Heel pain, ugh.
I have suffered from this twice in two years while playing tennis and it isn’t fun. Well, any injury isn’t fun, but the problem with heel pain is that it affects almost everything you do.
There are four top reasons for heel pain:
- Heel bruise – Any tendon, ligament or muscle damage in the heel area.
- Plantar fasciitis – Overuse injury with chronic inflammation.
- Achilles tendon tear – Tendon torn and needs to be fixed.
- Heel spur – Calcification of the bony part of the foot.
My injuries have been a heel bruise and plantar fasciitis and recovery was slow, but manageable through rest, massage and stretching. Some people aren’t that lucky, though.
In some cases surgery is called for and it isn’t pretty. Here is what the common surgeries look like:
Heel Bruise Surgery
Fasciitis Surgery
Plantar Fasciitis Surgery
Achilles Tendon Surgery
Heel Spur Surgery
Regardless of the heel surgery you have you’ll end up wrapped like this:
You can’t travel anywhere or even walk properly with a heel pain. I underwent surgery (and it wasn’t cheap!) for my plantar fasciitis as I was barely able to walk from the pain that started to numb my senses. The surgery looks disturbingly gruesome. I can’t believe I actually went through that. Just the thought of it shivers my core…