crawl around my house

5

That's so rubbish that it lasted so long

I will definitely give the night splints another go. I'm doing a lot of stretches, so hopefully the combination of both will work! Thank you

6

Hi 

I feel for you. I developed flat feet from a posterior tibial tendon inflammation. I wasn’t booted so my arches dropped.

I think years of calf raises tightened my tendons and muscles ( much like runners) our legs are very strong.. too strong.

Plus flat feet create imbalances and extra stress on other areas of the body.

Orthothics will help to relieve your pain. My scans showed no thickened pf but I had all the classic symptoms of it bc flat feet are closer to the ground (roads are all hard concrete) so our bones are more aggravated with each step.

I found calf stretches to help with my pain immensely( and I mean a lot of calf stretches) as well as stretching hip flexors. 

Good luck to you