How Do I Know It’s Plantar Fasciitis?

Many injuries can cause foot pain, from ankle sprains to tiny stress fractures. That’s why it’s important to pay attention to the location and sensation of your foot pain, as well as any mobility issues. To help you understand the signs and symptoms of plantar fasciitis, let’s look at an example case.

Sarah had recently taken up running after several years away. She loved going out every morning and jogging around her neighborhood. But after a few weeks, she started to experience discomfort on the bottom of her foot whenever she went for a run.

The pain usually started as a sharp, stabbing pain on the bottom of her heel, but she also noticed that the arch of her foot felt tender and restricted.

After experiencing the pain for the first time, she started to notice it more frequently, and not just after her runs, either:

• First thing in the morning, when she got out of  bed
• While standing in a long line at the grocery store
• While spending a day walking around an amusement park
• After watching a long movie in the theater

When Sarah eventually visited a physical therapist to seek treatment for her foot pain, she made sure to carefully lay out all the times she experienced pain (and all the times she didn’t; Sarah noticed the pain tended to fade around mid-morning, then flare up in the evening). That, along with her detailed explanation of the pain’s location, helped her PT correctly identify her pain as plantar fasciitis.