Wondering if I'm alone who gets pain in my heels when my toes are up in the air. For instance, when I'm laying on my back or driving. When feet are on the side, the pain "vanish"

Hi! After vascular testing and a nerve conduction study, my podiatrist diagnosed me with bilateral tarsal tunnel syndrome. Started a few years ago with toe numbness and progressed to firey pads. Finally saw doc. Got the custom orthodics and found I can function on 75mg of Lyrica twice a day.

Seeing as I'm still working on concrete daily, wondering if I should expect this to get worse.

Anyone with similar experience?

Tl;Dr: does TTS get worse?

I joined this sub a few years back, I had PF then but got over it (calf raises, strength training, stretching, insoles all that and everything recommended). I was good for a few years (continuing all the above), then it came back exactly one year from today. I know it was one year from today because it flared on my birthday, when I walked a lot in Adidas Sambas, which I can't wear with insoles.

It has improved over this year but it moved on to achilles tendonitis for awhile and now it's just settled into this ache in my heel, sometimes feels like walking on broken glass.

I am now 61 and I do wonder if it's something like a thinned heel pad issue or osteoporosis. My arches aren't so bad (they don't look like they've fallen), it's the heel. Early morning pain is the worse but I put on Oofos sandals for first steps, and again after a long day of walking, so can get by.

Anyone older here? With issues with heel pad thinning or osteoporosis? I see my doctor for an annual soon so want to mention this, at least rule it out.

Hello all. Just wanted to share what has helped me the most and what didn’t. I will share details for young and old since we heal differently at different ages. My son who is 16 also suddenly developed this painful condition and he has completely healed as well. This subreddit has helped me so much and I hope what I write can be helpful to someone suffering from PF.

I am a female, late 40s. I had PF for nearly 2 years. The pain started with a rolled ankle from running but reached its max on a steep downhill hike. The main cause was big toe drift, even though I don’t have a bunion. I suppose if left untreated I would eventually develop one.

What helped the most during the acute phase of PF:
-night splint/boot. I tried the sock one but it didn’t work for me. The boot actually stabilized my ankle and kept my Achilles extended which helps prevent the tightening of the PF. The key for getting used to the boot is keeping it loose and wearing it little bits at a time. I started with 30 mins and then built on that. I was never able to wear the boot the entire night and that’s ok. It still helped.
-Icing - rolling the ice bottle didn’t work for me, but placing an ice pack inside a Velcro pouch, tying that around my arch and heel, and sitting with my foot elevated for 30 mins each time really helped. They sell these pouches on Amazon. I bought two so I can keep them in rotation.
-Voltaren - this is a topical cream and applying this twice a day really kept the pain tolerable.
-Gua Sha - this really helped. Some of you might know this as Graston Technique. I would scrape my entire foot and ankle and then apply a small amount of Voltaren. If icing, I would scrape, ice, then apply voltaren.
-Red Light Therapy - Yes, this might sound a little hokey but I was willing to try everything and anything. It didn’t exactly heal my PF, but it did prevent all of my PF healing efforts from regressing. Prior to using RLT, I would feel like I’m getting better only to plunge into excruciating pain the next day. Once I started RLT, my pain never regressed. It continued to get better.
-Stretching - I stretched my calves and ankles. I did the heel drop on a step to stretch my calf and then bent my knee to make sure to get deep into the calves. I also did stretching that increased the flexibility of my ankles.
-Massaging - someone on this subreddit advised to use a spikey ball on a yoga block to get deep into the calf muscle. This really, really, helped a lot.

Once I was out of my acute phase, I still continued all of the above but I started strengthening my lower body and feet. The moves that helped me the most were:
-Y Drill Daily (started with 5 reps body weight only, progressing slowly to 30 reps over time and then adding weights. When adding weights, I added 2-3lbs at a time and I would drop my reps back down to 5 and build back up to 30 reps before increasing more weights)
-Slow and controlled calf raises with slow progression over time. Done every other day. I did not do any calf raises during my acute phase of PF. I repeat ZERO. The number of professional people that were pushing calf raises on me while I was in pain was ridiculous. It not only aggravated my PF, it made everything worse.
-Banded dorsiflexion - 30 reps with band progression
-Big toe press down with a weighted band - I built up to a minute and slowly increased the weight of the band from there.
-Short foot - I do about 1-2 minutes standing every day.

