Yesterday, after eating breakfast out and doing a little shopping, when we got home and I started walking towards our apartment front door, I could feel some pain in my right foot heel. It progressively got somewhat worse, to the point I had a hard time walking on the foot. I dug out my foot support shoe an orthopedic doctor gave me a few years ago. I took an 800mg ibuprofen and laid down. An hour later, it seemed like the ibuprofen helped so I could walk in the support shoe, but there was still some pain. I read online that it could be a bone spur or a stretched tendon. I read that first thing in the morning could be the worst for this pain, due to body stiffness. I did absolutely nothing to the foot/heel for this to happen. If this heel doesn't get better in a few days, I'm going back to the orthopedic doctor that gave me the support shoe after I fell at a Halloween Party a couple of years ago. Anyone ever get this heel pain and found out what the cause was from? If "yes", how did you treat it?
Sounds like Plantar fascitis......it can be very painful, particularly in the mornings when you go to stand up and stretch the tendons...I was struck down by it just before I retired from work, caused by standing 10 hours a day..horribly painful. I tried shoe supports, heel supports , nothing really worked very well . the things that worked for me were these... https://www.amazon.co.uk/Physix-Gear-Plantar-Fasciitis-Support/dp/B01LZT011W.. , because without them I couldn't have continued working for the last few months... and also my saving grace were Sketcher trainers with the GoGa Mat memory foam insoles... . they really, really protect your feet and heels from any jarring from hard ground..best trainers (sneakers) ever.... but you must get those with the memory foam sole.. Incidentally go easy with that high dose of Ibuprofen...it's not good for your stomach, it can cause ulcers... https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/plantar-fasciitis/symptoms-causes/syc-20354846
Dunno about the heel problem but...... along with the ulcers, both Ibuprofen and acetaminophen in high doses absolutely destroy the liver. Why there aren’t more warnings publicized I do not know but people really need to watch out for OTC pain medications. After a couple of very painful liver problems I was having about 4 years ago, I won’t go near the stuff. In order to start the healing, the VA forbid me to use any pain medication of any kind which was a good edict as it turned out but at the time I felt as though they were trying to torture me. Men do not cry over pain but this man came real close. Personally, if I feel the need I will take a couple of Aleve (sodium naproxen) for inflammation which accompanies nearly all maladies and adds to the pain. Once the pain from the inflammation is nearly gone, a person can better focus on where the actual root of the problem really is and go from there.
Another thing, that is similar to what you are having, is a gout attack, @Cody Fousnaugh . Mostly, gout hits a person in their big toe, and that is where we usually think of when we hear the word “gout”. However, I have had it a few times, and it usually is in the back of my arch and close to the heel of my foot. Like yours, it just strikes hard, and with no warning, and I am hobbling around on one foot and Bobby has to practically carry me if I have to walk very far, or use a walker. (Much prefer leaning on Mr. Bobby’s broad shoulder) When it first happened, I went to the doctor, and they explained that it was gout, and is a type of inflammatory arthritis, and can actually hit anywhere, but usually in feet and sometimes knees. Mine will actually jump from one foot to the other ! When it starts to go away, and I think I am getting better, then the next morning I wake up and can’t walk on the other foot. My doctor gave me allopurinol , and that helps it a lot. Mostly, it happens after eating rich foods, or when I am under a lot of stress; so this is another reason that I watch my diet and try to avoid inflammatory foods. Like Bobby said, inflammation accompanies (or causes) most maladies, so foods that cause inflammation can trigger a gout attack, just like they trigger an arthritis attack anywhere else in our body.
I had a heel spur for a few years. Mine was very painful when I first stood up and started walking, then within a minute or so, it wasn't painful, which made it appear I was faking an injury. I think I've written this here before, but I went to the doctor. He gave me a plastic cup-shaped insert for my heel. I thought it couldn't possibly do any good, but it did, and immediately. I even put one in my bedroom slipper so it wouldn't hurt when I got up at night. The pain completely left eventually, on its own. Hope you get relief soon.
My VA doctor prescribes the 800mg ibuprofen to me for the daily arthritis pain I get in my left shoulder (from rotator cuff surgery I had a few years ago). I also take, on a daily AM basis, a VA prescription to reduce stomach acid.
Wow! Good thing my VA doctor isn’t your doctor or I would have been dead. She’s big on anti-inflammatories and prevention but totally against pain meds unless there is an extraordinary circumstance involved. And, as for the Omeprazol, (VA preferred acid reflux prevention), I still have most of a bottle from 4 years ago. Too much acid prevention makes the stomach create more acid just to compensate for the reduction. The only reason I was given it in the first place is that they tore part of my esophagus when they gave me an upper G.I. They were afraid that the acid would keep the wound open, or at least, that’s my theory because no one would cop to creating the original problem. My throat was fine until the guy rooted around in there and all the sudden I had a herniated whatever. All that said, I’m not a doctor of medicine and maybe your doctor knows what is best for you but 800mg of Ibu’s a day would have put me in a pine box a long time ago.
