Heel injury

[Teaching3bears]

My son hurt his heel while running the other day.  He can still walk but it hurts him.  He is only limping slightly.   It got a bit better after the second day but it still hurts.  Today he says the other heel hurts.  The first heel looks slightly bigger.  I am waiting for the nurse to call me back.  What is likely wrong?  

[Harriet Vane]

I wonder about a torn tendon or ligament? Another option is a stress fracture, but that seems less likely. The third option is plantar fascitis--does his pain improve with stretching his calves?

[Teaching3bears]

He said it improved a bit for a couple of minutes.  It is the back of his heel.  It seems to hurt when he puts his sock on. 

[plansrme]

Google Sever's Disease and see if that matches. The 12 yo is the right age for it. Girl gymnasts tend to get it at 11. The treatment is (at least used to be) something called a Tuli cheetah, essentially a heel cup. The cheetah means it is on a sock of sorts so you can wear it barefoot (important for gymnasts, of course), but it can also be used to hold the cup in place when he is wearing flip-flops, crocs or barefoot around the house. If it is Sever's, it will go away eventually, but the Tuli can let him keep running.

[Farrar]

At one point, my kid had a mystery foot injury that hurt in his heel. He'd done so little to get it! We finally concluded with a nurse friend that it was a deep bruise that wasn't very visible? Basically, painful for just a day or two and very tender, but nothing else wrong.

[Ali in OR]

My youngest had Sever's when she was in 7th grade--caused by lots of running during a growth spurt. She was doing cross country and soccer and was just starting to grow fast. She did PT for awhile as it was affecting her gait, and she wore the heel cups in her soccer cleats.

[Teaching3bears]

I had never heard of Sever’s.  He is 15.  Could he still have it?