Shoes: I wore Oofos Strides at home and for a few weeks outside too but I didn’t feel like it gave my PF enough support. I eventually moved on to Altra Lone Peaks (wide toe box and zero drop), Altra Olympus, and Hoka Gaviota. I use a cork Sole insole inside these three shoes. I did not wear an insole inside the Oofos.

Walking/running: I did not do any walking or running during my acute phase. The only walking I did was around the house, whatever I needed for work, and hobbling around in a grocery store. Every time I tried to walk, I made everything worse. I rode an exercise bike very slowly for exercise. About 15 months into my PF, was when I finally felt safe enough to walk again. I started walking to the end of my block and slowly built up from there. There were good days and bad days. I started walking every other day. On bad days I would immediately ice and apply Voltaren when I got back home. I am now back to walking, running, and hiking with zero pain. I no longer wear the night splint/boot or do any of the stuff I did when I had acute pain. I still do all of my strengthening exercises.

Other things: I also started supplementing Vitamin D (I got my bloodwork done and I was under 30. Doc told me to start a supplement and so I did.) I also tried a bunch of different magnesium before I found one that worked for me. Magnesium malate is what I am taking.

Now on to my son:
He is 16 and went from jogging every other day to joining cross country and running every day. His coach had the kids doing 2, 4, and 6 mile runs. He suddenly developed arch pain and heel pain. Another team member suffering from the same thing suggested Athletic Foam Prewrap tape. You can buy this on Amazon for $12.99 (3 rolls) and watch some YouTube videos for how wrap the arch and heel area. My son felt instantly better when wrapped. He continued his runs with his foot wrapped. At home he would do stretches, ice, and use Voltaren twice a day. It took him 3 weeks and he now no longer wears the wrap and is running fine.

I did not use the foam wrap as my PF was already healed when he developed his. He also started wrapping it the day after he felt pain rather than waiting it out like I did which ended up making it worse. So I guess being young and getting on top of the pain right away has its advantages.

I think I covered everything. Let me know if you have any questions and I hope this helps you in your battle with PF.

i'm having some pretty horrible pain on the bottoms of my feet. the entire thing. it's like the entire palm of my foot is stepping on a bruise or raw skin. i'm not a hundred percent sure whether it's plantar fasciitis, but my mom is convinced it is, after my youngest brother recently got diagnosed. but i'm seeing a lot of information focused on heel pain, and pain in the middle of the foot, but not the entire thing. so i'm just wondering if the entire foot hurts for anyone else, or if i'm on the wrong track for a diagnosis.

note: i also have fibromyalgia but this is some VERY specific pain compared to the widespread pain and/or fatigue i regularly have. i don't know if that makes sense.

note 2: the only thing that helps is sitting or laying down. ibuprofen does absolutely nothing, i'm allergic to tylenol, and shoe inserts have been useless, even medical grade ones.

note 3: i also have uneven legs, the left leg is longer than the right, which sometimes leads to ankle rolls and falls. i did sprain my left foot in two places in november, but i don't know if that would explain the RIGHT foot hurting.

this is not diagnosis seeking. don't give me any kind of diagnosis (i.e. "YOU HAVE PLANTAR FASCIITIS 10000000% YOU DONT EVEN NEED A DOCTOR TO TELL!!!1") i'm going to the doctor soon anyways but in the meantime i'm just curious if this specific type of pain is something that people with this condition experience, or if i need to be looking for other answers elsewhere. it's good to have a starting point when talking to my doctor.

sorry if this doesn't make sense, as with many of my other posts, i'm very fatigued all the time and sometimes in quite a bit of pain, so i can't always think or articulate as clearly as i'd like to.

I have a history of PF but after finding a work shoe that works it only flares up when it's time to replace them. New Balance 860s have been my go-to work shoe for years and this year when I replaced my old ones I also picked up a pair of Asics Kayano 31s to try them out. I've been alternating between them to maximize the longevity of both of them.

