Plantar fasciitis and exercise machine
- Thread starter amirm
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It was the worse pain I have ever had. Worse getting out of bed and first steps upright. Hard to take a whizz 
at night without the pain
Thank goodness mine resolved with a single shot of steroid and local anesthetic. I have seen Ron Party through the worst of his and it disabled him for many, many months
at night without the painThank goodness mine resolved with a single shot of steroid and local anesthetic. I have seen Ron Party through the worst of his and it disabled him for many, many months
I'm a fairly tough guy, and I was CRIPPLED by plantar fasciitis. It is impossible to avoid the pain if you wish to move. Walk on the heel and feel the pain of pressure on the injury. Try to walk tiptoe (to avoid putting weight on the heel) and you strain the fascia, getting the same pain anyway! Pain scale = worst pain I ever had.
The boot keeps your ankle flexed so that the fascia is gently stretched all night. The morning acute pain is caused by shortening of the fascia as it attempts to contract and heal. The boot allows it to heal without excessive shortening.
Some folks do have to combine several of the abovementioned therapies/solutions to get relief. I got the cortisone/marcaine shot and got some relief for a few days, but also got a hemorrhage at the injection site when the podiatrist hit a vessel.
One trick that always provided relief was rolling my foot over a frozen water bottle. The curvature of the bottle conforms to the bottom of your foot nicely, and reduces swelling.
Lee
The boot keeps your ankle flexed so that the fascia is gently stretched all night. The morning acute pain is caused by shortening of the fascia as it attempts to contract and heal. The boot allows it to heal without excessive shortening.
Some folks do have to combine several of the abovementioned therapies/solutions to get relief. I got the cortisone/marcaine shot and got some relief for a few days, but also got a hemorrhage at the injection site when the podiatrist hit a vessel.
One trick that always provided relief was rolling my foot over a frozen water bottle. The curvature of the bottle conforms to the bottom of your foot nicely, and reduces swelling.
Lee
Hope you never suffer from sciatica. Couldn't walk more than 50 ft w/o being doubled over in agony. Never want to go thru that again but haven't given up my O-Lifting either
And your wife will think your so sexy in bed. NOT. Get a Strassburg sock.
Absolutely. This provides a great amount of relief. Beautiful thing about this is that if you're ever away from home overnight or on vacation, you can make one of these in just a couple of hours.
"Honey, is that your boot or are you just happy to see me?"
"I'm not wearing the boot, dear...."
Lee
I saw a podiatrist. He tried injections first. After that did not offer a permanent solution,he made a cast of my foot. Custom orthotics solved the problem. My condition started after a trip to Las Vegas during which I did a lot of walking in some shoes with poor arch support. That's been 4 years ago. As long as I wear the inserts, the problem never reappears. My inserts are hard fiberglass with a leather covering.
I've had PF 5 or 6 times over the last 20 years. Can be more painful and take longer to rehab than the two knee injuries/surgeries I've had. Have usually been able to bike with it . I'm a runner and played a lot of basketball. Strangely perhaps, I've found it crops up in periods of inactivity -- for some reason or another I'm not running or exercising as much and I'll start to feel it. I stretch my calves more when I am running regularly which is probably part of it. I also suspect that running helps keep the the muscles/tendons in my feet stretched and promotes blood flow thru them; but that's a layperson guess. I have spurs in both feet now, but they generally don't bother me. Just got over my last bout in December, took about six months and a couple of shots. Some things:
If you wake up with heel soreness/tightness, a night splint is essential. I've gone thru many, this is my favorite at the moment: http://www.darcointernational.com/nightsplints/pneumatic-night-splint it has pneumatic adjustment to increase the angle of stretch. Only caveat is to be careful walking with it, the air bladder under the ball of the foot can pop. It's more comfortable than some of the ones w/hard plastic, and the thin straps on some of those can impede circulation. The Strassborg sock I tried favors stretching the ball of the foot more than the heel -- as my pain is always heel based, it doesn't work well for me. But yes, my wife has found all iterations of boot and sock very sexy
Regular calf stretching helps. Best stretch is not to put the ball of your foot against the wall, rather your foot should be out from the wall, heel flat, then you lean against the wall. Going up your leg and back should be roughly a straight line. 4- 5 times a day, 5 reps of 30 secs, though there is some evidence that more reps in shorter durations works better, more stretching and releasing of the tendon. Some PF suffers angle a board on a brick and stand on that for periods of time. The slightest hint of a twinge now, and I up my stretching regimen.
