It all started with a broken pinky toe towards the end of May, which had to be reset since it was sticking out at a 90-degree angle. After 12 weeks in a walking boot, followed by a 2-week long flu, I slowly got back into cycling and eventually running, working myself up to 6-mile runs. Thinking the worst was over, my heel started hurting and got worse (felt as if it was on fire) over the next 0.5 mile forcing me to stop during a slow recovery run - this was at the beginning of September. After I had limped home, I discovered that the outer side next to my heel was all swollen. Icing and/or elevation didn't make it any better. Even anti-inflammatories didn't do the trick. Eventually, I went to see a PT a few days later and he suspected it might be peroneal tendonitis. So, after laying off running for 3 weeks, I started walking for 30 min. and eventually 1 min. running / 1 min. walking totaling only 10 min., then 2 min. running / 2 min. walking, 2 min. running / 1 min. walking, and finally 10 min. nonstop running.
Since I still had pain in my toe, I went to see the PT again. He noticed that my muscles and tendons in my forefoot are totally stiff. Therefore he wanted to go in there and break it all up. However, he encouraged me to get some x-rays done since something around the little toe felt not right. It turned out that the toe seems to be all healed, but grew back offset. While at the doc's office, I also told him about the heel pain. Instead of peroneal tendonitis, he found two stress fractures in the same heel. I do remember googling "fractured heel", which appeared to be impossible, unless you jump off a building (which I obviously haven't). It most likely happened due to changing my gait to heel running in order to avoid putting too much pressure on the toe.
I still have tremendous heel pain and stopped running altogether. Swelling on the side of the Achilles and extremely tight and painful tendons are an issue as well. Any suggestions on how to move forward and get back into "the game"?