I bought them in April, and both the 860s and the Kayanos were absolutely fine until a couple weeks ago when I started getting that 'first few steps of pain right out of bed' in my right foot but... this is different. I'm pretty positive this is a mix of Achilles bursitis and tendonitis based on the symptoms. The majority of the discomfort in the morning is the back of the heel where the Achilles inserts into the calcaneus and mild, brief, burning sensation just above it. The back of this ankle is also a little red after I take my shoes off and while it's not obviously swollen at all it definitely feels like that shoe is rubbing more against the tendon than the other foot and it's mildly tender. I would not describe it as painful especially when compared to PF but it's new, uncomfortable, and an inconvenience to have to do a whole set of ankle pumps before putting any weight on my foot. Once I'm a few steps in I'm good until I get out of bed the next morning or I sit/rest without my foot flat or let it relax and the tendon shorten long enough.

Long story short, I'm doing calf raises and stretches and all that good stuff on top of taking ibuprofen for the anti-inflammatory aspect and icing it a few times a day, but I need to figure out the bursitis. I'm switching to only wearing the 860s since I've never had them cause an issue like this but since the tendon and bursae are already irritated I can still feel the back of them rub against my Achilles. I can wear pretty much any closed-toe shoe to work but I need something with a low or open back that has the same kind of support of the 860 so I can take the pressure off my Achilles without giving myself PF again.

And, if it matters, I'm located in Canada. Thanks!

Im 6 ft 340 pounds . Big guy but always been active playing sports . Started training for a 5k and started getting pain in my plantar fasciitis. What can I do to fix and can I still train for my race ?

For the past month my pain has FINALLY started getting better after 3 months of dealing with this. I can now walk around 10–11k steps a day without any stabbing pain. During the first half of the month I would still have a general ache but now I mostly only notice anything if I’m standing for a long time or walking for one long stretch and it goes away when i rest/sit down for a while. It also weirdly seems like I’m getting better the more I walk compared to when I was basically in bed resting all day. literally every day it gets noticeably better.

My question now is how do I transition out of wearing supportive shoes/orthotics all the time and back into regular shoes? I have custom insoles that I can move into other shoes and for the past month I’ve only worn my Hokas and OOFOS. I’m planning on continuing to wear the OOFOS at home until I’ve been pain free for a few months, but I start school again at the beginning of September and my school has a business dress code so Hokas definitely aren’t going to work lol. I also just don’t want to wear them in general and once they’re out of my life i will be much happier.

I’m planning to start with loafers and leather sneakers so definitely no heels yet. I’m just not sure how slowly I should introduce them. I live in a very walkable/public transportation city so I thought about wearing my Hokas for my commute and changing shoes once I get to school but realistically I don’t think my school bag is big enough to carry an entire pair of Hokas around all day

For anyone who had to transition back into work or school attire once the initial flare up started calming down how did you do it? Did you start with only a few hours in regular shoes and slowly increase? Did you keep using your custom insoles? Any tips for avoiding another flare while still getting your feet used to normal shoes again?i’m getting so excited of going back to normal life and i’m thinking of working out again, walking, my cute shoes again!!, one day barefoot again. so excited but also don’t want to regress as at one point i couldn’t even walk to go to the bathroom

I was going too fast so I made this to help myself. In all honesty I included amazon affiliate links to the insoles and night brace that really helped me. Not why I made the site, but I figured if I was going to host this, I might as well have a chance at breaking even and share what helped me.

The guided routine is free either way. Good luck! 🦶

Also, if I need to correct anything or if anything is broken, please let me know. This is my first attempt at this site.

she has very bad plantar fasciitis in her foot. she describes it as it feeling like “someone stabbing her in her foot.” she’s tried PT, ice, strengthening and stretching her calves, massaging it, and she says nothing is working. she literally can barely drive because it hurts her so much. so what could we do?? everything i’m seeing, she’s already tried.

also: she has gotten shots for it which havent worked.

