When should you go to the doctor for a foot injury?

Dr. Anthony Spitz, DPM

Podiatrist & Ankle and Foot Surgeon located in Wheeling, IL

One of the key missions for our practice is to help you and your family stay healthy and active by providing exceptional foot care services.

A big part of this is providing treatment for foot and ankle sports injuries.

These kinds of injuries tend to be rather common, due to the fact your feet and ankles are used so much in most athletic activities – even those which aren’t necessarily competitive in nature.

No matter whether your daughter gives her best effort on the court to help her volleyball team win a tournament or your spouse goes jogging every morning, we want everyone in your family to have the ability to perform their favorite activities.

Because injuries do happen, it’s wise to know when to see a doctor for treatment. More than that, it can also be quite beneficial to understand what kind of treatment options are available.

Dr. Spitz has helped many patients from our Wheeling community find relief from painful symptoms and get back to their normal activities. If you or a family member has suffered a foot or ankle sports injury, come see us for proper diagnosis and care!

Of course, for that to happen, you need to know when to reach out.

How do you know when to seek professional care for a foot injury?

Many times, it is fairly self-evident when you should contact a doctor’s office for injuries and other medical concerns.

In the case of foot and ankle injuries, a key indicator is typically pain.

Obviously, it’s better to not be in pain, but feeling it can actually be a good sign. After all, this is how your body alerts you to the fact something is wrong.

And if you know there’s a problem, you can take measures to keep it from becoming worse.

With sports injuries, the type of pain—and when it’s experienced—can help us diagnose the condition.

Generally, pain is either sharp or dull, and acute or chronic.

Before going further ahead, it’s important to note that pain and soreness are not the same.

Being a little sore following a workout or after going for a run is pretty normal, especially if you haven’t been active for some time or you really pushed yourself.

If you are simply sore and it goes away after a day (or maybe two), it probably isn’t necessary to call our office.

That being said, if you have dull pain that always comes with physical activity—and particularly if it is becoming more severe over time—you may have an injury and should come in for an office visit.

In addition to dull, chronic pain, it’s possible that you have sharp pain caused by a specific incident (like rolling an ankle on a basketball court or hyperextending a big toe while playing soccer). In this case, you’ve likely sustained an acute injury.

As a rule of thumb, if you have pain (sharp or dull, acute or chronic) in a lower limb that can be attributed to physical activity, the time is right to seek professional care.

What kinds of foot and ankle sports injuries are there?

Between the complexities of feet and ankle joints and the amount of physical activities humans do, there are many possible injuries.

Naturally, all are not as equally likely to happen.

As we consider common foot and ankle injuries, we’re looking at things like:

Heel pain

Sprains and strains

Fractures

Ankle injuries

If you have pain in a foot or ankle that doesn’t seem to fall in any of those categories, please don’t hesitate to contact us and schedule an appointment!

How can we help you recover from a sports injury?

Now that you’re getting a better understanding of when to seek professional care and the kinds of possible foot and ankle injuries, let’s start discussing what can be done to get you and your family back in the game!

As you might expect, the first step here (after you’ve scheduled and are here for your appointment) is to determine what kind of foot injury you have.

The good news in this regard is that we have decades of experience in diagnosing and treating all kinds of foot and ankle conditions!

We use this experience to provide you with an accurate diagnosis and customized treatment plan.

At our Wheeling office, we are pleased to have many treatment options for you, including:

Conservative care

Custom orthotic therapy

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) treatment

Stem cell therapy

If you want to learn more about any of those options, simply click the link and you will be taken to the appropriate page!

Also, those are only some of the treatments available at our practice. We may recommend additional options for you (after diagnosing your foot or ankle injury).