Learn about heel pain as being a symptom of Plantar Fasciitis and options to relieve the pain.
https://www.uspharmacist.com/article/heel-and-backofthefoot-pain-in-older-adults
https://heelthatpain.com/heel-pain/elderly/
https://www.kathysconsulting.com/
Hi, my name is Kathy. I've been a geriatric nurse for over 10 years. Many times when I would meet with family members of aged loved ones, they didn't always know what to do. I started this podcast knowledge for caregivers, to assist them with practical suggestions as they assist their own loved ones age with dignity and grace.
Katherine Cocks0:33
I know that I've been off for a while, and I'm going to tell you why. But I want to welcome you back to the show. I'm ready to get going. But I'm not exactly sure how it's always going to look. I've done some interviews, I'm going to probably be doing some more, where I'm just talking about various things that I've learned to lately. Hopefully, I'm still bringing you information that is helpful for you now, and in the future, if you don't have aging parents or aging yourself. I had a great grandmother. And one of the things that she talked about was her feet. She had had feet problems. I wasn't exactly sure what they were. But she had gone to a podiatrist which is a foot doctor. He had done surgery on her foot, and then later on, she learned that he was not a very good surgeon had botched up the surgery. And her feet were worse after the surgery then before the surgery. Therefore anything about podiatrist honestly always made me nervous. It always scared me because I was like, what if they mess up my feet. About three years ago, I noticed when I would get up in the middle of night to go the bathroom. Like I could hardly walk barefoot to the bathroom because my feet would hurt. I had tennis shoes, I had gotten some different orthotics throughout the years because I have high arches. I didn't really think anything about it because I have fibromyalgia. And I just thought this is part of my fibromyalgia pain. Last year, it got worse and worse. Even when I was wearing tennis shoes. It felt like someone was taking a nail, hammering it up through my heel while I was walking. And it got worse throughout the day. And so literally I'm trying to walk on the sides of my feet. On the edges of my feet. There were even some days where I went and got a knee scooter. So I wouldn't have to put my foot down. Finally, I had been ignoring this pain for so long, I went to my primary care doctor. And he said you got to see a podiatrist because you have plantar fasciitis. So that got me nervous because I remember my mom getting that, but she was in her 70s. And she would always be sitting up taking her shoes off trying different shoes, that would try to give her some relief from her foot. What I'm going to do this time is talk a little bit about our feet, I may do some other episodes about our feet, because I found out that in your feet are 26 Bones 33 joints, you have a matrix of muscle and ligaments and nerves of 120 different types of muscles. That makes our feet very complex. And every day we are putting all of our weight on our feet. What I found out is I had plantar fasciitis and if you were to pull your foot up, there's a long tendon, it's very thick tendon there at the bottom of your foot. And so in plantar fasciitis, that thing is called the fascia. And when we have itis at the end, it means it's inflamed. Well, I found out that it's one of the most common injuries on the foot. It affects one in four older adults. So it is very likely that you may have family members you're taking care of and they are getting plantar fasciitis. It's also more difficult if they have dementia because they may not be able to tell you why their feet are hurting or why they don't want to walk. The other thing that happens with our feet as we get older besides that sheath getting inflamed is that we have fat on our heel and we begin to lose some of that fat so that's also why we can get this heel pain. The other thing that happens is our feet just get wider, and our bones and everything they kind of sink a little bit so we don't have the same support and structure in our foot that we had before that and I've noticed with me I used to wear narrow shoes and now I can buy regular shoes. I had to get rid of all my narrow shoes because they were hurting my feet. People who are extremely athletic can also aggravate this plantar that goes through our foot and caused inflammation. People who are overweight also they're putting more pressure on their feet. . If for some reason it seems to happen more in women, anytime you have diabetes or hypertension, those are conditions that can definitely affect your feet. A lot of times people aren't wearing proper footwear. And this is something that can affect their feet. One of the things that I have noticed with people who have plantar fasciitis is remember, it hurts on my heel. And so a lot of people will say it feels better for me to wear shoes with heels on them. What that does is it puts all the pressure on the ball of the foot. It may feel good at the time, but long term, it is not a good solution. People who have jobs where they have to stand for long periods of time, can develop plantar fasciitis, and those who have weak calf and foot muscles. So the muscles aren't working well enough to keep that tendon loose. It usually only happens in one foot, which is a good thing, because then I at least have one good foot it is important. And I wish I had known this when I was first getting up at night walking around and kept thinking, Oh, this is just part of my aches and pains. The sooner that you get in for treatment, the more conservative treatment that you can do for your foot. That seems to make sense. It's important to get in with a good podiatrist. And so the first time I went to the podiatrist, he said that I needed to buy tennis shoes, he recommended the hookah H O K U and the Bondi brand Bo n di, because what he says is you want the soles not to bend, they need to be stiff, and the hookah shoes have a lot of cushion. The only thing about the hookah shoes, I wouldn't run out and buy them for older people, because the soles are definitely very thick, so it does feel more comfortable. But I can see that if people are dragging their feet, it might be too much soul and it could cause them to fall. Again, always check with your doctors, even on things like what kind of footwear to have. A lot of the studies I've read is that you want to get orthotics in them many times just over the counter orthotics are good. And what that does is it gives you some support, and it kind of spreads out where your foot is going.
Katherine Cocks7:24
Unfortunately, the doctor gave me some orthotics that he recommended. And then I wore the shoes didn't help I got a steroid shot, I had somebody else who said oh, I just go get a steroid shot and I'm good for a couple of years, I was only good for a couple of months. Sometimes just resting the foot helps. A big one is ice packs is to put ice on our foot. So a lot of times what they recommend is to get like a water bottle, freeze it and then rub your foot over it. Unfortunately, most of my plantar fasciitis happened during the winter. And it was just too miserable to do that. And so I was not as diligent putting ice on my foot as I should have. There are also exercises, you can go online and look at exercises, but the main thing you want to do is be stretching that foot so you can get on a step and kind of press your heel down. Or you can get up against the wall and press your foot against the wall with your toes up and your heel down and really stretch that foot. It's really something that should be done quite often. And I have to remind myself to do it more often than I usually do. And I did try to remember to constantly put the ice on it, but it was just hard to do driving a lot. Because I drive a lot for my job. If I just been an office, you know, I would try to rub my foot on the ice bottle. The other thing about rubbing your foot is sometimes if there's some scar tissue or adhesions, it will help with that. A lot of people think that they have bone spurs because it hurts in that one spot rather than plantar fasciitis. Unfortunately, for me, I think I just waited too long to really start those treatments. And I did finally opt for surgery, which is why I haven't done this podcast now for almost two months. And you may go what two months. Really the recovery was about two weeks, but my foot still aches from the surgery. I don't have the plantar fasciitis pain, and I started some new medicine that is helping with fibromyalgia but it's also just making me kind of tired. I'm hoping to get back into the routine, coming back and giving you information because my goal is always to help you navigate the aging process. Whether you're helping somebody else or you're doing it yourself or you're just getting ready to do it for a family member that you have the information to navigate the aging process successfully. Thank you for going on this caregiving Journey. I hope you have enjoyed this podcast. If you have found it helpful, then share it. If you wish to contact me for consulting services you can reach me at www.Kathysconsulting.com and Kathy's is spelled K athy s. Remember, all content is meant for informational purposes only, and not to replace the advice of healthcare professionals.