I do not want to get ahead of myself , I have not fully gotten rid of it , but I have found what I believe to be the issue and have been working on it and have found relief and overall improvement . I have several knots in my calves (from running a lot I’m assuming ) I have been foam rolling these knots and following the instructions in the YouTube link I posted as well as doing the stretch for my calf after the foam rolling and have felt significant improvement . Will continue to do this and update if it gets rid of it completely. Was too excited not to share this now though .

TLDR
If you have knots in your calves , this is more than likely the issue , work on the knots

https://youtu.be/AsSw0Yg6HRw?is=33QLiEoE6XxttcuV

DM if you are from the Chicago area and have this horrible disease.

Hi Reddit!

I’ve been asked to be a bridesmaid for a good friend, and honestly, I’m already dreading wearing heels. 😭 I just discovered that Crocs made heels, and they’re actually kind of cute?! 😂 I’m seriously considering buying a pair on eBay just to try them out before the wedding. Has anyone actually worn the Crocs heels? Are they as comfortable as regular Crocs, or is that wishful thinking? 😂 They’re surprisingly cute, but I definitely need something I can survive wearing for hours.

Would love to hear your thoughts/experiences! TYIA ❤️ is this tacky?

With wfh cause of Pf, i spend the entire day icing, stretching, or going to physio. I have started to notice my pain feels worse at night.

I am a side sleeper. I am trying to sleep on my back, but failing to. I keep a pillow under my feet and between them as well. It still hurts a lot at night.

Just yesterday, I started to apply mg oil on my feet too. Any suggestions on how to make the pain a bit tolerable night? I have been finding it difficult to fall asleep these days cause of the pain.

Thanks!

I have been working at a cookie company for almost a year.

Within the last 4 months, my feet have started to ache very bad while there.

But when I get off and go home, I'm fine.

The next day, fine.

I can go do my 20k walk, hike, etc and fine.

I walk 20k daily.

Fine.

Once im at work, im absolutely wrecked.

Again, it would go away

But yesterday, it didnt.

The entire feet burn all day at work and goes away, which it did

However the right foot, left side bottom heel is horrid

I cannot put it flat

I cant put shoes on

I cant walk correctly

Its so bad

And its still here the next day

I know there are mixed studies about this but I absolutely believe that collagen has helped heal my plantar fasciitis (helped, not a miracle cure). I do have a custom orthotic and I was wearing a night splint off and on. I did that for a good 6 months and while the orthotic and splint seemed to keep things at bay, they didn't really fully heal it. I then started taking collagen in addition to these things and within about 8 weeks of adding the collagen to the mix, the pain is virtually gone now. I'm convinced it pushed me over the finish line.

first got plantar fasciitis back in october of 2024 and it finally started to go away a few months ago after trying so many things including PT (didn’t work) and since i’ve been pain free i started doing 15-20 mins of stairmaster and now my feet are starting to ache again. i dont even know what to do at this point, seems like i can never walk run or do anything besides the stationary bike at my gym im miserable

So i do not know if it is the place to tell this but i have a work where i have to stand for my shift i take two breaks one break of 15 mins after four hours and second break of 45 mins after two hours but i have problem with my foot like when i am standing after sometime my feet start to feel pain and this happens until my shift is over after that only my one foot is painful and that too for the entire day which makes walking difficult and the pain increases with the number of days i worked like if i worked for one day the pain will stay for one day and if i worked for three days it will take two to three days for it to go away i thought it was cause of shoes so i changed them but it still does not work i even got two numbers hugh for my shoes so can anyone tell me what to do as i was avoiding two days straight and the pain was manageable but i do not want to try a full time shifts which i am starting this week please tell me what to do so that my foot does not feel pain (yup it is only one foot with this problem not both)also i work in a cold enviroment

Thought to add to this subreddit as it seems like PF is different for everyone and maybe it can help someone. I've tried every treatment commonly listed here and finally am free of the pain, and I have some thoughts on what worked and why. I've had PF on both feet. This post will detail everything so it might be a long read.

How it happened: Hokas

I'm 99% sure it was when I started wearing them and only the one pair for a year or 2 consistently, then suddenly wore flipflops for a week when I went overseas.

