The Lazy Man's Guide to treating your Heel Pain!

My name is Dr. Michele McGowan, and much like the President for the Hair Club for Men, who is not only the president but a member of the organization himself because he has no hair, that is how I feel about heel pain or plantar fasciitis. I am a foot doctor who treats heel pain multiple times daily and has struggled with heel pain a couple different times in my life.  I help people get better all the time for this yet my inability to take my own advice was my downfall.

I can say that over the last 15 years of private practice in podiatry in Clermont Florida, the frequent flyers we see with heel pain that suffer longer or take longer to get better take all shapes and sizes. But they have one thread in common, which is they are usually too lazy to keep up with a stretching program to get better or stop stretching the moment the foot feels better. When I suffered with heel pain the first time I was a bad patient! I tell my patients all day long that they need to stretch but I suffered with heel pain for longer than I needed to due to my lazy streak and not wanting to stretch. 

Of course, once I started stretching and icing for my heel pain I started to get better and once I felt 100% better I stopped stretching! In order to ward off the return of this horrible pain you have to keep stretching.  This I find super annoying to say over and over again to the same patient year after year, whether the patient is a frequent flyer or myself.  Recently my paradigm has shifted in how I teach the lazy like myself to get better and stay better.

In 2015, when I had plantar fasciitis where it hurt so bad to walk, I decided to purchase a night splint.  This is a pretty simple device that you wear when you sleep that holds your foot in a complete stretch while you are sleeping, genius right? Well turns out this device is not super comfortable to sleep with it on.  This device spent more time with my toy fox terrier dog cuddled inside of it at bedtime then on my leg for the first few weeks.  But then my heel pain got so unbearable that I had to do something, because even the dedicated times during the day that I was stretching was yielding absolutely no result.  

I decided that I could no longer live like this and out of desperation I started to wear my night splint any time I could.  As I do not have a sit down job in one place going from room to room to see patients, my husband thought it was unrealistic to even bring the splint to work but I did.  But he was totally right, I couldn't wear it while seeing patients, but I put on around 11:45am until 1pm during my lunch break.  I would then lug that boot home( I was too cheap to buy 2 boots to keep one at work and one at home) and after soccer, track and music lessons for my girls I would put the boot on again when I was reading, watching TV or finishing up paper work from the office. 

At night I had a very particular regimen,  at about 8 pm I would prop up my leg on a couple of pillows and add a gel ice pack into the foot part of my night splint, place the night splint on and watch TV or finish up my work.  I did this for 2 months and my heel pain went completely away.  Until it came back a year later because I stopped stretching! 

So now I wear my night splint when I am sitting down in my house relaxing watching a movie or playing on my computer.  I currently have no heel pain but I feel like even the couple times a week I wear the splint it prevents me from having to have that sharp pain in the morning feeling and keeps my foot healthy! 

This is basically a little life hack for the lazy who have heel pain.  If you have any other foot problems feel free to learn more at our office website at http://centeranklefootcare.com/

Michele McGowan DPM

3190 Citrus Tower Blvd Ste A

Clermont, FL 34711

352-242-2502

Don't Ring in the New Year with heel pain!!!

New Year's Eve is a time when most are thinking about their resolutions for improving their well being for the following year to come.  Some people are deciding to enter into a new exercise program or join a gym.  Both of these endeavors are wonderful, except for those with heel pain or plantar fasciitis!

If you are one of those people that experience pain with first step in the morning, right smack dab in the bottom center of your heel or have pain in the same area after standing for a while, then I am talking to you.  Plantar fasciitis or heel pain is one of the most common and, believe it or not, easily treatable foot ailments that walks into our office. I find the biggest problem people have with plantar fasciitis in their treatment protocol is bad advice from friends, family and co-workers.  No, I am not throwing your loved ones under the bus, it is just that sometimes advice from multiple sources creates a white noise in our brains and just confuses the situation.

