Platar Fasciitis

CAJUNLAWYER

Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2005
Messages
19,153
Reaction score
63,338
Location
On da Bayou Teche
According ot Dr. Google I am suffering from this.Classic symptoms. Dr wants me to go to a podiatrist for injections.
Anyone try just stretcing exercises first? Hate to start with injuections primarily because te last time I got an injection was to deaden a toe for an ingrown nail removal and tat shot hurt worse than the *%&^ toe did.
anyone else had this vexing issue
 
Register to hide this ad
The stretching exercises are available on google, and here is an example.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eAqJ4-oKTM[/ame]

They work, but need to be combined with other stretches designed to loosen up your back. The link shows pretty safe ones, but go slow.

The tennis ball trick helps as well, but you need a tolerance for mild pain.
Staying off your feet for awhile while starting these is big help, if you can.
 
Plantar fasciitis. What's the downside of going to a podiatrist? Sure, go. Check it out. See what you learn.

i thought I had it in the late 80s. Went to a podiatrist. Doc says, "What shoe size do you wear?"

I said, "Been wearing an 11 1/2 since high school." (I was in my mid 30s at the time.)

Doc says, "Well you've got a size 13 foot. Try some shoes that fit..."

Guy was a genius! Worked like a charm! Nothing like a highly trained doc to tell ya what ails ya!
 
I had this in 2015 and the orthopedist had me roll up flat towels on the floor with my toes 5x daily. The fascia damage for me was between the big toe and second toe and felt like a razor blade was stuck between them.

Really good shoes help tremendously.
 
I rolled my foot on a frozen water bottle and it helped a lot. I also bought, which was doctors orders, a pair of Birkenstock arch support insoles and they worked also. I now have the Birkenstock's in 3 different pairs of shoes.

Blue Footbed Sport Blue | BIRKENSTOCK

Stretch your foot before you get out of bed in the morning. Good luck
 
The best advice I got was NEVER go barefoot . I wear flip flops a lot and I don't wear shoes often . My wife did her research and found me these , they are like walking on air . I even got a pair for inside , mainly because it hurts to walk on tile in barefeet . Visit these guys , they specialise in feet like ours : OOFOS
 
I had this a number of year back. I was almost crippled by it. Had I been working a different area and shift I wouldn't have been able to get away with continuing to work. But nobody that cared noticed I was a cripple. My wife solved this for me. At least once a day I would lay on my stomach and she would take a big two handed industrial back vibrator and use an edge of it on my arches, pressing pretty firmly while using it. She'd use it until it wore her out. It looked kinda like this one but wasn't. Mine was pretty darn old and the label fell off years ago:
body-product-main-v3_856ec15b-6667-4154-95cc-995332f2eebf_800x.jpg


This took a couple of weeks but it cured me completely. Wife did good on that and I do thank her.

PS: I had been trying the stretches and etc. for awhile and they may have helped but not enough. I could hardly walk until the wife cured me.
 
Last edited:
My wife had plantar fasciitis and her podiatrist told her to take two Aleve twice a day for four days. That completely took care of it.
 
I suffered with that off and on for a decade or longer. Every time it came back it was worse than the time before. All the stretching/frozen water bottles helped very little.

I've never had successful treatments by any of the half dozen podiatrists I tried. Mostly it seemed like they wanted to do weekly treatments until you gave up. I felt like an annuity.

The shots are pretty bad. They go into the heel quite deep from the side. It worked but didn't last. You'll end up with 2-4 a year then they'll move on to something else.

I eventually had surgery, as I developed a bone spur on top of the plantar fasciitis. The only thing I found truly effective before that was the boot you wear at night. A bit uncomfortable at first but you get used to it and it works. Ask your doctor to prescribe one. Or buy one they aren't expensive really.

Sleeping Stretch Boot | Achilles Tendonitis & Plantar Fasciitis Splint
 
Last edited:
I have had it for about 3 months and it is about gone.
Everything said above, frozen water bottle, special insoles, stretching and toe curl exercises.
My doctor told me the injection would hurt pretty bad, so I didn't.
 
