runners | Plantar Fasciitis

Hi all. This is a plea for help, advice, and whatever you might have. I know, Y'all are not doctors, or physical therapists, or whatever. But I'm grasping at straws after well-over two months of not running, and I'm frustrated with the pace of Not Getting Healed Up.

I have been to the doctor (mine is a good one, for sports injuries, at least) and been informed that the reason my heel has been hurting for the past month is 1) directly related to stoopid, rasse-frassa-frickin'-frackin' menopausal transitioning causing general inflamation systemically, and 2) called Plantar Fasciitis. In essence, the tendon that runs from my heel bone, forward towards my toes, is inflamed/irritated/NOT HAPPY. It's been an issue for about three months now.

I'm icing it by rolling a frozen water bottle under my foot. I'm doing the milder forms of the stretching and strengthening exercises recommended by my doctor. I'm taking an NSAID (Advil) before doing anything that will probably upset it (because I'm NOT going to go to Hawaii and skip the Volcano Hike, that's JUST NOT OK.)

My doctor says I'm simply not resting it enough. She says I need "more time just sitting on my keester." I don't do well mentally/emotionally when I sit still for extended periods.

Advice?

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On the assumption that your Doctor's advice is on the money, then you need to find exercise you can do that does not involve your heel. My first thought would be exercises for building upper body strength.

Thank you. I got out the collection of free weights again (gathering dust in the corner!), and started working through a bunch of that sort of exercise. It helps! It's not very aerobic, but it ups the exercise-fun quotient in my day without messing up my foot-resting. :-)

Huh. I was simply told to buy orthotics, keep off my feet a week, and then exercise as normal with the orthotics. Same with my mother -- she wore her orthotics six months, and as long as she doesn't wear silly shoes, now she doesn't need them. (She's a doctor, so that may be some reassurance this is not a silly decision.) I get no pain now as long as I wear my orthotics: I use Iron Man Sport ones, I think these. The arch support is the important thing, I think. I'll check with my mother if you want to know for sure!

My doctor mentioned orthotics as the "next step," if things don't clear up in four to six months. :-/ Not sure why she thinks it's necessary to wait that long, but apparently I need a medical prescription for the right sort for my specific foot-shape & pain type? Thanks for the information, very much. If it doesn't improve soon, I'll definitely become more of a pest about getting orthotic support.

Huh. My mum's opinion when I developed plantar fasciitis was that it wouldn't heal without the orthotics, and while she had properly fitted ones, mine aren't and did the job just fine.

Ah, treatment variations around the world...

I agree, the treatment variations throughout the world are sometimes... baffling. Thanks again for your perspective from your part of the world! :-)

Sorry, but I think your doctor is right. I've only had plantar fasciitis once, but I had to be completely inactive for a good three weeks and not do too much for a couple months after that before I could run without pain. I know it's torture, but at some point you're going to have to bite the bullet and do a whole lot of sitting.

Once it's better, the two exercises have helped me prevent a recurrence are rolling a golf ball under my foot, and stretching the achilles tendon--like a calf stretch, but with the knee bent.

Good luck!

After you commented this, I decided to look back over my Fitbit data. Even though it has FELT like I've been really inactive, I'd still been logging about 8-10,000 steps a day. That's not actually resting my foot, is it? {sheepish} I'm now using my step-counter to monitor how far through my allotment (I'm giving myself 3k steps a day) I've burned. And it's feeling better! So thanks, biting the bullet is what I need, yup.

The ice-waterbottle I'm using is very similar to your golf ball rolling, I think; I can pack a golf ball with me more readily, though, so that's an awesome tip. The achilles stretch is one I'm adding, too. Your advice has been really helpful.

I have no advice, but a lot of sympathy. I have bad tendons and have injured myself often. Having to take the proper time to heal is so important but so frustrating.

I really appreciate your empathy on this. I was feeling pretty down when I posted, and your comment really improved my outlook. I'm not all alone in this. And healing is worth the time and effort.

I've had mild plantar fasciitis, and what *seemed* to help me the most was calf stretching and eccentric heel drops (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge3XDjjKofk). And I had to keep doing those, even after I felt better, to prevent relapse.

I emphasize the *seemed* to help because it's hard to tell cause and effect. These are a few good posts about the research evidence on treating plantar fasciitis: http://www.runresearchjunkie.com/the-problem-with-the-treatment-of-plantar-fasciitis/
http://www.runresearchjunkie.com/plantar-fasciiis-how-then-do-you-treat-it/

You have my sympathy! I hope you're able to be active relatively soon.

+1. The particular stretch that I made very sure to do because it seemed to be the really effective one was straight leg in front of you, pull toes towards yourself. Lots of people do it with a towel or t-shirt hooked around the foot, but I'm short and bendy, so I just did it with my hand grasping the ball of my foot. I did it almost every time I stood up for nearly a month. It drove me crazy. It also seemed to work.

Now of course I have a different Achilles issue and I am chewing through the walls because it will not heal. But that's another story.

That stretch you describe is suggested in the article as the one to do, first thing in the morning, most especially. I've been doing that, and I do believe it's helped a lot with the 'just out of bed" heel pain that I've had with this! Thank you so much for describing it, and yes, I'm short & bendy too, so I dispensed with the towel and it's a better mechanical motion for me now.

I'm so sorry that you are struggling with the achilles issue. Not healing is so frustrating!! *hugs*

WOW. Those links are SO HELPFUL. Thank you so much for taking the time to give them to me here. I'm especially fond of the scientific approach, even though, in hindsight, I came to this post kinda hoping someone would have some magical snake oil cure for me that western medicine hasn't accepted. :-} In my better moments, though, I'd much rather have you show me the standard deviation and the rate of recurrence and such.

I'm been doing the calf stretching, but as I said to Thalia earlier, I really haven't been doing a good job of giving it any rest, as evidenced by my step counter/FitBit thingie. Just two days of being better about staying off it, and doing the stretches and the icing with better regularity, have made the pain lessen quite a bit. Maybe this won't take forever, after all. :-)

I totally just saw this now. How is it doing?

It healed up! But it took coming down with a bad case of the flu to get me off my feet for ten days. I don't recommend it as a cure, but it *did* work.

I found your email in my Junque Folder during the chaos of this past weekend. That Gmail address isn't one I check often enough! I'm replying now.

Plantar Fasciitis

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