I've had leather custom orthotics for fifteen years, they help and have been remarkably resilient. More comfortable than hard plastic ones too. The best OTC orthotic I've used for higher arches is this: https://plus37.safe-order.net/cgi-heelspurs/a/b.cgi?p=pin I either have this or my leather ones in every shoe I wear, other than sandals. For that, I have a pair of Tevas that have a very prominent and solid arch support. BTW, heelspurs.com is a great source for info. Don't ya just love the internet?
Possibly worth checking is your stride. I have med/high arches and actually mildly underpronate, so first suggestion way back when of a more stable, motion control oriented shoe was off for me. A more neutral shoe (and/or insert) that allows my foot to roll naturally is better. There is a school of thought, barefoot running, et. al., that shoes have gotten too supportive and this promotes the weakening of foot and surrounding muscles in a way that can lead to injury. Shoes like Vibram's 'Five Fingers' and to a lesser extent, Nike Frees, work on this notion. I wear Frees quite a bit now (with my orthotics) -- they are extremely flexible and you can feel them working your calves among other things.
Rolling on a golf ball or ice cylinder can help, ice after activity or even the stretching can too. Best is immersion in ice water, more convenient is a bag of frozen corn or peas.
I've had four shots total as a last resort. Three worked, brought me back to zero. They are painful, but over in a minute. For reference, I've often skipped novocaine at the dentist. I had two shots last year for my latest bout, the first, from an orthopedist, didn't take. The second shot, which pretty much ended this last bout was directed with a sonic imaging device. My podiatrist (I have an excellent one in NYC and he's got a much better handle on PF than orthopedists I've seen) said it allowed him to use a weaker dose than what the orthopedist used. Had this shot not worked I likely would have tried shockwave.
Aside from the pain and associated disability, the most frustrating thing is the mysterious nature of it. A treatment that works for one bout doesn't help the next. I think all the things I've done to get rid of it have helped, but it also seems to just leave when it's done with you. And though I have some suspicions, it's appearance rarely coincides with any obvious cause.
If you wake up with heel soreness/tightness, a night splint is essential. I've gone thru many, this is my favorite at the moment: http://www.darcointernational.com/nightsplints/pneumatic-night-splint it has pneumatic adjustment to increase the angle of stretch. Only caveat is to be careful walking with it, the air bladder under the ball of the foot can pop. It's more comfortable than some of the ones w/hard plastic, and the thin straps on some of those can impede circulation. The Strassborg sock I tried favors stretching the ball of the foot more than the heel -- as my pain is always heel based, it doesn't work well for me. But yes, my wife has found all iterations of boot and sock very sexy
Regular calf stretching helps. Best stretch is not to put the ball of your foot against the wall, rather your foot should be out from the wall, heel flat, then you lean against the wall. Going up your leg and back should be roughly a straight line. 4- 5 times a day, 5 reps of 30 secs, though there is some evidence that more reps in shorter durations works better, more stretching and releasing of the tendon. Some PF suffers angle a board on a brick and stand on that for periods of time. The slightest hint of a twinge now, and I up my stretching regimen.
I've had leather custom orthotics for fifteen years, they help and have been remarkably resilient. More comfortable than hard plastic ones too. The best OTC orthotic I've used for higher arches is this: https://plus37.safe-order.net/cgi-heelspurs/a/b.cgi?p=pin I either have this or my leather ones in every shoe I wear, other than sandals. For that, I have a pair of Tevas that have a very prominent and solid arch support. BTW, heelspurs.com is a great source for info. Don't ya just love the internet?
Possibly worth checking is your stride. I have med/high arches and actually mildly underpronate, so first suggestion way back when of a more stable, motion control oriented shoe was off for me. A more neutral shoe (and/or insert) that allows my foot to roll naturally is better. There is a school of thought, barefoot running, et. al., that shoes have gotten too supportive and this promotes the weakening of foot and surrounding muscles in a way that can lead to injury. Shoes like Vibram's 'Five Fingers' and to a lesser extent, Nike Frees, work on this notion. I wear Frees quite a bit now (with my orthotics) -- they are extremely flexible and you can feel them working your calves among other things.
Rolling on a golf ball or ice cylinder can help, ice after activity or even the stretching can too. Best is immersion in ice water, more convenient is a bag of frozen corn or peas.
I've had four shots total as a last resort. Three worked, brought me back to zero. They are painful, but over in a minute. For reference, I've often skipped novocaine at the dentist. I had two shots last year for my latest bout, the first, from an orthopedist, didn't take. The second shot, which pretty much ended this last bout was directed with a sonic imaging device. My podiatrist (I have an excellent one in NYC and he's got a much better handle on PF than orthopedists I've seen) said it allowed him to use a weaker dose than what the orthopedist used. Had this shot not worked I likely would have tried shockwave.
