Bruised heel?

I have to run about a mile on a gravel road to get to the paved road. I've been running in my VFFs for a while now and never noticed how much of the heel area had been worn away. As a result my right heel took a lot of hits.

I've since gotten a new pair and it feels a lot better but I hit a few rocks again with my heel and now it hurts again.

I land midfoot first but I sometimes catch a sharp rock under my heel.

Any advice for helping the recovery? It hurts too much to run on it...I have a feeling it is like a tail bone injury...takes forever to heel and will be sensitive for a long while.

Any advice?

Plantar faschiatis

Maybe...but I doubt it...

You want to be sure it is not a stress fracture. if it is fractured and you don't stay off of it, you can cause more serious damage.

It is a dull pain right in the center of my heel...if I walk in a cushioned shoe there is zero pain ...but walk barefoot on concrete...it hurts :/

Ice!

You're right, it's a bruise the to the surface of the bone.
Sorry but there's not much to be done. Be nice to it, don't aggravate it by running without the cushion and it should come around in a couple of weeks.

Basically the old doctor advice. If it hurts, don't do it.

I incurred a stone bruise many years ago from jumping of a boulder problem in a pair of ninjas (this was back before the advent of bouldering pads!). The most painful damn thing I've ever experienced! And yes, it took a while to heal. The one thing that made it tolerable to walk was modifying the insoles of my shoes to include lots of padding around the affected area. I'm sure there's lots of info on the interwebs - just google "stone bruise." Good luck!

It will take some time to heal but in the mean time I would use a shoe with a rigid heel cup insole like superfeet. I know superfeet are arch supports and that VFFs are the opposite of arch support but thats not the point here. Screw the cushioned insoles, what you need is the natural tissue around your heel-bone to act as a cushion and the only thing that will keep you tissue under your heel is a rigid heel cup. Hope that makes sense to you.

The fat pad in your heel is a complex fat pad, meaning that there is a ligamentous meshwork of baffles that surround small compartments of fat cells. If you have an impact injury to your heel, some of these baffles can stretch or rupture, leading to pain that feels like a deep bruise. It takes a while for these baffles to heal, so symptoms often persist for some time. The key is avoiding repeated impact that disrupts the healing process.

spinalhealth.net/XT_files/X…

Of course, plantar fasciitis, stress fractures, etc are also possibilities. But this "Fat Pad Syndrome" is something that not a lot of people seem to know about.

Tom Fralich wrote:The fat pad in your heel is a complex fat pad, meaning that there is a ligamentous meshwork of baffles that surround small compartments of fat cells. If you have an impact injury to your heel, some of these baffles can stretch or rupture, leading to pain that feels like a deep bruise. It takes a while for these baffles to heal, so symptoms often persist for some time. The key is avoiding repeated impact that disrupts the healing process. spinalhealth.net/XT_files/X… Of course, plantar fasciitis, stress fractures, etc are also possibilities. But this "Fat Pad Syndrome" is something that not a lot of people seem to know about.

Tom,

Thanks for the post ! I actually found that website in my googling. I think that is what I have. I was taking off from running but decided to wear my VFFs for walking around. I happened to hit a piece of gravel just right and it hurt like hell.

So, I figure I am out of running for at least a month or two. It seems like this injury is like a bruised tailbone...its going to take a long long time to heal.

Have you had this injury before?

thanks Tom, this seems fairly closely to describe some of my problems also. Thanks for the link.

[My X-rays were ok, but still have problems putting weight on my heel when its on a hard surface; even now, 4 months after the accident (fell about 12 ft.). (One Dr. suggested plantar fasciitis and recommended an MRI, but no health insurance, and I've already spent 1k (mostly on emergency room) just to be repeatedly told 'sometimes they take awhile to heal'.) Also, I seem to have minor problems with the ankle and my foot seems to be about one size larger now, but the main problem has been the heel]

@Zirkel, pretty sure bouldering pads were around before Ninjas

+1 for it could be a stress fracture. When I was a kid, I got stress fractures in both my heels from playing baseball and running a lot on frozen ground during the spring in Michigan.

I had to cut back on baseball a little but the big help was getting heel cups, basically little rubber cushions for your heels. Helped me out. Ask a doctor or PT before using them to run in though.

Cheers.

I had a bruised heel and it took like a year to go away.