Plantar Fasciitis, tendonitis, other?

[wendibird22]

How can I tell the difference between PF, tendonitis, or some other strain? I've been jogging for the past several weeks and have started having pain on the inner part of my heel. If I press on either side of the heel below the ankle bone it is tender only on the inner part, not on the back, bottom, or exterior areas of my heel. The achilles itself (above the heel) is not sore to the touch. I know that I have very short achilles. I was a competitive gymnast as a child and even at peak performance and flexibility it was a strain to touch my toes with ease and I often had tendonitis in the area just above my heel from all the pounding my feet/ankles took. I feel the soreness the most going down stairs. Doesn't hurt to point my toes or do a toe lift unless I go really high on the toe lift. It is slightly sore to do a heel drop but not as sore as going down stairs is. Not sore to do ankle rolls or other ankle/foot stretches. Do notice that when I walk it hurts when my foot pushes off from the ball of my foot but not the foot flexion and heel strike part.

Any guess on what I've strained?

Thankfully it is supposed to pour rain and be 95% humidity when it isn't for the next few days and I'll take that as a great reason to rest my aching feet.

[Percycat]

I don't know what you have, but I am recovering from a serious case of plantar fasciitis in one foot and a moderate case in the other foot. The pain is much more prominent when I first wake up in the morning, get out of bed, and start walking. My most severe pain is localized in the front of my heal, just before the arch. An area about the size of a quarter feels bruised. I also have occasional pain on the top of my ankle and the top of the outside of my foot that my doctor believes is caused by me altering my walk to avoid the pain caused by the plantar fasciitis. I did not seek treatment right away -- I thought it would heal on its own if I stopped running, but my problem got worse to where it hurt to walk. Going down stairs was hard (although I didn't notice a problem going up stairs).

To heal, I am doing the following:
1. stopped running and other impact exercise
2. purchased all new shoes with good arch supports
3. Stretch by standing on a step and dropping
4. Rolling my heal/foot over a frozen bottle of water
5. (i'm also supposed to use a band or towel around my toes to help flex my foot while sitting with legs extended, but I don't do this one).
6. The dr. gave me steroid shots in heel and a cream to help with the pain.


I have no problems pointing toes, but it is harder to flex. My right food is heeled. I can live with the pain in my left foot, but it is not heeled and I am worried about the pain returning if I start running/exercising again. I am going to make a concerted effort to do all of the stretches before going back to the doctor. The next step in his plan is for me to go to physical therapy.

Hope your foot heals soon.

[wendibird22]

Thanks Percycat.

Yesterday when I woke up the area just behind and slightly below my ankle bone on the exterior of both feet was clearly puffy/swollen and yet the tenderness is still on the inside of the foot. I took a few days off from jogging and iced last night and they both looked and felt better this morning. I did a light jog today and there's some soreness with jogging but not pain and it doesn't get better or worse as the workout progresses. Part of me is actually wondering if my sneakers are rubbing that area and causing soreness to the tissues. I have narrow heels and shoes always slip in the heel (especially dress shoes) and despite different lacing techniques to minimize this I do still notice some movement (can't really call it slipping cause I'm not getting blisters). I might keep playing with how the sneakers are laced and how tight/loose they are to see if that fixes the issue.