Aside from the pain and associated disability, the most frustrating thing is the mysterious nature of it. A treatment that works for one bout doesn't help the next. I think all the things I've done to get rid of it have helped, but it also seems to just leave when it's done with you. And though I have some suspicions, it's appearance rarely coincides with any obvious cause.
Thanks for the continued comments guys. I am trying to integrate them for one answer and as was just mentioned, seems like that is not a possibility.
What is remarkable is what a high percentage of the members have this problem, yet, until I was diagnosed with it, I had never heard of it!
What is remarkable is what a high percentage of the members have this problem, yet, until I was diagnosed with it, I had never heard of it!
I guess you need to start working out some more Amir
One thing for certain, in reading all of the posts by people (myself included) who have or had plantar fasciitis is the common demoninator of being the worst pain we have ever had
Hope you're over it; inexplicably forgot to add the most helpful thing for me over the years, and that is daily taping.
You can find a lot of methods on the net, what works for me is running two strips of adhesive or surgical tape (2" wide, can be tough to find; I get it from my podiatrist) along the bottom of my foot. Both strips originate under the heel, but gently fan out so that most of the front of the foot up to the toes gets covered. The ankle is bent on application so that the arch is stretched at that time. Next step is four or five 'u' shaped 'bridge' straps that go under the foot and curl up and over the top a bit. They start at about the midpoint of the heel, and overlap a 1/2" or so going forward under the arch. My pain is usually at the forward part of my heel, so I put another strap there, and another just forward of that w/overlap reinforcing the under arch area. My podiatrist will wrap some thin foam around my foot before doing this, and then put some longitudinal straps of the top of my foot covering the ends of the 'u' bridges. I skip this as I'm used to it w/o. Don't know if any of this makes sense.
Bottom line though is that it takes moment to moment, step to step stress off your tendon allowing it to heal much faster. As a practiced hand, the taping takes me about 5 min. in the morning. Again, the most consistently helpful thing I've found.
You can find a lot of methods on the net, what works for me is running two strips of adhesive or surgical tape (2" wide, can be tough to find; I get it from my podiatrist) along the bottom of my foot. Both strips originate under the heel, but gently fan out so that most of the front of the foot up to the toes gets covered. The ankle is bent on application so that the arch is stretched at that time. Next step is four or five 'u' shaped 'bridge' straps that go under the foot and curl up and over the top a bit. They start at about the midpoint of the heel, and overlap a 1/2" or so going forward under the arch. My pain is usually at the forward part of my heel, so I put another strap there, and another just forward of that w/overlap reinforcing the under arch area. My podiatrist will wrap some thin foam around my foot before doing this, and then put some longitudinal straps of the top of my foot covering the ends of the 'u' bridges. I skip this as I'm used to it w/o. Don't know if any of this makes sense.
Bottom line though is that it takes moment to moment, step to step stress off your tendon allowing it to heal much faster. As a practiced hand, the taping takes me about 5 min. in the morning. Again, the most consistently helpful thing I've found.
Sounds similar to the low dye taping method, which I also tried amongst the many conservative measures before I had surgery:
I tried various shoes which supposedly were the best for arch support, but I never tried a shoe like the Sketcher Shape Up with the round soles:
http://www.skechers.com/shoes-and-clothing/brands/skechers_shape-ups_shoes/product/shape-ups_-_kinetix_s_r_t/tpbr/;jsessionid=35LPgHCMof1Felmb0nfieA**
My podiatrist recommended this style of shoe - not necessarily a Sketcher but the same concept - and my best friend just told me a woman he works with who had plantar surgery tried these shoes and for the first time in years she is smiling.
http://www.skechers.com/shoes-and-clothing/brands/skechers_shape-ups_shoes/product/shape-ups_-_kinetix_s_r_t/tpbr/;jsessionid=35LPgHCMof1Felmb0nfieA**
My podiatrist recommended this style of shoe - not necessarily a Sketcher but the same concept - and my best friend just told me a woman he works with who had plantar surgery tried these shoes and for the first time in years she is smiling.
I've had it three times, and each time it takes a bit longer to recover. I wore a brace/splint type device when I slept that kept my foot from extending and that really aided in the recovery. Not exactly but something like this:
http://www.orthoticsandbeyond.com/p-214-procare-dorsiwedge-night-splint.aspx
http://www.orthoticsandbeyond.com/p-214-procare-dorsiwedge-night-splint.aspx
I've been wearing Nike Frees more and more -- don't know whether or not it helps. Concept is that shoes provide too much support now -- a hyper flexible shoe like the Free works all the muscles in your foot and calf more and keeps them stronger. This is a part of the thinking of the barefoot running crowd.
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