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Heel pain after COVID-19 vaccine
Five days before my first Covid 19 vaccine, after several hours of shopping and walking, I suddenly developed a bruised feeling under my right heel. Thinking it was from poorly fitting shoes, I next day switched to more padded and supportive shoes with a good arch support and gradually it began to subside. One hour after receiving my first vaccine shot, after sitting in my car all the hour, I stepped onto the parking lot to go shopping and felt the pain in my heel so strong that I couldn't walk! I sat down to stretch and massage my foot and then limped into the store to briefly shop. I lived very far away from any doctors, so wanted to stay close to the vaccine clinic for a while longer to make sure I had no serious side effects. For a few more days I researched causes of heel pain and called my doctor about it. I had guessed it was Plantar Fasciitis because the symptoms and relief from suggested therapies matched my own. My doctor suggested the vaccine caused inflammation and said to take tylenol if I needed it along with stretching, massage, icing and using arch supports. Two weeks after the second vaccine shot, along with intense self therapy, the pain is very gradually subsiding. It is very upsetting because I have never had any type of foot discomfort in my 72 years and some people in medical blogs said their intense discomfort wouldn't go away. Finally, yesterday I discovered wearing Nike Hyperdunk basketball sneakers with Heel the Pain inner soles completely eliminated the discomfort along with continuing the manual therapy. If it returns, I will visit my doctor. Is anyone else suffering from this condition and what is your story?
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The size runs large so you might order down a size. They are wide.
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1 ReactionHad my first shot noember 26th 2021 ie had pins and needles sensation in my left had and pain in my right heal since then it is now december 4th 2021.
I’m sorry you are having these symptoms but you’re not alone…I am commenting to say the same thing is happening to me and a medical provider I’m friends with. For perspective I’m 30, active and have never had any trouble in the past with my Achilles. We’re both a little over 3 months out from vaccine. She got J and J and I got the Pfizer vaccine (I started showing the symptoms I’m posting about directly after first injection so didn’t get the second). Both of us have Insertional Achilles Tendinitis and like you neither of us have ever had trouble with our Achilles. On top of my Achilles pain, I’m also still having tightness of chest/sharp pains every now and then in the upper chest and I will get tingling in my hands and feet occasionally. (Needless to say these also didn’t start until after the vaccine.)
I’m currently experiencing the same thing a week after my second dose of the vaccine. I’m not on my feet that much to have pain like this in my right heel and what made me look this is up; it was weird that it was only one foot in one spot.
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2 Reactionscurious if you got the booster? debating it.
I am still having pain in my heels and feet-so I have the same worry. I also did have swollen lymph nodes in arm pit area for a few weeks after both doses-but nothing since then.
I am kinda iffy on the whole PF thing- I have found that I do much better wearing the barefoot shoes and actually in my heeled boots and dress shoes-my cooshy shoes bother me the worst-pain is almost immediate.
Had the Moderna booster on 12/23. Can barely tolerate the burning/aching pain in both my ankles and heals...almost intolerable to walk. No injury or previous problems with my feet!
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1 ReactionI am an active 64 woman with no prior health issues .I had the 2 Pfizer shots in 2021 and did not have any side effects. However In December 2021 I had the booster shot and the next morning could not walk on my left foot. I ended up having a superficial blood clot . My doctor recommended Advil and it eventually went away. However now, both of my ankle and feet hurt terribly when I walk. Every night I have pins and needles and numbness in my feet. The feeling is as if my feet “fell asleep”. I can not walk long distances without any pain. I never had this kind of ankle pain and have associated with a reaction to the booster. I am seeing a foot & ankle doctor next week. This is very concerning to me since I love to walk everywhere and now feel constant ankle and foot pain.
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1 ReactionThe Hoka recovery sandals are THE BEST! I've had plantar fasciitis in my left foot for decades, so I have researched and tried just about everything available. Vionic slippers and flip-flops are also quite good (their closed-toe shoes aren't as good). Vionic's have high arch support, but not as much cushioning as the Hokas. I aleady owned Hoka athletic shoes and hiking boots, so I got a pair of the sandals this summer and they are my exclusive indoor shoe.
The run impossibly wide and are truly hideous, but I don't wear them outside the house. I can wear thick, wool socks with them in the winter because they're so wide.
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1 ReactionI've had terrible foot pain for the past few days in my right foot starting on the side of my foot just below my ankle bone, radiating a bit into my arch. That starts just a few hours after going to bed. The second night it happened, I wasn't even asleep. I had just been lying in bed watching videos.
It's so painful, I can't put weight on it at all. I had my partner get me some crutches this morning. It does subside throughout the day with ibuprofen and ice. Yesterday, it was gone completely after about 12 hours, but it came back again in the night.
It never occurred to me that it could be a vaccine side effect until today when I talked to someone else who had that happen out of the blue. I got the Moderna booster on 12/11. I was very sick for about 3 days (migraine and couldn't eat because I as so nauseous). I also had sore lymph nodes. I had a slightly less severe reaction to Moderna shot #2 (sick just 25 hours) and zero reaction to shot #1 (except a sore arm).
I've had plantar fasciitis (PF) in my left foot for 30 years, and have done copious amounts of research (and treatments) for PF over the years. I know this new pain in my right foot is absolutely not PF. This new pain is even worse than PF, but then subsides dramatically after a few hours.
Even before it occured to me today that this new foot pain might be a vaccine side effect, I had concluded that it was vascular, though I've never had any vascular issues in my life.
Now that I've read a lot posts on this topic, it makes me wonder if a vaccine side effect is also responsible for terrible pain in both my thumbs. My doctor concluded that it was from computer over-use (definitely a possibility), but it didn't happen until just after I got shot #2 and it happened overnight. My right thumb hurt so much, I couldn't turn a faucet or open tube of mascara without shooting pain. The left thumb pain started about two weeks later. It came on suddenly — no slow ramp-up of symptoms (as you would expect with tendonitis from over-use injuries).
In fact, I thought for a month that maybe I had sprained my right thumb and somehow didn't know when it happened (as crazy as that sounds). It wasn't until I started searching for a brace online that I thought it *could* be arthritis, but an X-ray didn't suggest that I have enough bone deterioration for that to be the case, making the sudden thumb joint pain a mystery. I still sleep with braces on both thumbs, but they have caused me a lot of pain going on eight months now.
Sorry for the long-winded post! If anyone has ideas (pro or con), I’m open to hearing them.
Are you still experiencing foot and ankle pain? As mentioned my booster was in December and the following day I could hardly walk. I also have had PF but this pain in the ankles is kind of similar when I walk. My feet go numb at night time when I am in bed and in the morning. I often wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom and have to make sure the tingling in my feet subside so that I do not fall. I pray this will go away since I love to walk everywhere! I am curious how many other people have had this reaction and if so, how they are now?