"Slicing" in the foot

[ascballerina]

This never happens in actual classes, just when we're rehearsing dances. Sometimes I'll be running--particularly in circles--and I'll feel what I can only describe as a slicing sensation down through the centre of one of my feet. It feels like a knife started in the centre of my foot and cut downward. The actual pain is usually over quickly, but I'm usually tentative with it for a little while after. It only seems to happen when I'm running in the dance, or otherwise in some weight-bearing position that is not a 3/4 rise nor completely flat. Funnily enough, it doesn't happen in anything I do on 1/4 pointe in class. It's been happening for years now, on and off. Is it something I should be worried about? My teacher has never encountered it before.

[Victoria Leigh]

Nor have I, asc. If it is something that keeps happening I think maybe you should try to find out what is causing it. Running is something one has to do a lot in ballets, and you do not want to have to be worried every time you do it that it will happen, or to be tentative about it, before or after.

[ascballerina]

I talked to the jazz/modern teacher. She thinks it's a form of tendonitis, and I should ice it....

[Clara 76]

Have you ever had it X-rayed?

[ascballerina]

Nope. I've never had anything x-rayed, except my mouth. I'm going to an osteopath soon for what my ballet teacher calls a "tune-up"--I've had a lot of little issues lately, mostly in my hips, nothing major, but I'd like it to stay that way--so I was planning to ask him about it.

[Clara 76]

Sounds good, ascballerina. Let us know how it goes.

[Victoria Leigh]

A post was removed as it was posted by a YD 13-16 member.

[ascballerina]

As I wait for an appointment with the osteopath that will hopefully be sooner than early February, I just wanted to add a little more information.

 

I was describing the sensation to my mother (the slicing thing happened as I was bowling a few days ago), and she says that it's happened to her a lot, too, and always has. Could it be a genetic thing? It's just strange that no one's heard of it when clearly, I'm not the only person it happens to!

[Clara 76]

Does the pain feel like a snapping or electrical shock in your arch ever?

[ascballerina]

It's a very sharp pain, but not like either of those.

[Clara 76]

Is it in your arch?

[ascballerina]

Yes.

[Clara 76]

Aha! UNTIL you can get to a doctor for a diagnosis, look up plantar fascitis. If the diagnosis is a heel spur or plantar fascitis, there are some therapies that can alleviate the problem so you can get rid of it.

[ascballerina]

I looked it up. It does look a bit like it, but I have a few questions that the happily vague definitions aren't telling me, even in a few dance books I own.

 

First, it looks like for most people, this happens all the time. Mine happens in spurts--it'll bother me, then go away for a while, then come back again. Second thing: I never have trouble when I get out of bed, it's always when I'm running and not putting my heels down. Third thing, although I'm going to assume you've already answered this, I'll just clarify: they say the pain is usually in the heel, but my heels have never hurt, it's always in the arch. But since you asked if the pain was there in the first place, I'm just throwing that piece of information out there.

 

I'm also confused because one of the places I visited said that ice would stretch the plantar fascitis. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't ice prevent inflammation, and heat is what helps to stretch? (one of the reasons I rarely ice my muscles--I hate how they get into little hard knots after that I then spend forever working out)

[Clara 76]

I have plantar fascitis, and it comes and goes.

 

I wake up, and do not feel it.

 

I have never felt heel pain.

 

My doc did x-rays which is how I was diagnosed, but it has been awhile so there may be other ways docs do it now. As far as the treatment, for mine, I was told that tight hamstrings and calves will exascerbate my problem, so I am to do calf stretches/hamstring stretches/etc. daily. I was also given some foot-specific exercises, like doming, that I do daily. I was told to ice as well, but not to "stretch" the arch which ice will not do- but because ice is a natural antinflammatory, which will help shrink the surrounding tissue, thus helping alleviate the problem. I also have tennis b alls that I was taught to gently roll my feet on.

 

If someone were having issues with muscles tightening up into hard knots, then that would tell me the muscles need relaxation- not necessarily to be iced. I might try heat in that instance, as well as 2 tennis b alls taped together with duct tape, that I would roll my calves and hamstrings and even spine on!