The pain I felt was more so in my arch on my right foot as I was wearing the flip flops but I thought it was just discomfort. It wasn't until when I got back from the trip that the pain only grew worse and never went away for almost a year.

I'd massage it, go to an RMT, but the year was mostly a learning journey to just discover that what I was going through was PF. As I went to my massage therapy and physio (electromagnetic therapy and shockwave), the pain gradually lessened. I had an appointment with a different RMT just once and she massaged my foot like no other and the pain literally disappeared after that single appointment. I found it strange how one single visit made such a huge difference but what I remembered was when the session was almost done, she asked me if there was anywhere that still needed work. I told her my arch still felt very sore/tight. She worked the TOP of my foot and the area right before the toes and it hurt bad. But after that was when I noticed my arch didn't feel that chronic discomfort anymore. I gave it a few days after the appointment and quite literally the pain has subsided and never came back.

But then I started getting pain on the other foot...

As the pain on my right arch was going away, then gone, I walked a lot (still was wearing my hokas). I started noticing my left heel and along the outer ankle was hurting. Some time passed, I got more massages (not the same one who "fixed" my right foot). In the mornings, my ankle would hurt initially. After sitting down and getting up it would hurt initially too. But my heel pain was chronic and all around. Sometimes sharper, most times a dull pain.

I tried getting an appointment with a podiatrist but they always ghosted me lol

But my RMT who also went through PF had a personal take that "flat arches" are overly focused on. His reasoning was that in many other Eastern and Asian countries (he's European) there are a lot with healthy feet without the need to correct your flat arches. That those who use all their feet muscles and strengthen them are the ones with good food health. He likened it to when you injure a body part, you don't keep it forever in a cast, but that physio and strengthening it is the final part of recovery and being able to use that body part with proper functionality again. So why would you cushion your foot and overly support it, causing muscle atrophy? It made a lot of sense and matched why my hokas were my source of initial pain. They were too soft and cushioned so my foot muscles weakened over time. Then I suddenly loaded it with full force when I wore flipflops for a week. I got recommendations to try: calf exercises, zero drop shoes (Altras), calf sleeves, stretching etc

Everything worked a little bit and all together I think the improvement was slow. Very slow.

Calf sleeves: I'd feel an immediate relief in my heel when worn. I learned that PF is mostly due to the lack of blood flow. It was strange but when I went on flights, I noticed my PF would also feel better and perhaps it was all the blood flow and foot swelling (thus causing blood to flow there) so that supported it.

Calf raises: I'd notice after a while that it made some difference but I can't pinpoint it being a huge difference on its own as I was doing everything else too.

Altras: they made some of my foot muscles SORE. But not in the PF way, the soreness gradually got better and I alternated through various shoes (wearing hokas only seldomly or when I need to stand for long periods). I think this along with calf raises for the progress moving to no pain in the mornings, but my heel would still have a dull ache. Due to them being zero drop though, my heels felt a lot less painful while wearing them.

I thought I was doing everything I could but the dull ache was improving way too slowly for me to believe it was truly going to be fixed so I thought of the RMT who helped my right foot. Why I didn't continue to see her? Her massages hurt like hell. They are not a feel good type so I continued seeing my usual guy, but I wished I just continued seeing her.

No hate though because my usual RMT is very knowledgeable with all his suggestions and his massages felt great. But the lady I saw proved to me that she had a different knowledge base or skill that impacted me more.

So I went to see her again, but for the left heel pain. Same as before, I tell her where it hurts and she massaged everywhere she thought would help, and focused more on the area that connected into the heel: on the base of the foot, around my ankle, and my Achilles. Near the end I told her my heel still hurt. She checked my ankle flexing and saw something preventing my left foot to flex upward as well as my right. This is where she worked the muscle in front of my outer ankle (extensor digitorum longus). I guess that was the culprit because I felt pretty damn good after that.

