Things have been a little lacklustre for me on the dancing front. An excrutiating pain in my left heel has been making the rest of me feel ill just sitting aorund – dancing and exercising has obviously been mostly out of the question. i took myself off to a doctor who insisted it was all becuase of bad footwear. Could be. i was certainly wearing uncushioned very-flat little sheoes that day and he promptly pounced on them and said wel, if that’s the kind of thing you wear…
The pain is just in the heel area and isn’t reachable by touching. i mean I can’t mssage it or trigger it off by touching. It’s deep somewhere. it’s worst after a period of rest, specially after sleeping. in the morning when i put my feet down on to the floor, it is extremely painful.
The doctor put me on to anti-inflammatory meds (low dose) for a week and told me to put my feet in hot and icy cold water alternately. Also to get rid of flat uncushioned shoes and wear some heel support. I did all that, but it didn’t kill it. He threated to inject something into my heel, and that scared me off a bit. Could it be steroids? Or Vitamin B? I bet it’ll hurt! So anyway, I’m thinking I’ll work on more of the water treatment and be very careful with footwear for a bit and see what happens. This may be a problem called plantar fasciitis.
Two days ago I hit upon an interesting way to cool my foot. I used a bottle of vodka! It’s been in my freezer for months – and vodka doesn’t freeze. So i decided to roll that under my foot. I wonder what my doctor will think of that! It may be helping because the pain’s been less the past two days. I even manged some dancing and violent hula hooping today. Managed to keep the hoop up for a good long time, in fact!
Anyone with weak ankles or very flat feet should maybe consider ankle support while exercising. One of the causes, from what i read, is exercise overload.
ooooh Mala! guess what since last Thursday I have a very bad toe!! the biggest one (“thumb” toe?
)
dont know why maybe bad shoes too? and most likely something dance related. although it got a bit better when i was dancing the next day.
it s been today it gets better, pretty wicked pain still yesterday. so before getting injections which can do more harm also i d wait a couple of days. natural is mostly better.
maybe you should check your sitting habits? like in the office? i now know much of my knee trouble is due to constant cross-legged sitting in front of the computer (relaxin back but not knee and ankle friendly position!!)
Oh, no; feel better!
I like your vodka idea; my mom used bags of frozen peas (wrapped in a dish towel) as ice packs when one of us had a sprain or a burn. Worked like a charm!
I’m so sorry you have this pain, but I’ glad you’ve found a delicious way to treat it!
This really really sounds like plantar fasciitis. Did your Dr mention that? The problem there isn’t so much the cushioned heel but the lack of arch support. The plantar fasciitis will cause a bone spur which is the pain you’re feeling.
When I’m not taking care of my feet then I get this and bad. Here is some good info on it care of wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantar_fasciitis
When I was suffering frm this I would make sure to stretch my legs, feet and ankles gently *before* I even got out of bed (couldn’t do this on the first day, of course not knowing I had it, but after that). Id do it to loosen up those muscles and it seemed to help at least a little bit. Now I wear good inserts in my shoes (superfeet is a good brand) and I don’t have them anymore. I like flat shoes so I’ll stick the inserts in whatever pair of shoes I choose to wear that day and I’m good to go. I haven’t had it in years.
Good luck! I hope you find a good solution that works even better than the vodka!
Rosie, thanks for the advice! I will totally get some arch support. I think the brand we have here is only Schall’s. I’ll do the stretching pre-get-out-of-bed too but my problem with that is that I only get up in a big hurry when my maid rings the bell at 7:15 in the morning. Then I have to shoot across to open the door. Before that, I sort of refuse to budge!
My doctor did not mention the term plantar fasciitis. I began to look it up on the net under heel pain and it seemed to describe what I had. Doctors here are not awfully forthcoming with information on what you’ve got, what they plan to do, etc. Unless you ask them point blank. He threatened these injections and I have no clue what they were to be. If he’d told me; I might have considered going.
One person I know has had her pain and spur treated with homeopathy. Now, I happen to be very suspicious of homeopathy or at least the unregulated way it’s delivered, but this problem is just the type that seems to benefit from homeopathy and accupuncture. If the vodka don’t fix it, I might consider one of these!
