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My problem started about eight monthes ago a little while (few hours to two days) after finishing an Olympic Distance triathlon. The original problem seemed to be cause by putting way to many miles in my favorite pair of shoes. The symptoms were pretty much Burning sensations all across the bottom of my feet. To best explain it it felt like a bad burn (chemical or flame) located under the skin of the bottom of my feet. My original thought was it was Plantar (whatever the spelling) Fascia. So I took a few weeks off and finished my season with a few running races. As I neared the end of the season I could kind of feel it coming back, so I cut back my training and did one last race. I don't believe the milage was the cause because I had previously done a quite a bit longer running race earlier in the year and my furry feet were just fine. Well, I wasn't thinking anything about it untill a few months ago when I tried to start back running; there was no change from before. (Pain and burning.) So I went the doctor route. He had a lot of thinggs to say, but nothing at all pertaining to my feet. So he reluctently recomended me to an orthopedic. He X-rayed my feet to check for stress fracters, but he didn't do much else. So put me on an anti-inflametory that pretty much made me sick to my stomach for a month and sent me to physical therapy. At PT they also didn't know much about it, so they had my try a bunch of different stretches to try and build strength in my feet. That didn't do anything so they finally recomended that I buy custom orthodics. The reason I haven't gone that route is that the Gopher loves to go barefoot and does so often. The pain occurs the worst when I am wearing shoes(I don't even have to have weight put on them, walking, sitting, ect...) And when I take my shoes off the pain drastically reduces. I've tried doing a lot of things bare foot, including running, and nothing hurts, but lacking a nice beach to run on this doesn't present it self an option. I've changed shoes several times and that doesn't seem to do much, if anything.
My question, Has this happened to anyone else? If so do you have any advice?
The Gopher says "Put my feet out."
Try larger shoes,
Try a cox-2 inhibitor (celebrex, vioxx, etc. less Gi disturbances)
Ice
Try to find a sports medicine doctor, orthopedists are good with bone, less good with soft tissue. Sports medicine are mroe attuned to the sports related soft tissue and bone issues. He may reccomend an injection to see if that helps.
What the ortopod did was look to see if there was a bone issue, if not the most likely explanation is a tendonosis/itis which is first treated with NSAIDs and or PT... then maybe an injection.
If the PT people know what they are doing they should have also assesed your equipment to see if there is an extrinsic cause to your problem...
good luck
If it hurts like hell first step in the morning you could have Plantar Fascia. Don't feel frustrated I had it and did the same thing you are going to P.T and taking anti-inflametory, but the one thing I found that works the best is a Pro-Tec Arch Support from Road Runner Sports. I wore it all the time for the first couple of months now I just wear it at night and man that was the only thing that worked for me. I did the change the shoes and everything but nothing worked like the support did.
Good Luck, Bruce
Or a larger size.
Shoes too small or too narrow will cause burning.
Xrays alone can't really rule out a stress fracture. A bone scan is a more definitive test, though more mostly and time consuming.
Chronic use injuries like Plantar fascitis often times make their appearance known through a slow build up of pain and discomfort such that it is rare for an athlete to remember the precise moment that the pain began. Since your injury does have a definable beginning looking for a more definable problem like a stress fracture seems to make sense. Of course, this assumes that you weren't having any discomfort prior to that first incident. However, your symptoms do seem to sound a lot like the classical description of PT.
I had the same problem especially on long runs. I went and got orthos, helped some, but then I went to a running store and talked to the owner. He said it was probably because of my socks of all things. I switched to running socks with teflon or something like it nin them. I do not have the problem any more. I would give it a try before you spend big bucks on md's and orthos. Good luck, Truchy.
Thanks everyone for the advice. After the Physical Therapy people were done with me and suggested orthos I went to a running store and got a pair of custom heat moldable orthos. They didn't seem to help at all. I figured If Orthos were the answer they ought to help a little bit at least. As for socks, I've tried everything, gym socks, dress socks, bike socks, barefoot, nothing helps. As for going with a bigger shoe if I go any bigger I'm worried my heel will flop around to much and cause even more porblems. On the worse side, the more I've tried to run (i.e. helf mile to a mile) it has gotten a lot worse. Instead of only hurting when I've got shoes on it's starting to hurt the rest the time. (Like six months ago.) As a last resort I'm thinking of trying to get an appointment with a foot doctor who has a lot of experience with runners. Needless to say I would hate to see the rest of this try season go down the drain. But on a happier note, Thanks to everyone for the advice.