# Foot injuries



## Joshua B (Nov 24, 2003)

About a month ago I injured my foot. I can't pinpoint the injury, but it was either one or two nights after hiking up and down Berkshire East ski area. I got out of bed one night, put weight on my foot, and instantly felt a sharp pain over my arch. That pattern continued for almost two weeks. After walking on it for a while, the foot would loosen up and the pain would subside, but after a period of inactivity, whenever I would put weight on it, I would throw it out again. So I saw my doctor. He didn't spend much time on it. It seemed like he was well versed with this injury. He asked if I had hiked in sneakers. Yes. He said I probably strained this long muscle that runs along the foot (sorry, I forget what he called the muscle). So he gave me a prescription for an anti-inflamatory drug, and asked me to ice my foot after work, and soak it in warm water in the morning. That really helped and I kept up with it, although I didn't finish the prescription. I'm not much for drugs. Anyway, I finally bought some hiking shoes and got out there again over the weekend. I'm still cautious about putting hard weight on my foot after a period of inactivity, but for about 4 days now I've felt no pain. I'm hoping the foot is healed. Has anyone else had a similar foot injury?


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## Max (Nov 24, 2003)

Funny you mention that.  I had a similar injury after jumping off a platform at work, the arch in my foot hurt for weeks and didn't want to heal.  It killed me to go hiking on it, the pain at the end of the hike was unbearable.  Finally in desperation I went to a foot doctor.  He said I needed better arch support, that my feet were too flat to start with.  He taped up my foot in an exagerated arch.  It was sorta uncomfortable, but I couldn't flatten out my foot.  He told me to go climb Mt. Monadnock with it taped up like that.  Seemed silly, but I did.  When I came home, I didn't have that tremendous pain like I usually did.  After untaping my foot, he told me to buy a pair of the hard plastic Spenco arch supports and use them in all my shoes.  I did and never had another problem.  It was like magic...I guess that's why he's a doctor and I'm a hiker!  I used the supports religiously for about 2 year, then stopped and I've never had a reocurrence.

Max


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## Joshua B (Nov 24, 2003)

Yeah, it's all about arch support. Why more shoes and sneakers don't have better support is beyond me--especially sneakers like the Puma throwbacks. They make them just like they did back in the day. Surely they could have updated them with better arch support. Let's not even mention Chuck Taylors!


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