Below you will find recommendations regarding treating and making your heel pain go away. I think it is important to first and foremost determine if your heel pain is from the back of your heel, which would be more of an Achilles tendonitis or on the bottom which is more in line with Plantar fasciitis.  It is important to delineate this before treating, as both injuries are very different sometimes in how we treat them. By clicking on the picture to the right you can see our webpage and what the difference is between Achilles tendonitis and Plantar fasciitis.

People find it hard to believe that stretching, icing and support can be the perfect combo to relieve and help get rid of their heel pain, but it's true!!!!The plantar fascia is a tight band on the bottom of the foot that connects the heel bone, the calcaneus, to the long flexor tendons to the toes. What I always tell patients when they come into the office with heel pain or plantar fasciitis, is that even though it hurts so darn bad the cure really does revolve around stretching believe or not, in most cases.  Sure it can require a medicine by mouth or even a shot with some extra support in shoe gear but it is usually a simple fix.

The fix is simple but, depending in how long it takes you to seek help to get better, could be the deciding factor on how long it actually takes you to get better.  The sooner you seek care, start the stretching exercises and put good support in you shoes, the sooner you are on the road to recovery.

Here are my classic three stretches performed by my lovely stick figure drawings, but simple is always better.  Stretching is important for your Plantar fasciitis to get better and stay away.  Yes, that is right, I tell all of my patients that they need to stretch daily after having Plantar facsiitis to prevent it from coming back! These three basic runners stretches should be performed 3-4 times a day when you have Plantar fasciitis.  You should stretch both sides for completeness sake and hold the stretch for 15-20 seconds with no bouncing.

Icing is another thing I tell people to do when they have acute Plantar fasciitis.  But how you ice can be a real key to your success.  You need get a little plastic water bottle and freeze the water inside, then take it out 2 times a day rolling it under the arch of the foot back and forth.  I tell patients this is like physical therapy without a copay.  It is a natural anti-inflammatory and stretches the arch very effectively.

These are the two main ways to start treating your Plantar fasciitis: stretching and icing.  But there are many great ways to help support the fascia when you are standing like inserts and slippers.  Also, there is something called a Plantar fascial night splint that you can wear while you are at rest or even while you are sleeping.

Some people get home and kick off their shoes and then strain the fascia walking barefoot around the house.  Support, even at home has a very positive effect in your outcome and feeling better sooner.

Here is a link to our webpage, with our top recommendations for heel pain and plantar fasciitis from our affiliate FootSmart.  I put my favorite helpers for heel pain available at :
http://centeranklefootcare.com/id114.html

Fungus Among Us, I mean really in my own home, Mommy Foot Doctor's Worst Nightmare!!!

As I sit and have breakfast with my three beautiful children I reflect on just a couple weeks ago when my oldest asked me to check her feet.  It was 8:30pm when she decided to ask me to give her an impromptu foot exam.  See Lily's bedtime is 8:00 pm, so when she asked for her gratis foot exam I declined:) The next night went very similar to the night before. "Mom! please check my foot", Lily cried at 8:20 pm.  Of course, my mommy, not foot doctor response was, "GO TO BED".  My kids know I love talking feet, but I felt that my very smart 8 year old was trying to manipulate me.

Several days passed and finally my poor Lily said to me at exactly 7:59pm, "Please just take a peek at my toes mommy." I gave in to her request only to discover that:

1. My daughter had Athlete's foot and 2. I am a TERRIBLE MOTHER:)

Now you may insert the music from any horror movie.  I looked in shock at the peeling red skin between all of her toes and on the bottom of her feet. I quickly threw down her covers over her feet and ran to my 7 year olds room. Ripped the sheets off of her feet while she was resting peacefully in her bed.  You may now insert the sound effect of a horror movie scream that went off in my head! My two sweet baby girls had fungus in between all of their toes and on the bottoms of their feet.  Abby, my 7 year old, woke up and said "Yeah, that's been there forever, can you turn out the light."