We bought me a new pair of Walking Shoes last week. I already have a pair, but they are getting somewhat shabby. I also have a new pair of Dr. Scholl's Massaging Gel Advanced Insoles. The same insoles are in my "shabby" Walking Shoes". I decided to get rid of my old Walking Shoes and insoles and use the new Walking Shoes and insoles. Also have a new pair of Moccasin Slippers that I'm now wearing. I wear the new slipper on the left foot and the ProCare Medical Post-Surgical Shoe on the right foot around the apartment. Right now, basically, I feel no pain in the right foot heel. But, I know that after the ibuprofen wears off, the pain will be back, just like in my left shoulder. I'll give the foot a few days, to see how it does, before I make an appointment with the doctor I seen about my left foot after my fall at the Halloween Party. He is the one that gave me the ProCare Shoe I'm now wearing. Boy, a few days less than 60 days before we load up our Dodge Durango, move out of our apartment and head to Colorado. I still have a few things to do before we call a Moving Company to get an estimate for a moving cost.
Actually, Bobby, I was taking OTC Motrin 800mg after I fell in the parking lot of our apt. complex to stop/hold down the pain in my right shoulder. BTW, there are days that I don't take the Omeprazole pill in the morning, but sometimes I will need a Tums later.
To tell you the truth, Bobby, my VA doctor also prescribes 50mg Tramadol (every other day) for my shoulder pain. Of course, 50mg is the lowest mg there is for Tramadol. On the days I don't take the Tramadol, I have to take the 800mg ibuprofen a couple of times within a 24 hour period. I also take a Turmeric capsule during the week, but not on days that I take the ibuprofen. Both of them together can give me a mean diarrhea thing.
@Cody Fousnaugh, like @Holly Saunders I thought your heel pain was probably plantar fasciitis, as that is a common cause of heel pain. If you follow her link, it will give you info to decide for yourself. Heel spurs should have been detected on a simple x-ray of your foot if they did that. That is something that should be done for any pain that lasts for a prolonged period. Most NSAIDs are contraindicated for people over 60 years of age, due to GI issues and possible blood pressure, liver and kidney side effects. Pain, however, is hard to deal with and sometimes it is worth the risk, as long as you are aware of the risk. Tramadol, even at 50 mg. is still potentially addictive, so be cautious. Ibuprofen in a healthy, young adult is said to be safe to 3200 mg daily (4x800 mg. tablets), but that is very risk in older people. I have known one guy with a spinal injury who took 12x800 mg. tablets daily because he couldn't stand the pain and didn't trust surgery. I don't know if he is still alive now, however. Long-term use of any method of pain relief can cause one to become more sensitive to pain. I cannot find the reference at the moment, and I think that was what had happened to my acquaintance mentioned above. I believe he was "addicted" to the relief from the NSAID, and became more sensitive to the pain the longer he was treating it, thus requiring ever-increasing doses to keep the pain at bay. Please be cautious with the NSAID use, Cody, and monitor your BP if you can while taking it, although one-800 mg. tablet daily is not a lot for the short term, any long term use of NSAIDs should be closely monitored.
My current problem is with my right foot. When I fell at a Halloween Party, it was my left foot that got messed up. I think the problem happened, in part, due to the old slippers I was wearing while lifting/arranging boxes of stuff we have in our one bedroom for moving. My old Walking Shoes didn't help either. Lifting somewhat heavy boxes and wearing old shoes don't go together. I'm already taking a BP med for high blood pressure.
The ibuprofen I took this AM, the ProCare strap-on shoe I'm wearing now and some CBD Deep Rub really seems to be helping the heel. I'll find out more in the next couple of days. After that, I might get an appointment to see the Ortho doctor and might not. Just depends on the pain.
Cody, the ortho doc is your best route. We can only speculate based on your description of symptoms. If it is plantar-fasciitis, he will likely advise you of some exercises and to lose some weight. Applying ice to the painful area may help as well.
I have heel spurs. They were unbearably painful. There are no words to describe the pain. The doctor gave me cortisone and Novocain shots for a year. They helped temporarily. He prescribed unbelievably expensive shoe inserts..... Twice.....They made the pain worse. I went to another doctor. He said that the spurs themselves don't hurt. The tendon rubs across the spur, becomes irritated and that causes the pain. He recommended that I wear shoes with a little bit of an elevated heel to loosen the tendon so that it won't rub against the spur. I have done that almost every since then and don't have any pain. I have given in to temptation a few times and bought some really pretty flats. I thought maybe it won't hurt to wear them for a while at a time. Wrong! So now I only wear shoes with some heel. The spurs don't go away. But, with proper shoes, they don't hurt.