IBJI Blog

Why Do Your Feet Hurt?

While your feet are a small part of your body, they are required to support your entire body weight and allow you to move freely. Not only are your feet incredibly strong, they are also a very complicated structure of 33 joints comprised of 20 bones all attached by many tiny muscles and tendons. When one part of this complex system is damaged by injury, disease, or inflammation it can cause pain that ranges from annoying to horribly debilitating. There are many potential reasons for you to be experiencing pain in your feet, or even in just one foot. These common cause of foot pain include:

• Bunions – An inflamed lump on the bottom of the big toe, usually caused by shoes that are too narrow.
• Flat feet or falling arches – The arch of the foot is no longer present when standing.
• Corns and warts – A thickening of the skin or sores on the soles of feet from rubbing or pressure.
• Hammer toes – Toes that almost look like claws because they curl downward.
• Arthritis – A rheumatic disease with many causes.
• Break & fractures – Traumatic injury as well as stress from weight or normal movement.
• Bursitis – An inflammation in a fluid filled sac that is between the tendons and the skin.
• Gout – Increases in the uric acid in the blood causing joint inflammation.
• Plantar Fasciitis – The thicker tissue on the bottom of a foot become inflamed.
• Sprains & strains – Over stretched or pulled ligaments in one of the foot’s joint.
• Tendinitis – Inflammation that occurs on one of the tendons.

Dr. Amy Jo Ptaszek, an IBJI physician who specializes in foot and ankle care, has been asked by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, headquartered in Rosemont, IL, to author a book chapter on Talus Fractures and Reconstruction. The book is expected to be published in 2008 and will serve as reference for physicians and surgeons. She has also recently published two articles, titled “Calcaneus Malunion and Nonunion” and “The Infected Calcaneus” in Foot and Ankle Clinics 2007, a professional journal for medical providers. In addition to caring for patients in her Glenview and Wilmette offices, Dr. Ptaszek is the orthopaedic foot and ankle consultant for the Athletic Department of Northwestern University. (Go Wildcats!) She has recently achieved recertification by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgeons, effective through the year 2019.