Have you had heel spur(s)?

I had them long time ago on both heels. Was told to always wear at least a one inch heel, no flat shoes. They don't bother me anymore and I can wear whatever shoes I want now.

I had a heel spur for many years, it made walking first thing in the morning, more of a hop and limp. lol They x-rayed my foot, and yep, there was a little spur of bone. My doc said that surgery to remove it would only cause scar tissue to build up in the area and be painful, so trading one pain for another. He suggested I start wearing Birkenstock sandals, and they were a miracle for me. I wore them faithfully as soon as I got out of bed in the morning and it helped wonders. I still wear them around the house, and outside in the summer. The arch support is the real key. I have since had ankle surgery for another matter, and still the birkenstocks help with that too. I have fallen arches, so I really need the support. They are not cheap, but I have NO PAIN from the bone spur anymore, and it's probably been 15 years.

I had for heel spurs. Two were underneath and two were in the back where the Achilles attaches. Sitting down even for a few minutes would cause them to tighten back up and I would have to limp for a while before I could walk. My greatest fear in life is that somebody would run into me with a grocery cart. I wore no shoes with backs except for tennis shoes and then only when I had to. I couldn't run, I couldn't walk up and down steep slopes, I couldn't even climb the bleachers to watch my daughter play basketball.

We tried medication and physical therapy. I finally had surgery to have the heel spurs removed. I was told by some that surgery was a bad idea because it would never last. However, it has been nearly 20 years and all is still good.

I finally decided to have the surgery after having a dream in which I was running on a beach. It was such a beautiful dream and I woke up with tears running down my face because I knew there was no way I could run on the beach with my feet as they were.

If you ladies have any tips for how you dealt with the PF, I would love to pass them on to my friend.  She has been dealing with it for a while now and wears a boot. 

Although I also used a night splint (boot) for a while after the diagnosis, I basically went straight to custom orthotics.  (I'm guessing we went for that because the reason I was in the podiatrist's office at all is because I literally collapsed from the pain one morning and needed to use both walls of the hall to hold me up and avoid face planting on the carpet.)

The downside is that they're expensive if not covered by your insurance.  Like I think the bill was around $700, and that was before 2008.  It can also be hard to find shoes to wear with them because they do change how the shoes fit.  

But I have almost no pain anymore.  (It sometimes flares up if I go barefoot for an extended period of time, or if I do a workout barefoot, but it quickly fixes itself when I get shoes back on.)  And I don't have to wear the night splint anymore.

My doctor also gave me some stretching exercises that I could do and other tips (like a frozen water bottle), but the "cure" was the orthotics.

ETA:  when we x-rayed, the doctor was surprised to see just how flat my feet really are.  Like, you can tell by the angle of some bones in the arch or something, and my angle was like zero or whatever is really low.  The orthotics basically force your foot into a certain position, so I don't know whether the shape/angle of your arch impacts the treatment.  

I had a bone spur on my heel years ago. I wound up having a steroid shot in my heel and it got much better and I was pain-free for about 18 months. Then it got painful again and I went and had another steroid shot about 18 months later. That seemed to do the trick for me and I haven't had another problem since. That was about 12 or 13 years ago.