Your alarm goes off and you don't even need to hit snooze!  You hop right out of bed but as soon as your foot hits the floor you let out an "OWWWWW!"  There is a sharp pain on the bottom of your foot, right near your heel, that makes you jerk your foot up off the floor and want to crawl back into bed!  Finally, you work up the courage to put your foot back down and now, more gingerly, you hobble across the floor to start your day. What could possibly cause such a sharp pain?  What can you do to get rid of it?

Pain directly underneath where the big toe is attached to the foot can be very painful and cause you to avoid shifting your weight properly, leading to many other issues.  Or, even if you can shift your weight, it can be almost impossible to push-off to take you next step.  Some people complain that it feels as though a tiny rock is in their shoe while others need to employ a significant 'limp' to make it across the room.  So what caused this pain and are you going to be stuck with it?

You are running full speed, you plant your foot to cut left and spin around a defender…when you feel that pain on the outside of your ankle that stops you from taking another step.  Or, maybe you were walking across the room and tripped on the carpet.  Either way, you’ve sprained your ankle and…it hurts (but you already knew that!)  Keep in mind that swelling is not necessarily a good indicator of how badly your sprain is, so don’t focus too much on it.