Anyone had a cortisone shot in the heel????

I haven't seen it mentioned here but if the pain is something you are really worried about, you could ask if they could phone in a one-dose prescription of an anti-anxiety medication you could take before the shot. You'd need to have someone drive you home afterwards, but I'm sure they would accommodate you.

I have a needle phobia I'm determined to kick, so for my last 3-4 flu shots I've had them call in a single dose of valium for me to take immediately prior to my doctor's appointment to squelch the panic reaction before it happens. I have friends with phobias of flying call their GPs before travel for the same thing. Worth a shot, maybe? (No pun intended).

Years ago I was suffering miserably with plantar fasciitis and a heal spur. I tried everything the doctor recommended and still had lots of pain. So much so that it was making it hard to exercise at all. I could barely walk. So I had the cortisone shot to the heal. Yes, it hurts a bit but I was willing to do anything to stop the pain. Well, it didn't fix anything really. Still had the pain. The ONLY thing that worked was having shock therapy to it. I had to pay out of pocket and it hurt like hell, but it WORKED. Years later, I am dealing with pain again but I've managed to have it under control for now. Good luck..I feel your pain.

I had shots in both heels. It hurt like hell but was worth it. I have inserts in my shoes now (doctor recomended) and am running half marathons. Just remember to stretch, slowly add miles to your runs, and no flip flops. They have no support for your feet. Good Luck

You might want to try the stretch that is shown on the page linked here:
http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/ortho/foot-ankle/_documents/plantarfasciitisteachingsheet.pdf

The doctor who developed this stretch did a study with almost 80 people who had chronic plantar fasciitis (defined as having lasted at least one year, despite efforts to get it better). He had almost 90 percent of those people dramatically improved in eight weeks.
I found it because I was thinking I had to have surgery. I googled 'surgery' and 'plantar fasciitis,' and read many comments that said: 'I have never been able to run the same again!'
And, as many people have said, a cortisone shot is only a temporary fix.
This stretch worked wonders for me, and I now run and play tennis with no pain whatsoever.
Get the insoles too! Superfeet are best.

This link shows how to do a stretch that really benefited about 90 percent of about 70 patients with chronic PF (That is, people who had tried many other things for at least one year with little or no improvement).
http://www.urmc.rochester.edu/ortho/foot-ankle/_documents/plantarfasciitisteachingsheet.pdf
I do the same stretch by sitting down in a yoga "hero" pose, except that I put my toes underneath me, so that the bottom of my toes are on the floor and the sole of my foot points at the wall behind.
Do it at least twice a day.
It takes some time, but that and some Superfeet insoles in your shoes will do the trick.
I have had plantar fasciitis off and on for about 20 years. I keep getting it because I played soccer -- hard ground, cleats, lots of twisting and torquing.

This exactly. I also do the "hero" with the toes under me. In addition, just squat down on the balls of your feet and roll back a bit until you feel a stretch going up the back of the heel. Twice a day. Took a while, like 3 months (it is a tendon after all), but after 3 years of the pain those 3 months weren't much.

The two other things I did were:
1: switched to a heavier padded running shoe.
2: tape the heal in question. to do that you:
Take a 10" strip and wrap it around the back of the heel, traveling down each side of the foot (this is to give the smaller strips something to stick to).
3 or 4 - 5" strips under the heal (I go 2-3 strips wide with a second layer over the most painful point) attaching to the first strip on either side of the foot. Pull them kinda tight as you apply them.
Then 1 more 10" strip applied in the same manner as the first (this helps hold the smaller strips in place.).

This taping works great and receives high praise from me IF, and it is a big IF for me, you can find athletic tape worth a damn. 2 years ago all the tape I could get had good adhesive that stuck well even through sweat. Since then I think both local brands (Ace and some generic) switched processes to save money and reduced the quality of their adhesive. Any minute ammount of moisture and I have a lot of trouble getting it to stick to the skin.

Edit to add:
I did have a shot in my left heal. It hurt, but you can tolerate most any pain for the ten seconds necessary to inject the fluid. It isn't easy, but it can be done. The after effects didn't hurt any more than the faciitis itself so I wasn't walking any differently or with any additional pain due to the shot. I already limped everywhere. It knocked the edge off, but still hurt. The pain came back full force after about 3 weeks. In my opinion the stretching, therapy, shoes and tape are the way to go.

My podiatrist made a good point about the frozen bottle rolling. Think of stretchy stuff... Bubble gum for example. When it gets cold it gets brittle not more flexible. So when you are stretching with cold you are causing more damage to the individual fibers. Cold is good to reduce swelling, but don't use it in concert with the stretches. Cold first to reduce swelling, then wait a few minutes before stretching and then cold again if you have time.

