Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The agony of da-feet

High arch boots, night splint, inserts, stretches.

I spend all my time at work on concrete and what has helped me are Asics Gel Foundation Workplace leather shoe and a dose of slow running each other day (for knees).

I was having the same problem. Turned out I wasn't getting enough vitamin D.

Have you been to Doc? Done blood work?

I started D supplements, feel way better.

Sounds like plantar fasciitis. Unreal pain and never seems to heal. I tried every brand of shoe and sneaker, custom orthotics, night splints, cortisone, ice, stretches. Nothing seemed to help....until I bought wolverine raider boots for working. 2 weeks of wearing them daily and I was feeling better. A month later....I was cured. Give it a try. It's only time and $130.

I'll second hunter4623 on the plantar fasciitis. I didn't know what it was earlier this year and kept training hard. I thought I had a badly bruised heel. I ended up with a ruptured plantar fascia. If I'd have known what it was there was a lot that could have been done to treat it and I'd not ended up rupturing it....but if you're not training really hard it's probably not going to rupture on you.

Really all those things and the boots are what fixed it for you? Did you stop doing all the other things ? After wearing the boots for two weeks ?

Maybe it's plantar fasciitis and maybe not. That's why seeing a good orthopedist is called for.

I had really crummy plantar fasciitis for about a year. Injections and all of that kind of treatment. A friend and now deceased podiatrist told me to get high arch support shoes. I went to an athletic shoe store where I first ran into age discrimination when none of the young folks there would even give me a moment. Then I went to a Danish shoe, as it had the highest arches I could find (then, not so much now) and the pain was gone literally overnight.

A friend had a somewhat similar pain and after seeing an orthopedist was diagnosed with a ruptured tendon in the foot. Totally different treatment, of course.

Feet problems SUCK. Plantar fasciitis turned my high-desert backpacking deer hunt into car-camping and limping around about 1 mile a day (max) for two weeks... it's finally resolving (I hope).

Don't let it get worse. Do not let it get worse. It'd be a mistake to let it get worse. Whatever you do, don't let.... you get the idea. Pull out all the stops and find a solution.

You might give Doc Martens shoes or boots a try. Those are the most comfortable I have found for being on hard surfaces for long spells. They have a thick, comfortable sole. Also, consider a good foot roller massager. I have a wooden one that works great. I find ice to be a great help with pain relief as another option to consider. For feet, I'd go an ice water soak for 10 minutes. Long enough for the feet or area of pain to go numb.

Watch posture too. A kinked back or hip will make pain in the leg or foot. Any decent massueses around?

I had plantar in both feet bad and tried this at the advise of a friend. Click on the link. I was cured in less than 2 weeks from 2+ years of pain. YMMV

http://www.goodfeet.com/

the stretching exercises and ball exercises really help me, but they're kinda like vitamins, not much use if you don't take them, exercises not much use if you don't do them.

Sorry to hear of your ailment Doc. Hurting feet really suck...

You notice in these hurting feet threads, there is every fix under the sun. Some are completely divergent from one another. After going through plantar fasciitas about 10 years ago, (it took a couple years to really go away, I went to 3 podiatrists, bought 2 sets of custom orthotics, had several cortisone shots, and a pair of custom Nicks boots. Nothing seemed to work until the last podiatrist sent me to a physical therapist who had me doing heat, ice, massage, stretches, strengthening exercises, and wearing good shoes. No more flip-flops or otherwise flimsey shoes until they got stronger and the inflammation was gone.

From my experience, you will have to keep trying to find what helps you. What works for some may not work for you... Once you get ahead of it, don't let your guard down and at the first sign of soreness stamp it out with ice, massage, stretching, etc... It can take some time to get better, but keep after it. It will go away, if you work at it.

Two types of people work on watches: jewelers and idiots. The same applies to body ailments, if you come to the Campfire for foot problems, you have just entered into the realm of idiots.

Well, my doc thinks its plantar fashiitis. He prescribed meloxicam and that has helped a bunch. I've been wearing my Mendl hiking boots at work and that has really helped. Also, my fatigue mats in the surgery room are 10 yr old, I figure I'll replace those, too.
Now all I have to do is drop the final 25 lb and I'll be in sheep shape. Man, I haven't seen 190 since the kids were born!!!

Thanks for all the suggestions. I figured correctly that this group would know a thing or two about foot comfort.

I work !2 hr shifts on cement and had much the same trouble as you described. Many of the suggestions above are good, one thing I would like to add, that really helps me, is to have at least two very different styles of work boots.
I have one pair of Red Wing Lineman boots, very high, supportive arches, and one pair of Timberline low tops with much less arch support but very thick, soft soles.
When my pain was at its worst I would start the day in RWs, then after a few hrs I would switch to Timberlines, and so on.
This helped me immediately and as I felt better, I would only switch day by day.
Avoid any amount of walking in flip flops, go barefoot around the yard when you can, and good luck with this. Sore feet really, really suck!