My heels won't stop itching. Help!

August 23, 2022 10:33 AM

For several months, my heels have itched terribly and deep inside my skin. The skin looks perfectly normal.

It happens most often at night and, at times, it will literally wake me from my sleep. It feels like the itch is coming from inside my skin. Scratching doesn't help. I have to rub my foot on the carpet to get deep enough to stop the itch. Of course, this hurts my skin and practically causes rug burn. It is starting to affect my quality of life.

I've been to several doctors, but I just keep getting passed to someone else:
- General practitioner says I am healthy. We've ruled out diabetes.
- Podiatrist said everything looks normal, referred me to a neurologist
- Neurological report came back clean. She also ran a full blood panel, and everything looks good.
- I have a dermatologist appointment in September, but the receptionist (rather unhelpfully) told me if I don't have a rash, there's nothing the dermatologist can do, so I don't have high hopes

I know You Are Not My Doctor, but I'm desperate. Any thoughts on what this could be?

posted by pear to Health & Fitness (11 answers total)

I have this in my palms and it's related to nerve irritation brought on by bulging discs in my neck. Maybe something similar is happening somewhere along your spine?
posted by _Mona_ at 11:25 AM on August 23, 2022 [1 favorite]

As someone who's had both, seconding that it sounds more like a nerve issue rather than a skin one. Diabetes isn't the only cause of neuropathy/nerve irritation, although it's one of the most common. Is it feasible to get a second opinion from a different neurologist?
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:35 AM on August 23, 2022 [4 favorites]

Consider a fungal issue like athlete's foot.
posted by answergrape at 11:58 AM on August 23, 2022 [3 favorites]

Your description of it waking you from sleep made me think of restless leg syndrome. Itching sensation is listed as a symptom; if that hasn’t been investigated as a diagnosis, it might be worth looking in to. The above link also lists related disorders, which might be useful as well.
posted by bluloo at 12:56 PM on August 23, 2022 [4 favorites]

I have this on my back due to some spinal nerve compression, even though the itchy spot isn't near my spine. My dermatologist recommended lidocaine anesthetic skin cream to numb the itch.
posted by SageTrail at 3:35 PM on August 23, 2022

Seconding restless leg syndrome!
posted by banjonaut at 3:55 PM on August 23, 2022

Neuropathy is also a side effect of some prescription drugs. If you're on any maintenance medications, this should already have come up with your GP, but it can't hurt to google the side effects of your prescriptions.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 5:08 PM on August 23, 2022

This is how Athletes foot acts on my feet. I don't get the typical peeling or obvious symptoms just deep burning/itching on my soles. If nothing else fungal cream is cheap and won't hurt to try while waiting to see the dermatologist mine was deep in the thick skin on my heels so took a couple of few weeks for it to really start working.
posted by wwax at 5:45 PM on August 23, 2022 [2 favorites]

I have had something similar for about 10 years. Inside of both feet near my ankle bones. If I run very, very hot water, the hottest water I can stand over them for about 10 seconds it takes the itch away for hours. This probably dangerous and I’m sure somehow I’m doing permanent damage but dang that persistent itch is hard to take.
posted by tayknight at 7:28 PM on August 23, 2022

I have had this, and it's worse if my heel callous is built up. To be fair my heels are gnaaaarly, I'm basically a feral child, and keeping somewhat up with a PedEgg or a heel pumice in the shower prevents cracking and the itching. I do suspect it's fungal just because it's feet, but I've never been able to visually say "yeah, that there looks like fungus".

I also do a foot peel once or twice a year.

I absolutely recognize the intense basically-unscratchable panic-type itch, and I finally got serious about the exfoliation when the itch hit me when I was driving and I had to pull over. I've also torn bedsheets in my sleep trying to scratch it.
posted by Lyn Never at 7:13 AM on August 24, 2022

I have this intermittently, and also find that doing some even vaguely regularly-scheduled foot peeling and/or exfoliating via pumice stone seems to help. I also have a steroid cream prescribed for eczema on my legs that I will use if the tops of my feet have this kind of really terrible itch, and that seems to help. (Doesn't seem as useful on the heels, which I'm guessing is part of that "gnarly heeled feral bog witch" vibe I too am rocking.)

Short-term sensory distraction can do a lot of good here - hold an ice cube there, spray some of that cooling gold bond foot powder stuff, hell, maybe some capsaicin cream would be worth a try.
posted by Stacey at 8:16 AM on August 24, 2022 [1 favorite]