Yep. Have had it bad in the past. Went to my friendly podiatrist and he solved the problem. Made some plaster casts of my feet and in a few days he had some custom-made orthotics (insoles) for me. That was probably fifteen to twenty years ago, and I haven't had a problem since. I can transfer the insoles to any pair of shoes I'm wearing. No injection. No frozen water bottle exercises. Just slip them into your shoes and Voila!! Pain is gone. Oh...and they aren't those flimsy insoles you can buy at a shoe store either. They're constructed on a hard plastic base with foam cushioning on top, so they're practically indestructible. Will they last forever? I don't know, but I do know that they last a long time and show no sign of wearing out.
 
Last edited:
I've not had this problem, but some of my clients have.

They've had better results seeing an orthopedic surgeon rather than a podiatrist.
 
Had a really bad case several years ago. Doc put a shot in my feet and was much better in a couple of days. Took weeks of stretches and better shoes and inserts to get 100%. Even have inserts in my wading boot. Still wearing the inserts and will never go back to cheap *** sneakers as i think thay were the root cause. Happened right after i retired and more or less quit wearing leather shoes. Oh, the shots in the sole of my feet were not near as bad as i feared. Damn well worth it.
 
I had it bad. As a letter carrier walking 5-7 miles a day it was horrible. Wore a brace at night, that helped some. The custom orthotics were the final solution with good shoes. Rolling the frozen water bottle helped in the short term. Go see a Dr, if they want to give you a shot say no and get a second opinion.
 
slight tear of my Achilles when running about 6 months ago - it's all connected. Plantar F is a royal pain in the .... heel. I'm still suffering. stretch, ice, moan, takes forever to heal. I've used a lot of orthotics to help but the best shoe I have found is made by Kuru. I have the ones that look kind of like a running shoes. That and Birkenstocks. I think this is worse than my tinnitus. Getting out of bed in the morning is the worst as I hop/hobble to the bathroom cursing. Roll your foot on a lacrosse ball and stretch. Good luck.
 
Had it pretty bad in my left heel after I broke my wrist, because I was wearing deck shoes all the time. Couldn't tie shoelaces. Went back to my Timberlines, some improvement, then bought some low-cut Chippewa work shoes with built-in "orthotics." Complete cure.

I note that I have fairly standard American feet, get along very well with U.S. military footwear. Someone with less standard feet might require custom orthotics.

I have also found Birkenstocks to be particularly good, even if a bit overpriced. I'm willing to pay them to put their money into design rather than materials.

Good luck!
 
I've always been a runner, and got it many years ago. In my experience, the best solution, by far, is wearing quality shoes that have good arch support. Custom orthotics are great, but not necessary if you ALWAYS have good shoes on your feet that have good arch support. Custom orthotics do help a lot, especially if you don't have good shoes.

These made in China shoes and sneakers usually have terrible/flat footbeds. I wear made in USA Ethan Allen shoes, made in USA boots (H&H, Justin, Chippewa, etc., but the made in USA models make a difference), and have found Brooks running shoes to have good arch support. Nikes are terrible.

To "fix" the problem, get a pair of Halfingers. These are German (might be made some other Eastern Euro country now…) slippers/moccasins. They have a great arch to them and cork footbed that conforms to your foot. Expensive but well worth it.

The secret is to slip them on before your feet hit the floor in the morning. Without doing this, your bare foot stretches flat, re-aggravating/tearing the fascia tissue. Putting your foot in the Halfinger slippers first keeps your arch in the curved shape and allows for continued healing. Wearing the Halfingers around the house keeps your foot in good shape, as does wearing quality shoes. Throw out the junk shoes!

As for exercises that help, the best thing I've found is to stand on a hardwood step, barefooted, with just the front part (ball of your foot) on the step. Slowly (slowly) dip down a little, then go back up to parallel, and do some more reps, this stretches the fascia. Also, roll a tennis ball, or better, a Lacrosse ball under the arch, with some body weight on it.

