Heel Issue

[hill_fdbrg]

Hi, I have a problem with my right heel and I would appreciate very much any advice anyone can offer. Also please forgive the size of the post.

In early July I was running and slipped and my ankle folded/twisted slightly, I hopped for a few steps in pain but it faded and I ran it off ( In hindsight probably a mistake) and did the remaining mile I had to go.

The next day I woke up and when I placed weight on my foot, I could feel a slight discomfort in a point just slightly inside my foot on the outer edge of my heel. I left it 2 days before running and by the time it came to my next run it had pretty much gone although was slightly present. I ran 3 miles and later that night my foot was sore when I put pressure on it.. woke up the next day and couldn't walk on it at all with the pain being the whole of my heel centred mostly on the right outer side.

I rested it completely for almost a week and by this point I could just about walk on it.. then during a intense day at work I must have overused it.. and woke up back at square one being unable to walk, the same process then occurred again with me resting it just over a week and then once again when having to walk on it for a long period of time I caused it to go back to being unable to walk on it. After this final time I decided to completely rest it for as long as possible.

After a couple of weeks rest it only hurt if I placed a lot of pressure on it, and twice a week I began very very light slow jogging in a way that only the ball of my right foot touched the ground, this didn't seem to trigger it off at all, and at around 3-4weeks after the last incidident where I triggered it I could walk normally although sometimes I felt a strange sensation in my foot almost like a tingling across my heel when I put weight on although this faded mostly after a week or so.

Then last week, 9 weeks after the problem beginning, and around 3-4 week since any pain or discomfort, I went for my first normal 3 mile run.. it went fine, felt no pain when running or after, 2 days later i did another... the following day (Tuesday of this week) I woke up and I could feel a sensation in my heel although I wouldnt call it pain or soreness.. and the tingling when standing for the first time after sitting a while also returned. I've stopped running mostly out of fear of making it worse and I plan to take another 2 maybe 3 weeks off completely and then see how it is.

Has anyone else with this kind of heel bruising experienced similar conditions and have any advice they could offer about how I go about returning to full running

Thanks very much for your time reading through this

[southernsoftie]

Sounds like something I picked up a few weeks back. Mine was a bit further round the outside of the foot, directly under where the ankle sticks out.

Just sat with feet flat would hurt as the pressure of the weight of my leg would be pressing down on it. Long time on my feet (e.g. supermarket) would cause me grief later on in the day.

Hit me the evening after my first run on fell in a long time. Had no accident of note though while I was out.

Put it down to bruised bone. After the first week (spent walking on tip toes, which was fine) the pain become more of a discomfort. Didn't hurt as such, but didn't feel right either.

Went for a run the following weekend, the logic being that up hill I'll be on my toes anyway, and so it'd be fine. Despite continuing to run on it, realised early this week that the discomfort had gone.

Don't know what caused it, don't know for sure what it was, don't know what I did to make it go away (not rest, that's for sure). In your case though, if you're still getting aggro this far down the line, I'd get it seen to. Could be a chipped bone? Be worth an x-ray I'd have thought.

Fingers crossed.

[hill_fdbrg]

That is a bit of relief that someone has had heel issues and is now okay!, Some of the heel stories are terrifying me!

I'm not sure the issue was located in one particular place, I think that's just where it happened to be centered at that time. As in the two incidents where I triggered it off afterward it was centered in different places, the back and then on the bottom. From this I think it was a problem with the whole heel.

I've read a lot of the plantar facsiitis stories but I am not sure if this is it as it only ever seemed to be a problem with the actual heel, not the area to the front of it, and I never had the problems where it was bad when I woke up. Also when I ran on just the front of my right foot it didn't cause any problems.
Once the pain cleared after 3-4week I could walk perfectly fine and this never triggered it off. It just seems that the running I did last week and on tuesday caused this tingling which I recall was what I felt for a week or so after the pain went away, so it's sort of worried me into thinking that perhaps it's too early to run yet, or something I am doing is wrong.

I have noticed the natural way in which I run is to land almost flat on my foot, and some steps have a slight heel strike. In light of this I have been thinking perhaps an idea would be to rest for a week, then starting at a slow pace gradually over a couple of months modify my running form so that i'm landing on the ball/mid foot with my heels barely touching the ground, whilst keeping my body weight centered over the point of impact and over time increase speed as I get used to it.

Does this sound like a reasonable idea?