plantar fasitis

Elkdog said:
My dr recommended an otc in sole, the brand is SOLE. The thickest one, you heat them in the microwave and they mold to your feet. Those and PT worked for me. Also good shoes with a very stiff sole. The frozen water bottle feels really good too. I didn't have to do the shot but my Mom did and she said it helped. I hope something works for you! One of the most painful thing I've ever had happen.
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I use the same one. It helps me tremendously. I love to wear sandals and a day or two solid I will not be a happy camper. Doc says my case is very minor. I could only imagine the pain some of you guys are dealing with. I can still gut through it when it flares up a bit of the frozen water bottle at night and no sandals for a week or so and I am back to normal so long as I where my boots at work with the SOLE insert in them. I just got a new pair of boots from work so I got a second set of boots with inserts now and that is really helped minimize the issue over the last month.
 
My pain was the inside back of my left heel. Turn out I was not pointing my toes straight ahead when walking and my knee was bending in toward the other foot putting pressure on the heel. I had to learn to walk with my foot straight in front of my knee with the weight on the foot to the outside. That along with streching and new orthotics, the issue has seemed to been fixed. It has taken more than six month to get back to hiking.
 
The fat part of my heals hurt a lot. Sometimes I hurt awful to the point I cannot walk. I have a boot I can wear at night. I do stretches. I roll balls. Everything helps in different ways but the most effective thing I did was start wearing crocs in the house 100% of the time. I used to have to do a combination of several of the mentioned exercises every day until I started wearing the shoes. At first it was just so I could get outta bed at night to potty without crying. I noticed how much it helped and just stuck with wearing them all the time. My daughter thinks I look redneck, she should shut her hole.
 
I have had it in my right foot and feel your pain! I will give you a couple of tips, please don't take them personally.

1. Get insoles with a raised arch in your everyday shoes. Absolutely critical imho.

2. When wearing sneakers buy a pair of "Hokas". Awesome for everyday wear (crappy for ankle support, use discretion). Dang they are easy on the heel.

3. Use a belt to pull your toes and stretch your tendon before getting out of bed! This tendon is a reason you are in pain.

4. Lastly, might want to lose a pound or two. I think this pain is prominent in people who are not light for their height.

Good luck!
 
One last thought...your days of barefoot and/or crappy flip flops are over. I agree with Nick. Wear Crocs as much as possible or buy flip flops with the extra padding or thick sole.
 
mdhunter said:
I have had it in my right foot and feel your pain! I will give you a couple of tips, please don't take them personally.

1. Get insoles with a raised arch in your everyday shoes. Absolutely critical imho.

2. When wearing sneakers buy a pair of "Hokas". Awesome for everyday wear (crappy for ankle support, use discretion). Dang they are easy on the heel.

3. Use a belt to pull your toes and stretch your tendon before getting out of bed! This tendon is a reason you are in pain.

4. Lastly, might want to lose a pound or two. I think this pain is prominent in people who are not light for their height.

Good luck!
Click to expand...


I've had a severe case of PF for 3 1/2 years. It was excruciating at times. At my job, I am on my feet about 8 hours/day one third of the year. I tried EVERY product on the market to no avail. Finally gave up this year, even in the middle of turkey hunting season, when I was hiking 3 miles/day. It finally just stopped about 2 months ago. Totally. Zero pain at any time no matter what I do, including heavy biking and jogging. Often two-a-days. I have resumed my regular workout routine after a 3 1/2 year layoff! I got fat. But lost ten pounds since April. Was worried before this, as I've drawn an Arizona archery elk tag for this September. Since all this happened I follow the same basic steps above, with slight modification:

1. Get insoles with a raised arch in your everyday shoes.

2. When wearing sneakers, especially for jogging, buy a pair of "Hokas". One of the first things I did 3+ years ago.

3. Wear thick spongy house shoes at all times when home. Easy for me to do this as my wife is Chinese and demands it anyway!

4. Lose some weight.
 
Kids make fun of me wearing the crocs. I tell them when your on the downside of 40 you worry more about comfort and durability than name brands. They just laugh.
 
I had it bad for about 18 months or so, got rid of it spending more time barefoot strengthening the fascia walking around the yard with the kiddos for a few months, lots of stretching and then eventually doing some walking/ hiking in the five fingers. That was 5 years ago and haven't had an issues since, but I have also been wearing hoka the past 4 years exclusively for gym, hiking, hunting, and running. I may be partial about hoka though...
 
I've had it in both feet. It is painful. It's presently gone in my right foot, but flares up off and on in my left. For me keeping it under control has been a combination of good arch supports and stretching religiously. It took a long time. Long enough that I got pretty discouraged before it started getting noticeably better.