By the way… it’s apple-flavored vodka!
Nadira, do you think frozen peas will be colder than vodka? The vodka of course doesn’t freeze.. so you can get it out from under your foot and take a good swig any time!
Dina… i’m guilty of much cross-legged sitting too! I’m stopping it AT ONCE!
So what’s with your toe exactly – is it swollen? Or does it feel like it’s sprained? Try the cold treatment. Did you dance without warming up?
no the toe is not swollen, it s the first time i have it. but i know i crunch my toes into the floor often while sitting at the computer. maybe I overstretched it Another bad habit.
And I should probably warm up the feet more, like Blanca is doing. I ll rewatch her warm-up!
The pain was pretty terrible especially after getting up, after 4 days it s almost gone. I put different gels normally for the knee joints to cool and ease pain, think it worked well. these treatments work for any sports strain I think. I have no knowledge about plantar fasciitis though, my suggestion of being patient a few days was meant for something minor like I think I have in my toe
hope you re better soon! and let s both stop the “irregular” sitting positions, as hard as that it
I’m sure any kind of arch support will help. I’m sorry your doc isn”t so forthcoming. The injection may have been a Corticosteroid injection which they give to temporarily relieve pain. I’ve never had it, it sounds too scary and after a while the stretching and inserts worked for me. I’m really lucky to have some great doctors here in Korea. They’re particularly helpful to me because I’m a foreigner. It’s useful some times!
I wore some flat shoes yesterday without switching the insoles because I was just running out for a quick trip and within 5 minutes my big toes started going numb. I guess my feet are used to support and good circulation and don’t like when I take that away!
If you’re like me and you wake up but you don’t want to get out of bed, that’s the perfect time for stretching. I just flex and point my toes to stretch the sole of my foot and the front of my ankles and then rotate my foot clockwise and counter clock wise to loosen the ankle a bit more. All this while laying on my back with my eyes closed, pretending it isn’t morning yet.
I’ve taken 4 hours of tribal bellydance in five days; my feet are ok, which is surprising considering I’m flat-footed and considering your experience; but my butt hurts from trying to squeeze my glutes. My teacher recommended I try Ariellah’s dvd, which I will, plus Michelle Joyce’s strengthening drills. Mala, do you have any tips on glute squeezes? I can’t squeeze my right glute separately.
Rosie, these are the heel cups I have: http://tinyurl.com/8ak9gp What are the arch supports you use? I’m totally going to pick arch supports when I go to the mall next. Or big pharmacy. I also want to pick up ankle supports like athletes wear. I have some but those are way too long and end up choking most of my leg up with no circulation happening.
Oh… so those are the simple stretches you do? Flex and strech and rotate? The pain doesn’t happen because the muscles get warmed up then, I guess. But what happens when you exercise for a long time or walk or even stand for long? Do you dance a lot?
I could certainly start a routine of foot related stretches and exercises and see if that helps. Worth a try for sure!
Sajia, I do have a tip on glute squeezes. Leave ‘em alone.
Others chime in please!
Seriously, I think there’s a point where we push those glute squeezes too much. I’ve just done a little bit at a time and it’s just begun to happen on its own in time. Even if you try this for say, 2 minutes each day and then leave it alone, it’ll work. In time, if you find that you can feel the muscle squeeze beginning to happen, you increase the squeeze exercises a little bit at a time.
If you’re at a point where it hurts, I think it means leave it alone for a bit! Start again after all is normal.
I don’t know why, but when one tries too hard, it just goes and becomes counterproductive.
Sigh. Ariellah is coming to Vancouver in mid-March and Suhaila is holding a Level 1 workshop here at the end of May. I was hoping to, er, kick butt by then.
It’s just that I started my tribal fusion class with Martina in the middle of the school year (in my ATS class everyone is more or less a beginner) so I feel left out. She’s a tough teacher, which I like, and she’s fun, so I want to to live up to her standards. Well, at least I can learn the footwork.
Oh right, I forgot your grueling dance schedule. How bad is the pain? Is it the usual pain you get when you use muscles that are not used to being budged or is it bad? Is it on one side?
