A Podiatrist Can Help You Manage Heel Pain While Your Foot Heals

Blog

Heel pain is one of the more frequent foot complaints because it can be caused by plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendonitis, which are common foot conditions caused by playing sports, walking more than you're used to, or wearing the wrong type of shoes. However, heel pain has other causes too, so if you have heel pain that doesn't clear up quickly, then you should consider seeing a podiatrist. Here's what a podiatrist might do to help.

Determine The Reason For Your Heel Pain

A podiatrist can probably identify your condition by listening to your symptoms and noting where you point to the location of pain on your heel. However, if necessary, your podiatrist might order imaging tests to look for injured bones or tissues in your foot. Once the cause is narrowed down, then your podiatrist can give you a treatment plan to follow at home to help your foot heal.

Provide Support When You Can't Rest

Staying off your foot a few days so healing can get underway is helpful, but that probably won't happen if you have to work or if you're scheduled to compete in a cycling or running competition. While you should rest as much as you can, if you have to be on your feet, your podiatrist might suggest shoe inserts, a certain type of shoe, or even a brace or splint that can help. Even taping your foot a certain way could possibly help the pain.

Teach You Stretching Movements

Stretching your feet keeps them limber and prevents tight tissues. If your plantar fascia is inflamed, it may feel tight until you've stretched your feet a few times to loosen things up. Exercises help improve blood circulation and that can speed healing too. By doing foot exercises and stretching, you may promote healing while reducing your pain.

Recommend Options For Pain Relief

Ice is often a good treatment for heel pain, but your podiatrist will recommend the right way to deal with your pain depending on your diagnosis. Over-the-counter pain relievers or anti-inflammatory medications might be recommended. If your pain is bad, then your podiatrist might consider an injection in your heel that delivers medication to help with pain relief.

Monitor You When You Have Poor Circulation

Any foot injury usually heals slowly when you have poor circulation in your feet. If you have diabetes or another medical condition, your podiatrist may want you to return for followup visits until your foot problem has healed. Also, you should check your feet daily at home just to make sure the heel pain doesn't mask pain from a splinter or cut that could lead to an infection.

Heel pain often just takes time to heal on its own. You might need some home remedies and advice from a podiatrist to manage the pain, but as the tissues gradually repair themselves, you'll find the pain gets less severe and less frequent. 

Share

10 April 2019

Making Changes With Vision Therapy

When my daughter began having academic problems in school and acting out, I knew that something wasn’t right. Her teachers wanted me to put her on ADD medications, but I didn’t think that that was the right course for us. I had serious doubts that ADD was what was causing her problems. I took her to several different specialists before discovering that her issues in school were actually do to a visual processing problem. The doctor recommended vision therapy, not medication, to help correct the problem and get her back on track. The exercises are really starting to pay off, and she’s showing great improvement.