A couple of months ago, out of basically nowhere, I developed heel pain in one foot. I'm not a runner or anything similar - in fact, I don't do nearly enough exercise at the moment. It seemed to be triggered initially by running around in the garden with my son. Was a bit sore, then went away. Then I went away for a city break and did a lot of walking, and it was horrendous - I could hardly put my foot on the floor by the end of the day.
Since then, it hasn't been quite so acute, but it generally seems to be getting worse - it's basically just painful to stand or walk, and I can even feel it just lying in bed and moving my foot. My heel feels very slightly swollen and firm to the touch, but there's no redness or specific lump. No pain from mid foot forwards. Main pain is on base of heel at the back and sides.
I wear mostly sensible shoes, always now wear supportive slippers in the house, have tried stretching, spiky roller etc. Wear shoe supports and have now added gel pads. Nothing seems to make a blind bit of difference. I'm despairing a bit now - although I'm not a runner etc, I love to walk, but at the moment even a few hundred yards is really painful.
What do I do? Podiatrist as first step??