Heel pain treatment

How the story starts

I have been running for eight years, and I enjoy everything about it. But almost 2 years ago my heel pain began as mild pain in both of my arches. Then it settled into my left heel. The pain was unbearable, throbbing, like a knife sticking in my heel when I stood on it.

The most frustrating thing was that nobody understood how bad the pain was and how difficult it was for me to move around. Everyone, even those very close to me would say, “Oh, yeah, I had that….” but they didn’t have it quite this bad. “It’ll go away before you know it…” but it didn’t.

After a few months I went to a care doctor

After a few months of pain, I went to my primary care doctor who sent me to the podiatrist. The first heel pain treatment he gave me was a night splint, and gave me a certain type of inserts to put into my shoes, told me to stretch, and said he was sure that I would be much better in two weeks maybe can run again and scheduled a follow-up.

Second visit

I think it was at this 2-week followup that this doctor gave me my first of three cortizone injections as heel pain treatment. This is a painful injection, but he did it so fast without discussion that I didn’t really have a chance to be worried. He did put novacaine into the foot first. It is a very big needle that goes in from the side of your foot.

Next heel pain treatment

Again, he said he was sure I’d be much better in 2 weeks, and scheduled a follow-up. And in two weeks, I went back to see him and I was much better. The heel pain was gone and I was able to function again. Then the cortizone shot wore off. And the pain was worse than before. That heel pain treatment hasn’t worked.

Back to square one again

I went back to the doctor and got another shot, and was referred for my first round of physical therapy. Twice a week, I had ultrasound therapy and massage, stretching and other exercises. Of course, I kept telling the PT how good I was doing, but again, once the cortizone shot wore off, I was back to square one. The heel pain treatment still not worked.

Natural heel pain treatment

Back to the doctor again for a third shot. When the PT went on vacation, I never went back to him. He was useless, as useless as the podiatrist who kept shooting me up with cortizone.

At this point, it’s been about 8-9 months of pain and I decided to try to do my own natural heel pain treatment and try to stay off it as much as possible. I’ve studied the available information about the heel pain treatment, I read everything about it. I’ve found good tips and exercises. The information helped me a lot.

Today my heel is well, and I started to run again. With this blog I would like to share you my experiences and the information that helped me and I hope that other people can learn from this.