Plantar fasciitis

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Added: Sun. Oct 04, 2009 1:44pm
Posted in: Health

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I used to have plantar fasciitis.  Every once in a while a touch of it comes back, but pretty much it hasn't been a problem for several years.  And so whenever a friend mentions--as one did just yesterday--having to deal with that problem, I like to pass along the details of what finally seemed to work for me.  And then I finally thought, what the heck,why just tell one person at a time?! 

First, the disclaimer:  I'm not a doctor, and I don't play one on TV.  I'm just an ordinary gal who about ten years ago couldn't take a step without pain and measured every trip of several feet against how much misery it would cost me.  A lot of steps didn't get taken!

Next, the misery:  I think it started as the result of having too much fun.  I was in my second year of law school, which I'd started at the age of forty when a lot of things that wouldn't have bothered you ten years earlier suddenly become an issue.  I was on Easter vacation at the Georgia coast with my family, and walked a lot barefoot on the hard sand beach like I always did.  Sometimes the sand formed sharp ridges, and if I had to look back and take a guess, I'd say my problem would have started with stepping wrong on one of those sand ridges and bruising the bottom of my right foot.  At any rate, a few days later I was back at school and sitting in a fake courtroom in a real suit and high heels, getting ready for my turn at the podium to give a fake legal argument in a real class.  And as I stood up from my chair, I had to fight the limp that took me by surprise.  It didn't get better.  By the end of a couple of years, I'd tried pain-killers, anti-inflammatory drugs, cold, ice, orthotic inserts for my shoes.  Some things helped a little, but nothing made it go away, and nothing really made it much better.  I recall it hurt so much that my first challenge of the day when I would show up at the Milwaukee County Courthouse as a student intern would be to maneuver my family-sized minivan into a "compact car" spot because those were the ones closet to the elevator.  I cut back on walking, I cut back on housework, I cut back on living because of it.  I spent every other step in pain.  I stood on one foot a lot, and tried to be subtle about it.

Eureka, the fix!!:  One day I was sitting in the ladies' locker room at the local YMCA, and I struck up a conversation with another gal who looked familiar from previous visits there.  It turned out that she had the same plantar fasciitis problem, and we swapped suggestions and treatments and anecdotes and remedies that other people had volunteered.  Somehow in the midst of all that puzzling and sharing, a theory swam into my head and when I went home I put it into practice.  It involved heating and massaging the tight tissues in the bottom of my foot.  Not exactly rocket science.  By a week later it seemed like things were getting better in measurable fashion, so I just kept doing it.  And so here...(drum roll please)...is my brief list of what seemed to work for me.

MARY'S 3-PART LIST:

* * * The first thing I did was to make sure I never got out of bed and landed on the hard floor without something there to seriously cushion my feet.  Athletic slides I scavenged from my daughter's closet, a soft pair of old running shoes, whatever. 

* * * Then, after my morning shower and while I was standing in the bathroom putting on makeup or drying my hair, I would stand on one of those microwaveable heat packs known as "bed buddies" to warm up the bottom of my foot and stretch the arch out over the balled-up pack.  Not too hot, of course, just comfortably warm.  I thought, what the heck, let's get gravity and my weight to do something for me for a change. 

* * * Then, I built in a few minutes before I left for work after that to sit down and watch the news and massage the bottom of my foot with one of those electric hand-held massagers, on the theory that once the connective tissue was all warmed up and stretched after the shower and standing for a few minutes on the "bed buddy," why not strike while the iron was hot and really shake things up?  I can't remember the brand of the one I used ten years ago, it's been replaced by something from Dr. Scholl's that's about two feet long.  I use it on my back, my shoulders, and from time to time when I get a twinge of plantar fasciitis, on my feet again.

That's it.  That's the whole story.  I've been careful since then to pamper my feet with soft soles, and too many hours in spike heels can definitely send me back to the beginning of my list for a few days.  But that's one gal's story.  I hope it helps somebody!

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