I scrambled through my house looking for a topical anti-fungal, but much to my dismay, I had none.  What kind of podiatrist doesn't have anti-fungal in their house, right.  Honestly, that is not something you think about keeping in your house on a regular basis.  Both my Lily and Abby are in gymnastics. They go into the gym every time with out shoes and socks and walk several steps outside of the gym barefoot to get their shoes on before leaving the building at the end of practice.  My kids are not immunocompromised, they are not more susceptible to fungus than the next guy, they are normal kids. 

Why them? This is the questions patients ask me all the time when I tell them they have fungus on their skin or nails.  The reality is when you wear an organ on the outside, i.e. your skin, you are exposing it to everything.  Fungus does not discriminate, it does not care if you are young or old, it is out there just waiting for you(insert scary music once more:))!!!

Fungus can thrive for quite some time without a host, it can hang out on some dry skin that has flaked off of someone with a fungal infection.  You then step on the fungal flakes of skin and bam you gots the fungus! But that's not all, if left untreated, like my poor neglected children ( I blame their father, he's a foot doctor too), it can lead to the much more difficult to treat NAIL FUNGUS.  That night I discovered my childrens fungus, I could not sleep at all, I just kept seeing that "Digger the Dermataphyte" lifting up my poor sweet babies toenails. 

The story has a happy ending, as I was able to get an anti-fungal from the office, Clarus Foot Cream, shameless plug, but great product we sell in our office:) In three days it looked better. But I tell all my patients that you always treat skin fungus at least for a week or two longer than you think you have to.  This gives you time to do all the important things like evaluate your shoe gear, throw out whatever is questionable and treat the rest either with spray or SteriShoe.  See once you personally have fungus, skin or nail, the biggest offender for your reinfection is YOU.  The shoes you put back on that have already been exposed to the fungus, the floor surfaces in your house that may have a nice little fungal spot of dead skin waiting to attack, the repeating of PEDICURES in establishments that do not take your health into consideration, these among others are reasons that you should treat athletes foot for a little longer. (Also shameless plug number 2, in our office we have a Safe Pedicure Experience for those who do not want to get nail fungus while getting a pedicure, check us out at  The Natural Nail Spa). And if you are struggling with a nail fungus, taking Lamisil pills by mouth or having the Laser performed, you must continue with a sound preventive program.  It is true that the Laser and Lamisil may increase the nail clear appearance but we tell ALL of our patients that it is so easy to get reinfected.  The patients success is linked and tied closely to them understanding that preventing nail fungus is a life long journey and anti-fungals become a daily occurrence FORVER, to prevent any reinfection.

The reason I even mention nail infections from fungus is because the fungus that commonly causes athletes foot is the same fungus that often cause a toenail fungus.  So if you have athletes foot and no toenail fungus this is a warning, prevention is the best medicine.  I see people on a daily basis who come into my office with ankle sprains, heel pain and other non skin related conditions, many of these people are in shock to find out that they also have athletes foot. But these lucky people are able to treat their condition so it doesn't progress to something worse.

If you are reading this, I would encourage you to check your feet. Inspect the bottoms of your feet, do you see peeling skin in between your toes? Are the soles of your feet peeling? Do you have weird little cracks on your feet? This may be fungus, don't be like my gross, neglected kids, TREAT IT:)

If you know me then you know I have one other child, she was lucky enough to not get the athletes foot in our fungal laden house:) 

But She has her own issues, see below:)

KEEP YOUR FEET HAPPY AND HEALTHY:)  Thank you for taking the time to read our little blog. As always, if you ever have any foot or ankle problems, Dr. Henne and myself are there for you.  If you would like any more information about foot stuff please visit our webpage at centeranklefootcare.com we have tons of information on all different kinds of foot and ankle conditions and information about the PinPointe Laser for Nail Fungus. 

Take Care, 

Dr. McGowan:)