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I am not a doctor and have never played one on TV.
Actually there are at least three 'foot issues' that are similar to the symptoms you describe. For heel spurs, bone spurs, an x-ray would confirm. For heel bursistis, relief would be from a shot of either novocaine/lidocaine or cortisol into the bursa.
Some doctors (at least the one I went to)will start with the x-ray to rule out bone sours, then try pain killers and stretching before they start injections (or possibly surgery for the bone spurs). Since most people get plantar fasciitis before they do enough damage to their feet to cause the other two this can sometimes work.
But if you already HAVE PF and continue to run without treating the symptoms and FIXING the reasons that you got PF in the first place, you run the risk of heel bursitis or bone spurs. Part of the 'cure' for PF & heel bursitis is NOT RUNNING. My suggestions would be to cross train with deep water jogging, elliptical and biking to keep up your fitness and keep from going crazy while you wait for recovery. I think too many people ignore the early symptoms, try and 'run through' PF and end up with bigger problems. I taped my foot and had great success the first time I had PF but the second time I didn't catch it soon enough. Now I do lots of foot stretching & strengthening, and deep water jogging, and stay off the concrete. This stuff never goes away, and in the words of my podiatrist "you have to manage" the health of your feet.
So if your feet don't get better with rest & cross-training you might want to find a podiatrist that handles runners.
-Rita
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