I have severe pain in my heel as well as numbing. It’s a deep shooting pain and feels like it is in the heel bone itself. After being off my feet for any length of time and then standing or walking on it increases the pain. The pain diminishes after being on my feet for awhile, not sure if that is because of the numbness or not. What could it be?

It sounds like a number of things could be going on with your heel. Your symptoms could simply be from a minor bruise of the heel in which rest and icing would help improve your symptoms.

However, if it is a chronic painful heel, you could have developed some tendonitis or plantar fasciitis (a inflammatory and degenerative disease of the bones/tendons of the soles of your feet caused by repetitive stress). Both these conditions can be treated with rest and ibuprofen. In severest of cases, corticosteroids can be directly injected to lessen the inflammation.

Lastly, another cause of heel pain could be achilles tendonitis which is caused by increased and repeated stress on your achilles tendon; it is treated by avoiding activity that aggravates your achilles tendon such as walking up stairs and ibuprofen.

Try conservative measures such as staying off your feet when possible, wearing more sensible shoes, investing in some insoles with heel pads and arch support. If the pain worsens or does not improve and/or affects your daily routine, then a visit to an orthopedist or podiatrist is warranted.