Plantar Fasciitis

[DonnieG]

Unfortunately, I am something of an expert on this condition. I have had it on and off for twenty years.

Therapy wise, do the following:

1. Stretch: lots of stretches, and the main one that can help is to sit on the bed or floor, grab your big toe, and pull back. You can also wrap a towel around your foot, grab the ends and pull the top of your foot towards your body.

2. Ice: it will help with inflammation. Secret about ice: when using ice, when you remove the ice feel your skin. Your skin should feel like an ice cube. If you can't make the skin feel like ice, then you are not getting to the problem. Make sense? Ten minutes on one foot, then ten on the other, etc.

These may help with your condition, but they won't come close to helping your body heal itself. The number one thing you can do is buy "space boots". Google "plantar fasciitis night boots" or something like that, and you will see lots of pictures and prices. What these boots do is keep your foot in a neutral position while you sleep. When we sleep, the adrenal glands go off line to regenerate. (Ever notice how you swell up at night, and with this condition you sometimes have to crawl around on the floor in the morning? Get the boots and stop this.) These glands work during the day and keep us from swelling so much, but they recharge when the rest of the body does. So, at night, with your feet in other than a neutral position, the swelling and inflammation greatly increase.

What you have are thousands of micro tears in the tissue. By keeping the feet in a neutral position you reduce the stress on your feet, allowing healing to take place. I have had to wear boots twice, and each time I wore them for EIGHTEEN MONTHS!!!!!!!!!

They also work great for sprained ankles: keep your foot in a neutral position, and it helps in healing. By the way, neutral means with the foot at a ninety angle from the lower leg, like standing straight up.

Additionally, you may need custom orthotics: I have been wearing them for fifteen years or more.

I have had cortisone injections, which didn't work for me. Nothing worked but the boots.

Donnie

[Aways2Go]

Just stumbled across this post. I developed a case of this many years ago, sort of out of the blue. I couldn't figure out why I would wake up in the morning and for the first 5 or 10 minutes I couldn't hardly walk - a bad thing when the dog is frantically whining to be let outside, and I was hobbling around just trying to get to the door.

Turns out my case was being caused by a change in footwear - it was summer, and I had started wearing a pair of loafer type shoes almost daily (boat shoes, docksides, topsiders, whatever you call them) that had nearly no arch support.

Once a sports medicine buddy pointed out my recent change in shoes, I immediately switched to tennis shoes with a lot of arch support, did some stretching of my feet throughout the day and in the evening, and in a few weeks it went away and I haven't had it since. I also picked up some shoe inserts and put in all my shoes that I wore regularly - decent ones that ran about $20 a pair. Seems like I got one pair at a medical supply type store and then found very similar ones at a good shoe store.

Hope I never get that again - what a pain, literally and figuratively!

[Kntrylady]

I guess it makes sense that so many of us have dealt with this since our weight can be a main aggravation.

I was surprised that Donnie was the only one that mentioned stretching. The first time I had problems I was working where I had to stand in one place alot. The Dr told me that the pain is caused by the tendon shortening, and then re-stretching it. That's why first thing in the morning, after the tendons have shortened up a bit, you can hardly stand. Also, the ice help reduce the inflammation from re-stretching the tendons.

My Dr suggested stretching every hour or so, by placing a board (a 4x6x12" works or even a couple of hardback books) flat on the ground, putting the balls on my feet on the board and dropping my heels off the back. It took about two weeks for all the symptoms to go away. But tell you what.... if I don't continue to stretch at least a couple times a week now, I start getting twinges to remind me again.

[blueberrylady]

I suffered with bone spurs in my heels for twenty years and nothing I tried worked until I met a reflexologist at a party. I was desparate so I made an appointment with her and after just 3 treatments of ice, massage and readjustments, the pain went away and I haven't had any problem since! And that was about 8 years ago!