I have had plantar fasciatiis (however you spell it). But I notice that it has greatly improved since I started takling Yolaties (yoga-pilates) class. It is like standing pilates. We do a lot of balance work standing on one foot, bare foot--no shoes. My teacher said this strengthens the tendons and ligaments (or whatever they are--I'm not familiar with medical terminology) in your feet. Before, I could hardly go 15 minutes without wearing shoes with arch supports. Pretty much the only time I went barefoot was in the shower and in bed. But now I go for hours at a time without shoes with no problem. We do things standing on one foot on the ground. We also do things standing with one foot on one of those inflatable discs.

I had PF for about a year and tried a number of things; the steroid injection was one of the least helpful. It's like magic for about two weeks; you'll think the PF has been cured. Then it comes back just as bad as ever. Also, getting steroid injections is associated with a greater risk of plantar fascia rupture.

I've had almost two years without symptoms, and here are the things that I felt were most helpful:
1) strasbourg sock at night (prevents the ankle and PF from contracting as it heals; without this, the reason it hurts in the morning is that you just tore open all the healing your body did over night. With this, your PF heals in the extended position and your healing doesn't get re-traumatized every morning)
2) don't completely quit running, just cut back on volume and intensity. Run slow but frequently, with the goal that each run is meant to be a pre-stretch warmup
3) stretching, especially the calves and hamstrings
4) Foot Rubz massage ball http://www.roadrunnersports.com/rrs/products/SUR103/sure-foot-foot-rubz/?cc=NA&sc=CX14P110&cm_mmc=psearch-_-google-_-na-_-rrs101-SUR103&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=Psearch&utm_term=RRS101-SUR103
5) patience

I had one for a heel spur long ago. I don't remember it hurting all that much; he deadened it beforehand. My orthopedist did the injection at the hospital so he could use the xray machine as a guide. He wanted to make sure that he got it in the right spot. He did say that I could expect relief in 3 days. Well, it took 2 weeks. Edit: My heel had been hurting for over a year before I had the injection. And it hasn't bothered me since.

No, cortisone shots won't heal your heel. :bigsmile: However, it will reduce inflammation and alleviate pain.

I've had the injection in my heel. They used the numbing spray and it was still very painful!! I was walking around an amusement park the next day thought with no issues. Mine lasted about a year.

I believe I had something the same or simular. I used to box and was at the gym every day, many hours. Lots of jump rope and constantly up on my toes at the heavy bags. This put a huge amount of strain on the right heal particularly, as it was the rear foot when boxing so the heal was always up. All the force of the tendon that connects to the heal bone caused an injury.
I think they suspected a heel spur. Not sure if the tendon was tearing or if the bone was failing.

It was very very painful, like stepping on a nail with each step at the back of the heel.

I went to a specialized foot doctor. they Gave me the cortisone shots in the heel and some special shoe coushins. I stayed off the foot as much as possible, babied it for a couple months, No good, the shots did not help and it would not get better on its own.

The Boxer trainer at my guy, (I will not name the gym or the trainer but I can tell you he has put out several world and national champions in Kickboxing) . We had a fighter that hurt her wrist and he sent her to his accupuncturist, she told me it healed fast. I do not believe in the alternative medicine stuff but was in a lot of pain and it was only like $25 or $50 for a trip to the acupuncture guy, Dr. Lou I think it was. So what the hell.

I show up at his office, tell him my issue, he places a couple needles in the heel, (no pain or sting by the way) He places a burning ember on the end of the needles which gives off a heat to the heal, no burning. He then attaches electrodes to the needles, and turns the machine on, it gives off tiny electricle shocks, Tic, tic, tic , tic , tic , tic........ Does not hurt, just feels like a light tap. He lets me lay there for about 5 min or so and then it is all done.

I go home, 2 days later my heal is about 50% MORE SORE!, I think, SOB, great, now I made it worse. 2 days after this, my heal feels 60% better than it did before I went to see him. Holy cow, Its better but not fixed, I wait a few days and make another appointment.. after a week, the pain was gone completely, and it has never come back.

I do not know exactly how it works, I suppose when you have an injury, that body part gives off signals and chemicals to communicate with your system and brain, telling it that it is injured and needs fixing, this is why you feel pain, why you swell up when you roll an ankle. But some times the injured area only hurts and will not give off proper signals to the body to heal it. I think the stimulation by the electrodes triggered a response from the body to you know "Hey, over here, we need a repair". basically boosting or jump starting the process.

Now I can not guarantee it will work for you, but it sure as heck worked for me and many of the fighters I trained with swore by it when they got injuries and needed to get back into training.

I suffered a serious back injury and tried the acupuncture on that, but It did not fix that issue unfortunately.

I say give it a shot, make sure they use the electrodes on the needles and find a good acupuncturist that is highly recommended in your area, I am sure there are plenty of new or wanna be people in the field but go find you an old guy with a Chinese name.lol. . (hey, not stereo typing, but Ill take on old Chinese guy that has been doing it for decades over anyone else)

I know it worked for me and am very grateful to Dr. Lu, the man who fixed me up. I know he is not in your area but here is his yelp review page just to give you an idea. http://www.yelp.com/biz/lu-frank-s-licensed-acupuncturist-bakersfield