Heel spur and the pain of PF ..

I had a heel spur which resulted from PF.  One of the only methods of treatment that helped me was rolling my foot on a "spikey ball" every morning before I took my first step out of bed.   The ball is about the size of a golf ball and has firm spikey nodules all over it.  I roll the affected foot back and forth on the ball (yes, sometimes it hurts) for about 5 minutes.  This, along with the icing and stretching (especially stretching the soleus calf muscle) is what got me through it.  I also did have a cortisone injection into my heel, but in my experience...I didn't think it helped much at all.  

this is my first experience with this type of injury ..

as an experienced runner/tri/golf/softball/basketball athlete, is this something i'm going to have to look out for again in the future ?

does it go "away" ? after it heals ?

Hmmm...that's a good question...to which I don't really have an answer.  I still, to this day, roll my foot every morning on the spikey ball...mainly because I fear that if I stop doing it, the pain will return.  I can say that nearly everyone that I know that has had PF and/or heel spurs...almost always get it again, at some point.   Probably not what you wanted to hear, but that has been my experience.   

what is this because this is the worst pain im going through right now, alot of the time i dont feel the PF and its just feels like i stepped on something.

For the past 4 years I have been dealing with a heel spur and PF.  In 2006-07, the pain was so bad I regularly limped around for half of each morning and after being seated for long periods.  By 2008, and a brief period thereafter, my foot was fine so I trained for a couple of HMs; however, after the second HM the PF came back, though not as bad as before. Lately, I have been going to yoga classes twice weekly, I stretch daily, ice, towel scrunches, roll my foot on a ball - you name the treatment modality, I've tried it.  The best thing for me was to remain active, and if the pain gets too bad I may take an Advil. This time around, my pain has steadily remained a 2 or 3 on a scale of 1-10, and I don't have the AM limping problem.  Today, I am at a very annoying 3!

Sadly, though, the new pair of orthotics I picked up <2 weeks ago seems to have aggrivated my PF issue again, and to my frustration they began to cause achilles discomfort on the left side where I've never had any issues before.  I have resumed using the old orthotics and my plan is to have them refurbished this week.  The old orthotics have a built-in heel cup that prevents my heel spur from having the direct contact when I run.  However, as the orthotics aged, I noticed the heel cup started causing some discomfort, which is why I went back for new orthotics in the first place.  Anyway, I feel your pain!

Edit:  I successfully returned to running 7 weeks ago, and I was doing great working through the Chirunning book.  That is, until I began running in the new orthotics.  Three runs later, and here I am on the sidelines.  With that said, I have made an appointment with a sports medicine clinic in SF that works with the Golden Gate Triathlon club in hopes that I can experience this Active Release Technique that everyone talks about.  Anything to get back to running!

Edited by betyoursilver 2010-09-28 2:28 PM

I dealt with PF for several years. It got so bad that I went into IM CdA last year after not running for nearly 3 months. I tried custom orthotics, ART, OTC orthotics, therapy, shots stretching, yoga etc. Nothing really helped.

At the end of last race season I took a few weeks off of running completely and it started feeling better. I really believed that while the pain manifests in the heel it originated from tight calves. I started back with P90 Yoga X and wearing less restrictive foot wear. I had always found that Teva basic black sandals provided just a little arch support but no pain. I started wearing them around as much as possible. Slowly but surely the heel pain went away and I now walk barefoot again and love my Vibram 5 fingers. I am pain free.

My personal non medical belief is that my pain was due to over controlling my feet and their natural movements. 

I would suggest going back to basics and slowly easing back to more normal and natural foot movements. 

Best of luck! 

I had PF for 6 months but it took me about month to figure out if was PF because I didn't want to believe it was PF. The best advice is to rest, rest, rest. When I finally stopped running and did all the icing,stretching, rolling of the ball, it started feeling better. By the way sandals are very  bad for your feet, I know they feel good after a long run but really they're bad, look into it. PF is a tear in the tendon and it takes 2/3 weeks to heal for every mm of tear and depending on your age maybe longer. So everytime it feels better and you go for a run and it comes back, your just tearing what just healed. I've explained this somewhere here before. I feel your pain though. I do know someone who did just try and run through it but that didn't get him to far. Eventually destroyed his foot with surgery and still walks with a limp. justt rest, it's easy but yet we make things so difficult for ourselves, why.

 

betyousilver

Man you are BROKEN, you need to just rest and heal my friend. just look at your own post.

Well, thank you.   Sadly, even being religious about rest, it doesn't do much for me.  Stretching helps alleviate most of the discomfort.   Throughout 2008 & most of 2009, I was able to run regularly without problems.  I'm not sure why my feet will decide to give me problems one minute, then suddenly I am able to train injury free for half marathons for extended periods of time.  Strangely enough, it does not hurt to train.  All of my problems arise post-run. 

Interesting, now  I hate to throw this word around and please don't everybody crucify at once and I do not advocate this either, but I have heard good things about HGH for healing. Now I'm not saying go buy it from some drug dealer. I mean see a Dr. and ask him what he thinks about HGH for your isolated problem. I have talked to some guys who have done this because of cronic problem like your situation and it really worked out for them. OK, now like I said I do not use or advocate the use of anything illegal like this, I'm strictly talking for healing.

thanks