Plantar fasciitis, Gout, or Psoriatic Arthritis--extreme foot pain

I am not a medical professional.  I am sharing my experience with my joint pain, which may be Psoriatic Arthritis.   Fifteen year ago, I started writing a blog about my Plantar Fasciitis.  I had unbearable pain in my heels.  Eventually, it went away, but it lasted, at varying degrees for a few years.  Since then, I've had other painful issues in my feet.  A few years ago, I was diagnosed with gout in one of my big toes.  It began with a slight discomfort but the pain got so intense that I could not walk.  I was given prednisone, which cleared it up.  Google gout and you will find that it comes on suddenly after a night of drinking and eating red meat and seafood.  I do none of these things, so I always doubted the diagnosis.   The gout came at a very stressful time and during the hot summer.  I often wondered if it was caused by dehydration.   A few years later, I had Achilles tendinitis.  This was also...

As I've stated before, I tried the stretching, I tried the night splint, I even had three cortisone shots in my foot--three times! But I can't say enough about the physical therapy, which was a combination of so many things: stretching, icing, ultrasound, some kind of pain patch, as well as the best and most caring advice I could have gotten on how to help my heel pain myself.  This was to stretch my calves (gently), since this is attached to the bottom of the foot and will stretch there too.  It's hard to explain in writing, but she said it's all connected. I also, during the regular evaluations, was able to see improvement, which gave me hope. Against all my fears, my PT encouraged me to walk for exercise: she advised me about what types of surfaces would be better than others. I didn't walk into the PT office with hope. This was my second round. The first one was not so successful. In fact, I had just about given up. I can't stress enough how important ...

My plantar fasciitis began almost 2 years ago 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. As a stay at home mom of 3, it limited my ability to care for myself and my children. I think it may have even contributed to the breakdown of my marriage. 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 of pain, I went to my primary care doctor who sent me to the podiatrist. The first 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 and scheduled a follow-up....

Or is it? Maybe the bad foot just got so much better that I can now feel pain in the good foot.  I'm not sure if I would say I actually have plantar fasciitis in the "good" foot, but I have been stretching it as much as I can so it doesn't ever get as bad as the "bad" foot.  The "bad" foot was really bad for about a year and a half and just within the last few months has steadily improved.  I give credit to a number of things, including, ice, stretching and physical therapy. We went to Vermont and visited the Ben and Jerry's factory and my 6-year-old bought me a cow-patterned golf ball. It was for massaging my foot.  cute.

I once told my physical therapist how much driving bothered my foot.  My heel pain from Plantar fasciitis is on my right, my gas foot.  She explained to me how when I had my foot on the gas, all my weight was on my right heel, where the pain was.  Not only was I getting stiff from just sitting in the car, all my weight was on my painful heel, making it worse.  Once I realized that, I raised up my seat in my car so that my heel was just resting on the floor of the car, but all my weight was not on it. I think this might have been one of the things that contributed to my improvement. good luck!!

Last summer, at the peak of my foot pain from Plantar Fasciitis, aka a heel spur, I accidentally purchased a pair of socks with arch support in them.  I didn't even know such a thing existed...it wasn't that I did n't want them...I just hadn't intended on buying them. Putting them on my feet felt so wonderful. I think the action may be similar to the "taping" that some athletes do to help with the pain of Plantar Fasciitis.   It felt like just a little extra "hug" and support on my arch, and I swear it helped with the pain. Next time you buy socks, look for ones with arch support. It's just like a tighter, elastic area around the arch that adds some extra support. I wish you the best of luck with your foot pain. Please remember that I am not a medical professional, and am merely sharing my own personal experience with the extreme pain of Plantar Fasciitis and how I finally found relief.