I was actually in PT for an ankle injury. The PTist was the one that worked with me on the stretching that eventually worked it out.
 
Yeah, I forgot to mention the arch support. I have a custom made pair for my every day shoes but they are removable to use in others such as my hunting boots...and I wear either Superfeet or similar in all of my other shoes. The custom deals were expensive ($400) but they are way better than any of the OTC inserts IMO. It just takes a heck of a long time to get used to the custom inserts because there is no give. Now I wouldn't trade them for anything though. They are very lightly padded over carbon fiber. They force your foot to maintain the arch, unlike superfeet or other OTC that are cushioned and will give slightly. In my case, that slight give was enough to totally aggravate the PF because of all the damage I had done to it over the years. I actually couldn't start wearing my custom insoles that much until the swelling and pain was down because of the way they work. The more I wore them, the better my feet felt at the end of the day though. I try to minimize walking barefoot like others have mentioned.
 
I developed plantar fasciitis last summer just out of the blue after years of trail running. At first I though I'd bruised my right heal but eventually realized what it was. I went to PT, bought inserts, wore a boot at night, rolled my foot around on a tennis ball, and took ibuprofen. It slowwwwly started getting better but was still causing me problems at the start of my CO unit 76 elk hunt which I'd blown 15years worth of preference points on. About 3 days or so into the elk hunt I noticed the pain was completely gone but then showed up a week or 2 later after the trip was over. Since then I've noticed that the pain disappears for several days after chukar hunting or climbing in the mountains but then slowly comes back days later. Wearing a boot at night helps similarly but not as much. In my case, anyway, I'm convinced the aggressive stretching caused by climbing steep slopes is the solution but it's hard to replicate at home.
 
I was struggling with it in one foot when I told my neighbor about it. His wife is a runner and was cured in a week by a PT using the Astym treatment.
It took me three weeks, 8 or 9 visits. It is painful and you must do the exercises but it works. If you do a search on the inter webs it should come up.

It's been a couple of years now and I'm pain free from that at least.
 
Go to Physical Therapy....Doctors rarely know anything about orthopedics. The problem my not be in your feet at all, that's just where the pain is referred to. Get a quality evaluation by a Physical Therapist and you will be on your way...
 
I suffer from very mild PF and I've found that if I can keep up a routine of stretching and hard rolling on a lacrosse ball 2 or 3 times a week, I can stave off the flare ups.

The kick in the balls I'm currently trying to deal with at peak training season is a case of shingles. God damn, they hurt.
 
I changed my special insoles I bought from my Dr into a pair of sneakers for work instead of boots.That seems to be helping,along with some of the stretching exercises recommended here.I'm going to look into buying those hokas shoes mentioned.I'm slowly dropping weight now,but that will increase as soon as I can get on treadmills and stepper machines.Thanks for all the advise
 
Surprised at all the folks recommending high arch support insoles and taking shots. That isn't going to address the root cause of your issues, and a high arch support is just as likely to cause more issues than solve them. I would not take this problem to a regular physician. You need to see the best specialized physical therapist that you can find. Go for the long term solution, not the easy fix.

I went to a doctor about some knee pain, he is the doc that our local professional baseball team uses. He is a marathoner, so I thought for sure he would be good. He looked at it for a bit and then recommended orthopedic insoles. I'm 30 years old and otherwise in great shape and he wants me to wear these dumb things in my shoes for the rest of my life. It's a joke. I went elsewhere and found a PT who specializes in running and he got me all straightened out running with a new form and new cadence, a couple basic stretches and voila, no knee pain whatsoever. I went from running 1 mile and being in pain to running a half marathon last year. Sometimes knee problems are more serious than that, like if you have arthritis or some sort of degenerative issue, but plantar fasciitis is not like that. It's some kind of imbalance going on with your muscular-skeletal system, and is best corrected permanently through PT.
 
You need to sleep with the PF brace on your foot/leg. It takes a long time to go away up to a year.

Stretch daily.
 

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In addition to the brace, it's really important to stretch and loosen the fascia up before getting out of bed in the morning. One reason PF is so hard to heal is because it's so easy to aggravate it. When you jump out of bed in the morning on tight tissues, you exacerbate the micro-tears, which then leads to more scarring. It's a viscious cycle.

Foot exercises, walking around barefoot, and stretching are all really important in long term treatment and prevention.

Arch supports, while maybe not needed for long term health, CAN be very important in the healing period. It all depends on the shoe and how it works with your foot.
 
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