Hi all. Have recently been diagnosed with plantar fascilitis on my left foot although i have felt some pain ever since I got PMR in June 2014. Since reducing slowly from about 15mg a day of pred (approx 0.5mg a month and now down to 12mg) the pain has got much more severe and at times I can hardly walk. Am ice packing etc but this does not help so can anyone advise if they have suffered from this. Could this be a symptom of PMR and by reducing could it make the pain more severe. I also get shoulder pain but this is bearable. Best wishes Dave (tavidu01)
For what it's worth Dave, I have suffered with osteoarthritis for the last 10 years and when PMR inflammation is present it exacerbates almost all of my musculoskeletal pains. It appears to me that PMR will cause more poignant inflammation at most pre-inflamed places. Best of luck.
Thanks Dan, may up the preds to 15mg a day for a while to see if the pain eases. All the best.
Tavidu, people can have plantar fasciitis without PMR. There are exercises to loosen and strengthen that area up which cured me long ago without surgery. I often wonder if the muscle weakness from pred puts strain on our supporting ligaments and fasciitis. I think increasing pred just covers it up- like PMR.
In my case my breathing was really affected by pred weakening my already challenged breathing muscles. I am using the incentive spirometer - that device given after surgery to open lungs. This has strengthened my breathing muscles and my breathing is easier. I reduced inhaler use as a result.
Thanks Karen. I am doing quite a few of the exercises that are recommended on the Patient website, using ice packs and also using an electronic foot massager. My doctor also prescribed me a tube of Ibuprofen Gel but at the moment the pain seems to be getting worse. Still if a sore foot is all I have to worry about I am not doing bad. All the very best.
Hi, I'm not sure about plantar fasciitis's relationship to PMR, but one thing you didn't mention trying is a night splint for your foot, and good arch support. Either of these might help. I used them and they helped my plantar fasciitis a few years ago when I had it.
Hi Cindy. Am using arch supports in a pair of trainers that were recommended as good for Plantar and they are very comfortable. Will look into a splint. Many thanks
I had plantar fasciitis two yeRs before PMR. and also tendinitis on my left foot. Only thing that worked was a STRAUSSBERG SO K. YOU CAN FIND IT ONLINE. Wear to bed & it will help. I wear crocs at home (I know) as they are the only ones that don't hurt. Give it a rest.
Sorry to hear it.
Thanks whitefishbay. Just looked on the Web. Will see what I can find.
Interesting. I've "socked" it away in things that I might need to know but hope I don't file....
I got my lesson on quick tapering Pred as my rheumy and I guess most part of the doctors suggest us to do.
Actually I follow my body and stay a long time stuck on the same dose until jumping carefully to a lower one...
Flare ups put us back to a higher dose.
My life evolves almost entirely around my symptoms of this GCA.
Diet -.avoid eating everything I love, giving myself the permission of one 'sin' now and then, exercises daily and keeping intact a positive attitude. OMG!
🌸
Thanks I had plantar faschitis for about 18 months and saw a podiatrist who recommended fitflops. I now have two pairs of boots, sneakers and fitflop flipflops! I live in them winter ans summer and can honestly say they're the only footwear I can wear comfortably all day. They are expensive but certainly for me it's money well spent. I was diagnosed with PMR a few years later but now longer have the plantar faschiitis thank goodness. The PF was in my left foot and because I had it for such a long time my right calf is really overdeveloped due to my limping on it.
Good luck I hope it disappears soon.
Thank you grandma Dylan. Have got myself a good pair of boots and trainers and will look into the advice I have been given from other sufferers on our PMR group. All the very best.
Best of luck to you. It takes a little while to really get rid of it even if the treatment is working.
tavidu - I am a retired OBGYN MD and a plantar fasciitis patient. I have had plantar fasciitis for about 2 months and have researched extensively on the subject. I am not a podiatrist, and I am not a chiropractor. I think most of the stuff you read on the internet is a bunch of untested crap. I don't believe in the exercises, the arch supports, the calf exercises, the night boots, etc. I have read on the internet (from so called "doctor" experts) that you should have firm arches . . . and I have read that you should have no arches - "walk barefoot only." I have read "apply ice," and I have read "apply heat - ice is harmful." Noone seems to have any idea about how to cure P.F.
Here's what I think. I feel plantar fasciitis is inflammation of the attachment of the plantar fascia to the heel bone, OR some minimal tearing of the plantar fascia - just a few fibers - that results, naturally, in inflammation . . . like a "pulled muscle." (You may know that a pulled muscle is simply the tearing of a few muscle fibers.) Inflammation hurts until it heals and resolves. So what's so difficult about curing P.F.? Well we walk on it!!! Let's say we take 500 steps a day. Imagine inflammation of your elbow, (i.e. tennis elbow). Imagine taking your sore "tennis elbow" and wacked it against the wall, 500 times a day. Think it would heal quickly? I don't either.
So my cure for plantar fasciitis is cushion, cushion and cushion. That's right - cushion the heel. Here's what I am doing. First, I have the plantar fasciitis "relief bridge" gel-heel innersole in my shoes - that I got at Walgreen's for about $11. Then I wear 2 pairs of nice athletic type sox. Between the 2 sox, I have plantar fasciitis therapy wrap padded supports that I got on the internet for about $13. But also, I sewed onto the the padded foot wraps, the back part of some thick arch cushions for a little more cushion. So under my heels I have 5 cushion layers and after about a month, I'm 95% cured of P.F. That's what I think, and I hope that this helps you and the many other sufferers of plantar fasciitis.
looking at reply from doknabox, I think the fitflops probably were helpful for grandmaDylan because they are indeed very well cushioned, yet supportive, shoes.
Tavidu, I got plantar facciitis last summer. Never suffered from it before.
I have GCA (and previously PMR) and think it may have been caused by the pred, rather than PMR or GCA. (I've been on pred for years and on high doses for the past 16-17 months). Maybe because my foot and leg muscles are weakened.
I was almost crippled with it, but it eventually went, after about 8 weeks. I did the recommended exercises, wore supportive shoes. I did try a sort of boot splint at night, but I ended up in more pain than not using it.
Hi Susanne, Anhaga and doknabox. Sorry I haven't replied to you individually but thank you all for your advice. I believe my P F started 2 years ago and a month before I got PMR after being bedridden with a severe throat virus. I noticed that each time I managed to get out of bed during this 2 weeks my left foot was painful each time I put it to the ground. Pred has probably hidden my P F ever since but now I am on a smalled dose has made me aware that it is still with me.
​With the help and advice I have received from you all on this forum I am now in a better position to deal with it. Today I have been experimenting with various exercises, footware and also created my own Straussberg sock as suggested by whitefishbay above, therefore hopefully in the next few months I will be able to advise you all how I am progressing. Thank you all again for your advice and good luck to you all. Dave (tavidu1)