It’s actually more like soreness, because I’ve never isolated those muscles before last year. My dance schedule doesn’t actually feel grueling, though of course it’s just the beginning of the year. I just wish I could isolate my glutes individually so I could do the tribal hipwork. Though when I do glute squeezes they get sore on both sides. More on the left side, which I can squeeze more.
Well, either give it a rest and then start again in little bits or just do the movement smaller for now and watch how much the muscles get used to it. If the pain is still bad… you have no choice but to give it a big rest.
I’ve found that the soreness from unused muscles being used goes away in two or three days max.
I say, alternate putting your foot on the vodka, drinking the vodka, foot on vodka, drink of vodka…in no time at all, your pain will be gone (but so will the vodka — best stock up). Just kidding, Mala. I hope you figure out how to make it feel better. My feet hurt *all the time* and it makes me crazy.
Mala, I feel your pain. I’ve suffered from Plantar Fascitis for years. I never know when it’s going to flare up or what triggers it. When the a flare occurs, the pain in my heel is excrutiating and makes even the smallest step an ordeal. Usually it only affects one foot at a time but on rare occasions it will hit both heels at the same time. When that happens I’m pretty much immobile until it passes. I’ve had x-rays but there are no heel spurs so nothing can be done surgically to alleviate the condition. My doctor advised me to wear very supportive sneakers (I like Ascics)with gel heel inserts to try to prevent a flare. So now I rarely wear my cute flats and sandals. Unfortunately, abandoning my attractive footwear collection in favor of the practical hasn’t stopped the pain from returning whenever it darn well feels like it. I do 15-20 minutes of leg and heel stretches every morning and night and that does some good. I also keep a bottle of water in the freezer to roll my under my heel when the pain hits and I must say it helps. Although, I like the idea of a ice cold bottle of vodka much, much better. I can take a swig or two while cooling my heels and pretty soon I won’t even care about pain! Whoo hoo!
Wow, this is more common than I imagined. There is apparently something that can be done with surgery and with cortisone, but few people will be willing to try those out! Not me, for sure.
Can you tell me what stretches you do? I did find the towel stretch and wall lunge online – anything else? I wonder if the yoga downward dog pose helps; it’s a big calf stretch, after all.
Horrible stuff. I can no longer go for a nice long walk.
OH MALA, sorry to hear it s so bad
My toe pain left and came back, even worse – without me knowing much on why. It s been better with a lotion originally meant for race horses. It did wonders to knee pain before, and with it (and not much activity to let the toe heal) I got painless within 3 or 4 days.
Then I had only minor discomfort and immobility there, and started to cautiously stretch the two down, up and forward. It got better and better with each day, and at least for my injury i can tell stretching seems to have been very beneficial for healing.
A good physiotherapist would be key – an EXCELLENT one – but they re SO hard to find. Do you have a friend who had severe knee, hip, back problems to ask? I sure know one amazing physiotherapist from my knee injury overcome, and refer everyone who asks to her
maybe you can find someone the informal way, or through a doctor whose opinion you can trust a lot.
Wish you the best of luck Mala!!!
I wonder if your toe was sprained.
Joy has sent me some stretches and exercises – so I’m going to try those! Of course, I’ve also been dancing way less, so that’s relieved the pain though probably not eliminate the cause!
Maybe it will just take a while. Thanks for the good wishes!
Hmm not sure if a toe could possibly be sprained without any sudden pressure exercised on it? I am sure I did not hit anything even though I’m extremely clumsy and normally that could well be
Hang in there Mala and, most of all, BE PATIENT in your recovery. Plantar fascitis (PF)does not go away quickly and a flare can last (what seems like) forever if you try to do too much too soon.
It’s almost impossible to dance when my heels are killing me but I’ve found that doing a few gentle,raised heel vertical 8′s help alleviate the pain.
I do the stretches I sent you every morning and evening and it has made a difference in how often I get a recurrence of PF. I’ve learned the hard way that if I get lazy and skip a day or two, my heels begin to hurt almost immediately. Granted those stretches are not a miracle cure nor are they a permanent preventative for PF but it sure beats the heck out of having cortisone shots in your heels. OUCH!!!!!!!!!!
Be well, dear friend!