Mercer-Ocean Podiatry, PC

Do you recall suffering frequent heel pain as a child? If you do, that’s not unusual; children’s bones haven’t fully fused together, and they are more vulnerable to overuse injuries than adults. However, nobody likes seeing their child in pain, and if a child frequently suffers from sore heels, there may be a biomechanical issue at play. At Mercer-Ocean Podiatry, we assist patients of all ages, so we thought it would be a good idea to explain Sever’s Disease, a common source of childhood foot problems, in more detail. Sever’s disease, or calcaneal apophysitis, is inflammation of the growth plate connecting the back of the heel bone to the bone’s main body. The back of the heel bone is where the Achilles tendon, one of the strongest tendons in the body, attaches. When the calf muscles or the tendon itself are tight, the tendon will pull the heel up and backwards, causing soreness in the soft growth plate. The calf muscles are likely to tighten up after a person has been running and jum...

When patients come to Mercer-Ocean Podiatry complaining of foot pain, one of the potential causes we’ll test for is tarsal tunnel syndrome. This disease is the result of a compressed nerve and can also cause numbness and tingling. The tarsal tunnel is a structure on the inward-facing side of the foot near the protruding ankle bone. The tibial nerve branches off from the sciatic nerve further up the leg and passes through the tarsal tunnel on its way to the bottom of the foot. There are several reasons why the tarsal tunnel may be too narrow for the nerve, including inflammation, cysts, and bone deformities. Inflammation may be from overuse, such as can occur with osteoarthritis or when the foot rolls too far inward while walking, which is called overpronation. Symptoms may be felt at the bottom of the foot instead of near the tunnel, causing lay observers to misidentify the problem. Tarsal tunnel syndrome may improve on its own given rest, ice, compression, and elevation. But podiatris...