Have you woken up in the morning, swung your feet over the side of the bed, and felt the stab of pain as you transfer your body weight to your feet for the first time that day?
Or maybe you feel stabbing heel pain, numbness or tingling throughout the day when you get up and take the first few steps after you've been sitting for a while?
If this sounds familiar, you could be suffering from plantar fasciitis, which is just a fancy technical name we give to pain caused by strain of the plantar fascia tissue in your heel.
It's a pretty common problem and it's sometimes nicknamed policeman's heel or jogger's heel because of it's prevalence among people who are on their feet a lot.
The plantar fascia is a thick, broad band of tissue, which attaches to the calcaneus (heel bone), fanning out and attaching to the metatarsal bones in the ball of the foot. It's a ligament that helps keep the bones and joints of the bottom of our foot in position and also allows us to push off from the ground, mostly when we move forward or upward.
When we bruise, or overstretch this ligament, it can cause pain in our heel. Most of the time, plantar fasciitis can be effectively treated without surgery, and we will look at the possible cause of the pain. Often medical imaging, such as x-rays and ultrasound, are used to assist in the diagnosis of the exact cause of the heel pain. Common causes are often foot structure, gait abnormalities, lower limb muscle weakness/ imbalances or tight posterior chain.
We have a tool box full of various treatment options, depending on the individual needs of the patient to get you pain free. We can 3D scan your foot for a customized functional foot orthotic to help support and redirect pressure and improve symptomatic heel pain alongside an exercise rehabilitation program to gain mobility, improve strength and function in the foot, ankle and lower limb.
We provide a holistic, patient focused level of care for our patients. Making sure patients understand the condition and its cause, we encourage them to take ownership of their own health, as its far too common for patients to get “better” and stop their exercises and the pain returns.
The key is maintenance, like anything. A few simple daily exercises to reduce the risk of the condition developing again, remembering “if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it”.
Ongoing heel pain can be managed! You don't have to just 'live with it'. Come in and see one of us for an assessment - we'll investigate why you're in pain, what possibly caused it and how we can treat it so that you get the best possible outcome.