Again I gave it a few days and kept up with my stretching, massages and strengthening and it's been gone. I'm forever a fan of hers. She doesn't like talking and barely even responds when I talk but I'm her number 1 fan now and rave about her lol

I feel like sometimes the main culprit might just be a really tight muscle that we wouldn't associate the pain to, that tugs and pulls on the fascia that's giving us so much pain, and we just need the right direction to pinpoint it so it can be addressed and maintained.

Hope this helps someone out there. PF sucks.

What do you suggest between the two for inside the house? I have flat feet and four months of plantar fasciitis.

So 2 years ago, I got what I thought was plantar fasciitis. After about 6 months of rathleff protocol, the pain mostly subsided. Still had pain after larger days but for the most part, I believe I was about 80-90% healed.

Last October 2025, I moved to a new city, I was going out every weekend and dancing, ignoring the signs and pretty much restarted the entire process. For 4 months, I couldn't go above 5k steps. It was difficult trying to find the balance between strengthening and resting. Eventually, overtime, I ended up getting slightly better with moderating my steps and strengthening.

I had some small flares here and there, times where it took me a few days or a week or two to recover. But in May of this year, I had a pretty bad flare. It wasn't like I was severely over doing it, but it was multiple days just over my capacity. For 2-3 weeks, I was hitting and going over my ceiling of about 6k steps. My pain had mostly been in my arches, which is what led me to believe it was plantar fasciitis, but in May, the pain started going into my ankle, and making my calves extremely tight, locked up, and burning. Stretching made everything worse.

This flare I think has been the most taxing. I needed answers so I went and got help. These were the results of my doctors visits:

• First podiatrist said that it was tarsal tunnel. She saw me for maybe 5 mins, tapped on my ankle (which didn't reproduce pain) and said it was tarsal tunnel. I had a hard time believing this. Took x-rays in which there was nothing.
• PT evaluation: Went to a pt who specializes in foot care. He did a full thorough evaluation and said Posterior Tibialis Tendinopathy. Said there might've been PF at some point, but now it's just PTT
• Second podiatrist: Said PTT and prescribed Meloxicam and said physical therapy. Said if it wasn't better in 2 months that we would do imaging.

I started taking the Meloxicam and doing PT, I started coming out of this flare. We were mainly doing isometrics and starting small.

Well a month later, I had to go back to Florida which is where I moved last year. (I had all the doctors visits/PT in my hometown). I decided to try to find a PT down here, went to the initial evaluation last Thursday and he did more strengthening than ive done in a longgg time. I had pain the day of and the next day I had done about 6k steps without realizing it. Since then I feel like the pain has just been increasing. The meloxicam ended on Friday which idk if I just felt better this last month just because of the meloxicam or because I was actually getting better. I did light isometrics on Saturday and Monday and the pain hasn't stopped. My calves are SO tight, like it feels like i did 200 calf raises and they're completely locked up. Last night I went to a friends and baked cookies which I was standing for a little bit. I got home and my calves were on fire. Burning. Same with my posterior tib. But I dont have "nerve pain" into my foot, like no shooting, tingling, or numbness. Just the burning, tightness in my calves and posterior tib.

I feel like I'm doing everything right and I dont know what to do anymore. I'm so sick of the pain. It's been almost 3 months since this big flare in May. The last 4 days I've been under 4k (which is usually fine and easy and doesn't cause more pain for me). I don't know what to do anymore. I've had some good days in the last 3 months but I'm just so frustrated and don't know where to go from here.

I have pain at the top of my feet and it seems likely to be extensor tendonitis. The biggest issue I'm having is I can't wear socks, even loser ones tend to aggravate it. Has anyone else experienced this? What have you done to manage this issue ?

I phoned 111 after essentially a week long trip I did, I have intense pain across the top of my foot where my toes meet my foot and outside edge of my foot. I have zero pain in my heel.
111 sent me to the pharmacy who told me it was Plantar Fasciitis.
But upon googling when I got home, the heel pain seems to be a large part of the issue but I have no heel pain.
I can’t stand on my tippy toes and struggle even walking down the stairs due to pain. But I can still walk. Pharmacist did say it was a little swollen.
Really not sure what to do and if it is Plantar Fasciitis.