Diagnose my random foot pain

[Brit]

In the past 12 hours I have developed a shooting pain on the bottom/side of my foot beneath my ankle bone (proper term for part that sticks out?).

I haven't run since my marathon last week and was relatively not sore by Sunday. I didn't have any pain after or going into the race.

What's going on?

[libbygrl109]

Peroneal tendon, maybe? It sounds like the pain I get when the tendonitis there kicks in. I didn't have it until 2 days after a 10K (my longest race at that point). Rest, ibuprofin and ice/heat helped. Hope it gets better quickly!

[Brit]

@vtcupcake - How long did you need to rest for?

[Brit]

Jan 29, 2015 10:58:09 GMT -5 @vtcupcake said:

Jan 29, 2015 10:56:29 GMT -5 Brit said:

@vtcupcake - How long did you need to rest for?

This isn't the answer you're looking for, but over a solid month. It took about 2 months until I could run again without pain and having to administer treatment.

Geez. I hope I don't have that.

[shellfish26]

Oh, that's what I am dealing with right now. Mine started suddenly one morning (Jan. 5 to be exact)- it was so sharp that I honestly thought I stepped on something. I haven't stopped running (yet), and it hasn't gotten worse. But it certainly hasn't improved. I've found that heat definitely helps it in the short-term.

I've been in PT now for 3 weeks. We work on things like toe flexibility, neutral foot position, and deep tissue massage.

[Brit]

shellfish26 - I should probably get it checked out... Even an initial doctor's visit is so inconvenient. Then the thought of PT? Ugh. I work in the only area of this entire city without any doctors (or anything really, one gas station, a subway, then 20 minutes of driving to get anywhere useful). I think I need to try RICEing for a while before I think about PT because my work performance will take a nose dive if I had to miss that much work.

[shellfish26]

Ugh, injuries suck in so many more ways, huh? It makes me more grateful that my PT office is in my neighborhood and has evening hours. The only thing that the ortho mentioned is that area is susceptible to stress fractures, so that's what they immediately go to first. So, that's what I'd be worried about. But if you're confident it's not that, your plan sounds like a good one.

Obviously, your injury could be completely different from mine, but I did some googling and found lots of patient handouts with the strengthening exercises I have been doing. My PT did try wrapping mine one day and the pain was so bad that I couldn't handle it. And the massage ball...forget about it. I don't think there is a whole lot we're doing at this point to relieve the pain- just trying to work on the foot issues that caused it in the first place. For one, my toes do not bend. At all. Which is putting more pressure on my midfoot. That, combined with overpronation, plus a mileage increase seemed to be my likely culprit.

I hope it heals quickly for you!

[scorpio72]

I'm going to say it sounds like tendonitis too.  It can come on suddenly for no apparent reason.  Do not run on it if there is any pain!  Learn from my mistakes.

I'm dealing with this now so I'm way too familiar with it.  Mine is on the top of my foot but there are so many tendons in your foot it can hurt anywhere.  The first thing they did was x-ray to rule out a stress fracture since they can both produce similar pain.  Mine came on in the middle of a track workout.  Nothing new and nothing noticeable that caused it, just shooting pain afterwards.  I still have no idea what happened.  I'm seeing a chiropractor for laser, ultrasound and stim treatments.  Unfortunately tendonitis takes forever to get rid of, especially on your foot since you pretty much need to use it all the time.  I'm on week 2 of resting it and while it's getting better, I'm nowhere near being able to run again.  I'm hoping in the next 2 weeks I can start back.  It totally sucks.

Last year I had tendonitis on the inside of my ankle from a fall down the stairs and subsequent running on it.  It took a good 2 months to fully go away but I tried running through the pain initially which made it worse and treatment longer. 

Hopefully it's not tendonitis, but I'd be safe and get it checked out.  

Ditto what other posters said, ice, advil/aleeve, and rest are your friends.  I ice 3-4 times a day.  

[hannahb]

Inside or outside? Shooting pain usually doesn't indicate tendinitis.

[Brit]

Jan 29, 2015 14:43:26 GMT -5 hannahb said:

Inside or outside? Shooting pain usually doesn't indicate tendinitis.

Outside. On the side/bottom of my foot just a bit in front of my ankle bone.

[hannahb]

Jan 29, 2015 22:25:39 GMT -5 Brit said:

Jan 29, 2015 14:43:26 GMT -5 hannahb said:

Inside or outside? Shooting pain usually doesn't indicate tendinitis.

Outside. On the side/bottom of my foot just a bit in front of my ankle bone.

I'm going to guess that your ankle was tight after the marathon and that you're feeling the result of a tight joint. Take things easy. Gentle stretching and ice. I could be wrong but it would be odd for tendinitis to come on after the marathon and without another injury (fall, etc)

[Brit]

hannahb - I will have to see if it improves over the next few days. If not I will try out an orthopedic clinic nearby called 'Up and Running'. Sounds like they might be better aligned with my needs than the typical doctor here.