Hopes this helps. Once "healed" Plantar Fasciitis can very easily be revived. I've been good for years now, but until I adjusted my shoes, and was consistent with how I got out of bed every day, it would come back. It's an ongoing thing that I need to pay attention to.

Good luck.
 
lots of good tips here. used to roll a tennis ball under my foot. I'm not a doctor, but I would be hesitant to jump straight to injections. What kind? If it's cortisone, beware that long term use destroys your cartilage.
 
Had it, too. Got some orthotic inserts for my shoes. But what fixed mine was rolling a new tennis ball while putting my weight on it, for 5 minutes at a time, three times a day. I also got one of those electric neck shoulder massagers and rested my foot on that while I watched TV at night. Took a couple of weeks, but it worked.
 
I've always been a runner, and got it many years ago. In my experience, the best solution, by far, is wearing quality shoes that have good arch support. Custom orthotics are great, but not necessary if you ALWAYS have good shoes on your feet that have good arch support. Custom orthotics do help a lot, especially if you don't have good shoes.

These made in China shoes and sneakers usually have terrible/flat footbeds. I wear made in USA Ethan Allen shoes, made in USA boots (H&H, Justin, Chippewa, etc., but the made in USA models make a difference), and have found Brooks running shoes to have good arch support. Nikes are terrible.

To "fix" the problem, get a pair of Halfingers. These are German (might be made some other Eastern Euro country now…) slippers/moccasins. They have a great arch to them and cork footbed that conforms to your foot. Expensive but well worth it.

The secret is to slip them on before your feet hit the floor in the morning. Without doing this, your bare foot stretches flat, re-aggravating/tearing the fascia tissue. Putting your foot in the Halfinger slippers first keeps your arch in the curved shape and allows for continued healing. Wearing the Halfingers around the house keeps your foot in good shape, as does wearing quality shoes. Throw out the junk shoes!

As for exercises that help, the best thing I've found is to stand on a hardwood step, barefooted, with just the front part (ball of your foot) on the step. Slowly (slowly) dip down a little, then go back up to parallel, and do some more reps, this stretches the fascia. Also, roll a tennis ball, or better, a Lacrosse ball under the arch, with some body weight on it.

Hopes this helps. Once "healed" Plantar Fasciitis can very easily be revived. I've been good for years now, but until I adjusted my shoes, and was consistent with how I got out of bed every day, it would come back. It's an ongoing thing that I need to pay attention to.

Good luck.
Probably part of the problem. I am a die hard topsider no socks wearer and have been all my life. If not wearing these, it's thongs (the kind you wear on your feet) or Crocks. I have a pair of Rockport wing tips for dress/court but realistically 99% of the time I have shoes on my feet it's the above described. I suspect I will be told to quit wearing the topsiders and start wearing shoes and socks like a grown-up-probably quit being a cheap-skate and buy new shoes that don't have the stuffing wore out of the sole padding. But shoes are like tires-don't want to waste money buying them but gotta have them.....
 
I developed it in my left heel in the late 90's. My podiatrist, who went to high school with me, taught me the stretching exercise and told me to buy a specific (can't remember now) New Balance orthopedic shoe. A month later there was no sign of me ever having PF and it has never returned.

PS: Crocs rule.
 
I developed it in my left heel in the late 90's. My podiatrist, who went to high school with me, taught me the stretching exercise and told me to buy a specific (can't remember now) New Balance orthopedic shoe. A month later there was no sign of me ever having PF and it has never returned.

PS: Crocs rule.

Every doctor I've asked recommends NB.
 
I had it a couple of years ago. The stretching exercises helped, as did rolling a golf ball around under my foot. I also got rid of some el cheapo loafers I had been wearing a lot, and replaced them with Rockports. It took three or four months before all the pain went away.
 
As a teacher I am on my feet all day. Have had this before. HIGHLY suggest good shoes, arch support, and the frozen water bottle at night.
Feel better soon
 

Latest posts

Back
Top