Hi Everyone,
I’m a 27 yr old male in relatively good shape, other than this debilitating foot problem I’ve had for almost two years, of course. Whenever I walk or stand (especially walk), I have a throbbing pain throughout the arch of my foot and up to the metatarsals – basically everywhere north of the heel. It gradually gets worse the more I walk/stand. More recently, the pain has been localized in the middle area of the inner part of my arch. The pain is so bad that I cannot walk anymore. I have to limp to get around, and even that causes excruciating pain.
Things that trigger pain in the middle-inner arch of my foot. Note that I have this pain bilaterally, but it’s far worse in the left foot:
-walking more than a couple of steps
-standing for more than 5 minutes
-clenching my toes (especially big toe -- this instantly triggers the pain)
Any thoughts? I’m stuck in my apartment for the unforeseeable future until I can figure this out. Dr has ruled out neurological and rheumatological issues from recent testing. Also have a morton's neuroma in 3rd webspace (other side) but I'll save that issue for another day.
Have you read up on Plantar Fasciitis?
I have, but I don't have any heel pain...
You don't always have heel pain. I am a chiropodist and deal with Plantar Fasciitis. It's not very common to have it without heel pain, but nonetheless you could be one of the rarer persons.
Have you noticed improvement when you wear higher heels, or conversely are matters worsened when bare foot, or walking on soft sand?
Interesting, thanks for the information. My ortho specialist has recommended plantar fascia stretching/massaging but it hasn't helped at all. Also I thought a good exercise to strengthen the arch would be toe curls and that just makes the condition hurt a lot more. He threw around the idea of platelet rich plasma, I'm not really sure how that works. Also discouraged because I tried to rest that foot for a month (literally did not step on that foot) and it didn't improve at all 
So I don't wear high heels (I'm a guy) but to answer your second question, I can walk around bare foot or on sand and it doesn't hurt quite as much as in shoes. That said, after a while it feels good to switch back to running shoes.
Should also be noted that I have a morton's neuroma in the third webspace, on the other side of the foot.
It is possible that you have Mortons Neuroma on the right foot now. If not, then Plantar Fasciitis. You can have steroid injections. I suggest that should be your next step forward.
It sounds like plantar fasciitis to me. PF develops from an overstretched plantar fascia, it needs blood flow to heal but getting it by stretching is risky as you can easily reaggravate it. The stretches help some people but not most, likely because the minor aggravations are a bigger set-back than the benefits of the blood flow.
Are you on your feet a lot? Do you walk on concrete a lot, or did you when the injury first developed?
Thanks again for the response. You may be right. I had steroid injections on the left foot, so the next step appears to be surgery unfortunately
Hi Kyle,
I'm starting to think it is plantar fasciitis as well. I'm also wondering if I may have ruptured an area of the plantar fascia, given the sharp pain i have whenever I curl my big toe.
I'm not on my feet much at all anymore. Every day I walk about 2 blocks to the bus, take the bus to work, walk another block to my office and sit at a desk for the rest of the day. I can't leave my apartment much due to the pain.
I first got the injury from walking around the city (like 10 miles) in sandals. It started as a throbbing / cramping pain in the outer mid-arch area of my left foot, which I started feeling in my right foot a month later. Now the pain shifts from anywhere north of the heel to the bottom of my toes, but especially in the arches and metatarsals.
Ensure that you do not have plantar fibromatosis. This is distinctly different from mechanical tears of the planter fascia. This can be demonstrated by a competent radiologist by ultrasonography.
When I asked about heels I did not imply women's fashion heels, but the heels customary in men's formal heels.
i do not know what surgery is proposed, but surgery to the plantar fascia has a number of both short and long term dangers, which are irreversible.
Interesting. Thank you for the advice. I'll mention this to my ortho specialist next week.
Hi Bill,
Walking on hard or uneven surfaces without shoes that give proper support is how PF develops. The plantar fascia is a tight band, not designed to get stretched which happens from walking on these surfaces. I would think a larger impact would be needed to rupture the fascia.
Have you tried using an ice pack when you have the pain? You can massage your calf and lower ankle to get more blood towards your foot. As well as elevation. Blood flow stimulators also help by getting blood to the fascia without more stretching.
Thanks again for responding. The throbbing/tender pain in my inner arch just occured recently, after I was trying to do toe curls as part of a PT program. Looks like that wasn't helpful...now whenever I curl my toes the pain is replicated.
I have used ice packs pretty religiously, but they only help so much. What is blood flow stimulation? I just bought "Yamuna Foot Wakers" to better massage the plantar fascia so hopefully that's part of the same general idea.
Disagree strongly. For almost the entire evolution of humans (and for most people currently alive) it has been possible and necessary to walk over hard and uneven surfaces without any foot ware (let alone "proper support", whatever that means)
Hi billstein22. I am wondering if you have any resolution with this issue.
I do want to make sure to note that I strongly encourage you to have proper testing done before choosing a path to pursue. A podiatrist diagnosed me with several things including PF, MR, and an entrapped nerve, without doing an ultra sound, MRI, etc., and I had surgery and received no relief. Then I saw another doctor who did an MRI to find that I never had any of things that I had been previously diagnosed with and had surgery and steroid injections for. Just a warning.
What surgery was performed. Can you get a copy of that surgeon's operation notes?
I had a surgery to cut through the ligaments that hold some of the bones together to make room for the "oversized/inflamed" nerve. It was two incissions in the front foot, one between the 2nd and 3rd metatarsals, and one between the 3rd and 4th metatarsals. He told me that he could not actually see anything (like the nerve itself) b/c it was just to cut the ligaments. I suppose I could get the surgery notes, but these would not be so telling because of the type of surgery. I went back to him to tell him that I had had no relief and he blamed it on me and told me that it was just scar tissue and that I had a low pain tolerance. Then tests showed that I had no inflamation in the nerves and the pain was not even in the right area for it to have resulted from that nerve.
I have great reservations about many procedures performed and diagnoses made by "podiatrists".