Plantar Fasciitis — Heel Pain and More

You may get out of bed, and your first steps are met with extreme pain in your heel or across the sole of your foot. Or, the pain is more constant and follows you throughout the day, making every step an uncomfortable one.

Foot problems, such as plantar fasciitis, which sends about two million people to the doctor’s office each year in the United States, can be all-consuming given how much we rely on our feet.

At the Ankle and Foot Institute of Texas, Dr. Matthew W. Cerniglia and the team see our fair share of patients who are hobbled by plantar fasciitis, and we want to share some of what we know here.

Plantar fasciitis — a common stress injury

Let’s start this discussion with some basics about plantar fasciitis, which affects about 10% of the general population. 

Along the bottom of each of your feet is a tough ligament called the plantar fascia. This tissue runs from your heel to the balls of your feet and provides support for the arches along the way. 

With plantar fasciitis, there’s inflammation in this tissue thanks to tiny tears that develop due to overuse or too much stress on the tissue.

While anyone can get plantar fasciitis, it’s especially common among runners who literally pound the pavement. Pregnant women are also at risk for plantar fasciitis since they gain weight quickly, which can stress the arches and plantar fascia.

Signs of plantar fasciitis

Now let’s get into some more details about the side effects of plantar fasciitis. Pain is at the top of the list, but the pain can vary significantly among those struggling with plantar fasciitis.

In some cases, the pain only comes after a period of inactivity. For example, when you wake up in the morning and take your first steps, they can be extremely painful as your inflamed and tight plantar fascia stretches out.

For others, the pain can be more constant, and every step on the affected foot can be an uncomfortable one. Sometimes, this pain can follow you into bed as your foot throbs or burns at night, thanks to the inflammation.

Another hallmark of plantar fasciitis is pain in the heel. This heel pain can be felt at the spot where the plantar fascia connects with your heel bone on the underside of your foot. As well, you might feel pain in other areas of your heel if bone spurs have developed — bone spurs are a defensive response to stresses in your heel.

Relieving your plantar fasciitis pain

As you might imagine, pain relief is a top priority for people with plantar fasciitis, and we imagine it’s yours, too. The good news is that there are several effective solutions for plantar fasciitis, and we often recommend a combination of:

• Stretching
• Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications
• Steroid injections
• Multiwave locked system laser therapy 
• Shockwave therapy

The goal of each of these treatments is to reduce the inflammation to allow your plantar fascia to heal.

If you want to get back to walking without plantar fasciitis pain, your first step is to contact us at our office in Fort Worth, Texas, to schedule an appointment. The sooner you do that, the sooner we can help you regain pain-free mobility.