If you notice the pain when you first get up in the morning or if you have to get up in the middle of the night, and it is difficult to walk at first until you get moving, most likely it is plantar fasciitis. Orthotics will help and there are exercises you can do to stretch the fascia......picking up a towel with your toes, standing on a step and dropping your heal down to stretch the foot, standing at your counter and stretching your leg by putting the bad foot behind, keep that leg straight and bend the other leg toward the counter (this is easier to show than explain.) I have also found that wearing a slight heel....about an inch and a half to two inches around the house until the condition goes away has been helpful. It stretches the arch and keeps the pressure off of your heel. I hope this was helpful

Today on TheDoctors they were showing shoes with toes. Recommended for running, etc.

Sue

Here is a link that might be useful: Shoes with toes

I've had plantar fasciitis & that is exactly what it sounds like to me. I went to a podiatrist and he taped my foot, pulling it forward to strech the faciites. I taped it every night for about a week and it did get better. Georgysmom described it perfectly & the stretching exercises will help. I still get it occassionally especially after I've been on my feet for a long time & go back to taping it at night. Wishing you the best.

I do want to say, if you do nothing it will get worse. The quicker you deal with it, the quicker it will heal. As soon as I feel it coming on, I put on my "plantar fasciitis shoes". Walking barefoot or wearing shoes without much support like sandals tends to be one of the reasons for this condition. I go barefoot or wear just socks around the house all the time. Not good!

Dottie

I got plantar fasciitus in both feet back in 1997. It took about three years before the pain lessened enough to where it wasn't the main thing on my mind each day. My feet still bother me today, but it is more of a tired achy feeling rather than devastating pain. The only medication that helped a lot was Vioxx, but they took it off the market. I do take Advil most days now.

I wear orthotics every day of my life. When I have to wear shoes other than my crocs or tennis shoes with the orthodics in them ( for funerals, weddings, church etc. ) I get out of those shoes as soon as possible. My foot doctor told me I had one of the worst cases he had seen, but I was a factory worker and was on my feet for a lot of 12 and 16 hour shifts on concrete or steel floors and I had to climg stationry, steel ladders with little round rungs several times a day on some jobs. Talk about agony.

Exercises do help. When my feet were hurting so badly, other than the exercises already mentioned, I would sit on the side of the bed before getting up each day and write the alphabet in the air with my feet. Also when sitting at the computer, massaging your feet my moving them over a tennis ball feels pretty good. After a couple of years surgery is an option, but I did the research on it and found out the scar tissue can be as bad as the problem itself. I hope yours doesn't last that long.

I agree. plantar fasciitis.

Linda

mcscippy....try freezing water in a water bottle or a coke bottle. Rolling your feet over that is very soothing. I had plantar fasciitis in both feet for over a year one time and just couldn't get rid of it. I was reading on the Mayo clinic site that it is very rare to have it in both feet at the same time. We went to New York during this time and I can remember sitting on the subway and rolling my feet over a tennis ball to soothe them (I figure anything goes in New York on the subway). When we went out to dinner I realized while my feet still hurt, they felt better when I had on slight heels. After I got home, I put these heels on from the time I got up in the morning till I went to bed. I wore them in P.J.'s, I wore them when I sat to watch T.V. For someone who likes to be barefoot all the time, this was quite a sacrifice, but in about two weeks, the plantar fasciitis was gone. It's worth a try.

I've been to the doctor for plantar fasciitis and he did the taping thing which didn't help me at all. I've also been to a few foot doctors and physical therapy. My issue is exactly where your is - in the arch of the foot. I have very high arches. I did get a pair of orthotics from a running store which help too.

Here's some exercises to do that really work well from my PT office:

1) Roll your arch over a golf ball. It massages the area and gets into the nooks of the arch. It feels great.

AND / OR

Freeze a water bottle, then roll your arch over the bottle to massage it for up to 15 minutes. The ice will help the inflammation.

2) Use one of those elastic exercise ribbons and stretch your foot by holding each end of the elastic with your foot in the middle pressing your heel upward so you get that stretch in the arch area. The ribbon should be on your foot pad, not at your arch area when you do this exercise. You can do this laying down or sitting.

3) To strengthens the foot muscles, put a pile of marbles on the floor. Using your toes, pick them up one, two, or three at a time, placing them in a container. Do this twice.

4) Using a slant board or anything sturdy you can put on a slant, like a stepper for instance, stand on it with your toes facing the top of the slant. This will stretch the tendons. DON'T OVER STRETCH OR YOU'LL HURT YOURSELF.

All of these should help stretch the area as long as you do them for a few weeks or until it feels better. You can always research the subject on the Internet for more exercises. PT is a very common injury.

You should have a podiatrist check it out. Choose a doctor who specalizes in sport medicine. You could have stress fractures in the bones and the treatment for this is much different to that for plantar fasciitis.

Thanks Georgysmom, I'll try that. I meant to add on my previous post that for a couple of years, maybe more, I wore some blue hard plastic things on my legs and feet when I was in bed. They were kind of like a cast. They kept my feet and legs in an L shape when I was sleeping instead of letting my feet relax and my toes point downward.

I agree with jemdandy. Don't let us diagnose your problem, it could be something else entirely and you need to know for sure so you can get it taken care of. There were times when my arches hurt though and after the initial excruiating pain I went thru periods of other parts of my feet hurting. Sometimes the sides of my feet hurt like they were clamped in a vice, but the doctor said it was all part of PF.

You have been given some very good advice. Please don't let this linger . I ran until I was 40 years old. This was 30 years ago and I still pay the price for not taking really good care of my feet. It was almost too late when I finally started seeing an orthopedic surgeon for all of my problems. Didn't have surgery but had to wear a cast to help get my feet back into shape. I don't wear pretty shoes today. The boxes would look as good as the shoes that I have to wear for comfort today.

I, too, have plantar fasciitis and that sounds like what you have.

That being said, though--please go to a good woman podiatrist. This is one area of medicine where I strongly believe the gender of the dr. makes a real difference. Men DO NOT understand women's shoes. You need to first verify that we've all guessed right--none of us are drs, as far as I know, and we're all just assuming that what caused our pain is causing yours. that may or may not be right.

As you can see in this post, there are many different treatments for PF--and not all work for all patients. In my case, I was practically unable to walk by the time I went to my family dr, scheduled X-rays, and got an appt. with a specialist. In my case, she prescribed medication, exercises, and recommended a specific brand of shoes based on my specific needs. That combination took care of the problem--not overnight, of course. That was about 5 years ago. As long as I stick to the shoes she recommended, I have no problems with PF, and if I feel a twinge of it coming on, I slip on my shoes. Remember, that if it IS PF, you're not really supposed to ever go barefoot--one of the worst things you can do.

Please, though, get evalutated by someone who knows feet, and who can prescribe the exact right combination of treatments for your needs. Hope you feel better soon

I have plantar fasciitis, too, and I agree that it sounds like that's what you have. I've had terrible times of it in the past when it's lasted for a year or more, but I keep it at bay now with stretching, icing, anti-inflammatories, and shoes, always. I use a pair of Ortha-Heel sandals as slippers, and wear them all the time.