My plantar fasciitis is getting worse

Foot care
1

I am a very active and sporty female who has had plantar fasciitis for a month now. It all started with me sitting in a chair and trying to curl my toes upwards when I suddenly felt a stabbing pain in my left heel. At first I thought that it was a cracked heel but was puzzled at how on earth it would have happened with me taking a good care of my feet and doing regular pedicures.

And then I immediately thought about plantar fasciitis because I have two friends who have had it. I was waiting for a week for it to go away, hoping that I was wrong but that didn't happened. Went to my doctor who confirmed what I suspected - plantar fasciitis. I was devastated as I love going for long walks, running and doing boot camp style circuits several times per week as well as regular personal training sessions. I work as a housekeeper in a private home, so most of my day is spent being on my feet. This was the worst possible condition I could get!

I spent 3 weeks feeling utterly miserable and depressed. Lost my appetite, lost 3kg of my weight and had nightmares about dead bodies.

Meanwhile my personal trainer tried to persuade me to see a physiotherapist in a clinic where he used to work. I went there 3 days ago and regained my peace of mind. I am lucky in that respect that I caught it early, I knew what it was right away and stopped running and exercising except for walking. I had a full gait analysis and the results were quite shocking for me. Apparently my lower back muscles are very weak and cannot support my pelvis when I walk or run. Also I have a tight calf muscle (soleus) in my left leg. Both these things combined make me pronate inwards heavily while walking and running. The stress of it was too much for my plantar fascia and it resulted in a mechanical trauma.

The physiotherapist was quite optimistic about my recovery and even advised me to continue exercising including running but avoid jumping. I am not sure about running but I am happy that I can continue my daily walks and not worry about causing any further damage to my foot. I will also have to do exercises to strenghen my lower back muscles and release the tension in my left calf.

I also did a research about dietary requirements with this condition and herbal remedies. I am against synthetic drugs. Haven't taken anything since I was 17! Apparently, we should eat lots of salmon, sardines and pineapples. Luckily I love all these things and am very well stocked up on them now.

From the list of herbal remedies stinging nettles caught my eye. Four years ago I cured my lower back pain by placing nettles straight on my back. So, now I am putting them on my foot inside the sock. I am also drinking bucketloads of nettle tea and even soaking my feet in it. It might be just psychological or a placebo effect but all my pain and discomfort is gone.

I am not saying that everybody should try it but it certainly helps me. I definitely think that it is worthwhile having your gait analysed. As resting and not exercising alone will not cure the root problem.

Unfortunately, this thing is getting worse for me. Been in pain for 4 days, cannot put the heel to the ground, so I am half limping half tiptoeing around at work.

Needless to say it's making me depressed and miserable again. I am ready to try anything if it helps! If there is somebody who jas succesfully got rid of this condition, please, please, let me know how you did it!

Thanks for reading and good luck to you all!

2

Hi

I had this painful condition a few years ago and had several injections of steroids into the foot. These helped for only a short time and then I discovered a shoe insert called Gaitway which are available in Scholl shoe shops. All I can say is that they worked like magic and it releived the pain immediately. The inserts are not cheap but worth every penny. I hope this helps you too!

3

Thank you for your advice! At the moment I am using Footbalance insoles from the Sweatshop. They seem to do the job. Cost me £45 which is quite affordable. How long did it take you to get rid of the pain and go back to normal?

4

The pain lasted for several weeks. It happened during the summer time but the insoles that I discovered are only small and they can be used in sandals. They stick to your shoe with a small dot of velcro and I just bought some velcro dots from a stationers and that enabled me to change from one pair of sandals to another or use shoes when necessary. I wish you well but don't resume running until your foot has healed completely.

5

Plantar Fasciitis is common as your muscles start to tighten. This happens naturally as you age starting around the age of 28+. The effect you feel is your plantar fascia tendon rubbing against bone and becoming inflamed. The only solution is to relieve the tension on the plantar fascia tendon. Unfortunately you can't stretch tendon but you can stretch the muscles that connect to this tendon - your calf and lower thigh muscles. If you get on a stretching regiment and stick to it you should see permanent relief in about a month. You need to stretch as often as possible - while you're feeling the symptoms you may want to stretch 5 or 6 times a day. The goal is to stretch the calf muscle and lower thigh so anything that accomplishes this will work.

I've also had patients experience almost instant relief from a properly fitted pair of shoes with arch support. The company I work with is Dr. Comfort - they make products specifically for diabetics but they work very well for Plantar Fasciitis as well. You want to also look for something with a cushioned heel - the softer the heel the more pressure you'll take off of this portion of the foot.

Once the pain goes away many patients get off their stretching regiment and I see them shortly there after - don't make this mistake. The pain will go away if you stretch but it can come back if you stop. Stretching will also provide many other wonderful benefits to help you lead a long and healthy life.

