pain on the bottom of my foot

by Jill
(Wisconsin)

After I had been laying in bed for a little while I started to get pain in the bottom of my left foot, mostly on the heel and also some pain in my left leg. No matter which way I tried to lay the pain would not go away. After tossing and turning for a few hours I decided to get up and walk around and sit to see if I felt any better. It didn't hurt as much now that I'm not laying down, but I really need to get some sleep. I took ibruphrophen and put an ice pack on my foot, but neither seemed to help. I do have osteoarthritis in my knees, but have never had this problem before.

RESPONSE

Hi Jill,

I wish I knew a little bit more about you, particularly your age. I will assume that since you suffer from osteoarthritis you are at least over forty years of age.
Although I cannot say for sure that this is the case with you, I find that most people who wake up in the middle of the night with a pain in the foot, it is usually from sleeping with the foot and ankle in an awkward position and because of that, you end up pulling or straining a part of your foot, ankle or leg and this results in pain. The exception to this would be if you happened to be on your feet quite a bit during the day, you may have aggravated something that first began to hurt during the night.
In these instances, icing the area and taking ibuprofen should start to dramatically reduce your pain within the following 24 hours.
In fact, by the time you receive this response, the foot and leg may already be much better.
If that turns out not to be the case then you may have to delve deeper into the source of your pain.
I would be curious to know if the bottom of the foot near the heel is hot, red, or swollen. If that is the case and you are old enough to be post-menopausal, then I would consider a gout attack as one possibility. More than likely, the foot would be very painful with the leg much less so.
Another more remote possibility, and again I wish I knew your age and more about your medical history, would be the possibility of a circulatory problem, either with the problem being lack of blood flowing into the foot, or the blood having trouble leaving your foot and getting back up to the heart.
If this were to be the case, your foot and lower leg might either be very pale in color compared to your right foot, or the left foot and leg might be more swollen than your right foot and leg.
As you can see, I am giving you possibilities but there is no way I can know for sure what is going on, not having the luxury of examining you.
So, over a 24 hour period, the ice and ibuprofen relieved your pain, great, if not and the pain persists then the best piece of advice I can give you is to see a doctor in your area and have a proper evaluation.

Marc Mitnick DPM
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