Dr. Brandon Macy
Podiatrist - Clark, NJ
1114 Raritan Road
Clark, NJ 07066
Sore soles at the end of a long day of standing or walking; burning or tingling pain when you get out of bed in the morning; pain at the base of your heel. These are all symptoms associated with plantar fasciitis foot pain. While it might not be completely debilitating, it can definitely cause extreme discomfort and cause your whole body to feel tired.
Those who suffer from chronic plantar fasciitis pain know the uncomfortable feeling. The soreness of the feet can ruin plans for the evening or prevent you from wanting to be active. That’s why they might also know that prevention is the key to reduce the risk of experiencing pain each day (and night).
If you know that you’ve worked your feet harder than usual, perhaps during a hike or a difficult workout, try some of the above tips to prevent painful symptoms from settling in. If you’re familiar with chronic plantar fasciitis pain, you may also need to use NSAIDs to prevent inflammation of the ligament.
Need help with chronic severe plantar fasciitis pain? See our board-certified podiatrist, Dr. Brandon Macy at Clark Podiatry Center. He can assess your feet and find the best treatment for any concern you may have. Make an appointment at our Clark, NJ office so we can keep you walking.
If you or a loved one suffers from gout, you know that it can be a crippling condition. This intense form of arthritis can suddenly cause pain, swelling, and redness in a joint – most commonly in the big toe joint. It can cause pain to most of the forefoot and even in the ankles and/or knees as well.
NOTE: If you feel that you might have gout, make sure that you have made an appointment with your doctor and received a proper diagnosis.
After some time, gout patients may get really good at recognizing symptoms of an oncoming attack. You may feel sensations of burning or tingling, stiff or sore joints, and eventually, redness, swelling, and pain. For some, the pain can come suddenly in the middle of the night, causing you to wake up.
Gout attacks generally occur after drinking more than usual, eating foods that are high in purine (like liver or mussels), being dehydrated, ingesting a lot of sugar, or as a side effect of taking certain medications.
When you feel an attack coming on, try the following:
When a gout attack is in full swing, you may be in too much pain to do much. You’ll want to have friends or family members help you with daily tasks and take it easy in general. Eat a nutritious and healthy diet and drink lots of water. Additionally, use cushiony, soft slippers when you do need to walk around (like going to the bathroom) to alleviate pain.
If you experience more than 2 or 3 attacks per year, you’ll probably want to take prescription gout medications. Make an appointment today at Clark Podiatry Center. Our board-certified podiatrist, Dr. Brandon Macy will assess your feet to find the best treatments or solutions for your feet. We are located in Clark, NJ and serve patients in all the surrounding Union County towns!
“Why are my feet so swollen?”
At the end of some days, you might notice that your feet are larger than they were when you woke up this morning. If you’ve been on your feet all day, whether from a job that requires standing or from walking all day, there’s a good chance that your feet will be a bit swollen. A slight swelling of the feet is natural in these cases, but edema (swelling) that is chronic, uneven, or severe can indicate a larger health problem.
Read on to find out if one of the causes below (other than standing for long periods of time) apply to you:
Injury, infection, Insect Bite, Inactivity
Hormonal changes
Other health problems
If you have swollen feet, try using the RICE method to reduce symptoms. If that doesn’t work, or if swelling persists, make an appointment to see us at Clark Podiatry Center. Our board-certified podiatrist, Dr. Brandon Macy will assess your feet to find the best treatment and make sure that you do not have underlying health problems. We are located in Clark, NJ and are ready to serve patients in all the surrounding Union County towns!
Did you know that you have 2 small pea-sized bones near your big toe joint that are not connected to any other bones? Don’t worry; it’s not as weird as it sounds. They are not just floating around in your feet, but rather, connected to the tendons. Yes, every time you move your big toe up and down and take a step, your tendons are sliding along the sesamoids, kind of like a pulley.
So why are they to blame for foot pain?
In the same way that your Achilles tendon in your ankle can become irritated and inflamed, the tendon in your feet can also experience tendonitis, called sesamoiditis. Either the tendons are overused and become irritated as they repeatedly pass over the sesamoids, or they have endured an injury to the tendon or bones, causing inflammation.
Ballet dancers, sprinters, golfers, and baseball players commonly experience this injury because of the position their feet are often in. A lot of weight and pressure goes onto the big toe joint, making it more vulnerable to overuse injury.
If your foot pain looks like this:
How can you get relief from Sesamoiditis?
Remember, since sesamoids are also bones, they could become fractured in an injury (or stress fractured due to overuse). If the pain is very severe and does not subside, get medical attention from our podiatrist ASAP. Come see our board-certified podiatrist, Dr. Brandon Macy for an assessment. Make an appointment today to have your sesamoids treated with care. We are located in Clark, NJ and serve patients in all of Union County! We keep you walking!
Hello there! Happy April! Since this month is National Foot Health Awareness Month, we’d like to take it back to the basics of general foot care. It’s so easy to ignore caring for our feet until we have pain or an injury. However, regularly maintaining foot health is great for preventing future issues. After all, our feet are essential to our daily lives, giving us stability and mobility.
We encourage you to review the following guidelines for taking care of our feet and make them a part of your daily habits:
Wondering about your foot and ankle health? A good place to start is with this Foot and Ankle Self-Assessment Quiz from The Foot Health Foundation of America.
If you haven’t had your annual podiatry appointment yet, make an appointment today at Clark Podiatry Center. Our board-certified podiatrist, Dr. Brandon Macy will assess your feet and ankles to keep you walking. We are located in Clark, NJ and serve patients in all the surrounding Union County towns!
Questions or Comments?
We encourage you to contact us whenever you have an interest or concern about our services.
1114 Raritan Road
Clark, NJ 07066