Hi Roxie,

Do you know the name of what your heel problem is?

Could it be plantar fasciitis? If so, a podiatrist can make orthosis custom tailor made for your feet. With the orthosis/orthotics placed in correct shoes appropriate to your gait and posture, the pain of PF can be completely relieved.

If it is PF I would never concede to surgery. I think the conservative methods above work very well. I also found this link which altho' a surgical type procedure is less invasive: http://www.drfettinger.com/pdf/ESTWarticle.pdf

Steroid injections are not without risk as you can develop such things as steroid arthropathy, tendon rupture, septic arthritis etc.

Quite near where I live is a retail shoe shop run by podiatrists who assess ones gait, via filming posture and foot load etc walking and running on a treadmill. Once they have carefully looked at all the factors they then know what shoe is the correct one. They have never been wrong for me. I had very severe Plantar Fasciitis before going to them which cleared up once I had new orthosis/orthotics and new shoes. Unfortunately they don't have a full range of styles, mainly sports shoes....but the relief has been worth practically living all the time in sports shoes.