6

Thank you all for your advice and support!

7

Just an update. I have PF in both feet since yesterday. Needless to say that I am devastated and miserable. What can I do to get rid of it??!! It's just getting worse and worse!

8

Hi Yasmiina,

How is your PF? I noticed that the last message you posted was on 4th April so I was wondering whether you had managed to cure it or feel a bit better? I totally recognise myself in your story as I currently suffer from PF (well I think...). I am a 32-year old active female, doing a lot of hiking and trekking and started to feel a sharp pain in my left heel when bending over to pick up something on the ground. I ignored it and carried on walking and hiking. Over the last few months I had been doing a lot of hiking wearing very hard trekking boots and I suspect thats what caused it as the paths I walk on here in England are not the rocky paths I would normally wear my trekking boots for. So I guess I used the wrong boots all that time.

Anyway, 4 weeks later I am now suffering from extremely severe pains in both feet, not just the heel but under the arch and near the toes. I cant walk around my house any more and the only "comfortable" position is when lying down on my bed with my feet on top of the quilt. The feelings I have under my feet are very strange : burning feeling, sharp tranchant pains as if someone is cutting my feet with rasors. Awful. I have done a lot of research and am wondering whether I have a nerve problems. I just cannot believe that PF would cause me so much pain. I cannot even go out the house and work.

Let us know how you are doing and any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I am just so desesperate to get back to normal but it looks like it is going to be a long recovery...

Al the best to everyone on this forum.

AJ

9

My heart goes out for you, I know exactly how you feel and what you`re going through!

This is the worst possible injury you can get because there is no real treatment and it takes ages to heal.

I hade to quit my job 2 months ago because I simply could not stand up. Was crawling to the bathroom in the mornings.

The best advice anyone can give you is REST, REST AND REST!!! If somebody tells you something else that you can still do things while your feet hurt, don`t listen to them. They have never experienced this and they are wrong. The pain is the most powerful language and it`s telling you to stop and let your body recover.

You have to drop everything, no job, not even housework. If you need to lay down all day, so be it. Your body needs rest. Your heels have no chance to heal if you put your weight on them. When you step on the heels to propel yourself for the next step, the pressure that goes on your heel is that of double your weight. On average we take 8000 steps each day. That`s 8000 times double your weight on the heel. They can`t heal if they are constantly re-injured.

Whatever you do or don`t do, always listen to your body. Only you know what`s best for you. If the pain is unendurable try icing your feet. Or soaking them in a strong peppermint tea with added sea salt. Always did the trick for me. I still try to do it at least every other day.

And try to think positive, tell yourself that you will recover. One day this nightmare will be over and you will step out without any pain at all. Tell your feet that you love them and say thank you to them for carrying you through life so far.

I have posted my story on Experience project as well and quite a few people have commented and given advice. Have a look:

www.experienceproject.com/stories/Have-Plantar-Fasciitis/2125655

Other good websites are:

www.nwfootandankle.com

www.bodywindow.com/foot-pain.html

It`s been 4 months since my left foot started to hurt and almost 3 months since the right one joined in. I have been resting for 2 months and I am better. Not cured yet but much better. I can go out for 1-2h long walks in the park. I always try to walk on the grass wherever possible. Or tarmac in the worst case, the concrete is 4 times harder than tarmac and it`s our worst enemy at the moment. Most of the time I wear my trainers which have gel cushions in the soles. I can also wear any other shoes provided they have a thick rubber sole. I don`t believe in orthotics or custom made shoes. They don`t always help and you just end up spending money without any real benefit. I intend to start barefoot running in 2-3 months time if my feet are ok and let me. At the moment will have to do with cycling and swimming.

If you have any other questions please feel free to contact me and I will try to help you any way I can.

God bless us all & speedy recovery!

10

Hi Yasmiina,

Thanks for replying! and thank you very much for the links you included in your message. I will have a look at all these websites today.

I am still struggling and cannot walk around the house. It is like walking on glass and I get sharp pains under the arches, near the toes. I went to see a doctor three days ago, who asked me to do a blood test, which I did, and I should have the results later today. I think they want to check a few things like my Vtamin B rates, diabetes, etc. They say it is the first step before being referred to a specialist.

I totally agree with you that rest is mandatory !! And in my current state, it is impossible for me to carry on walking anyway. I work as a freelance translator so I am lucky enough to work from home on the PC and dont have to commute every day but sitting at my computer for long periods of time hurts, so I had to take the week off. I dont know if I will be able to work next week.

I tried to just stay on the bed all day but I find it hard. I am a very active person and get bored easily. Plus, It is impossible to lie down all day. I still need to go to the toilet, shower, make myself some food and do the washing up, feed the pets, answer the door for the postman, etc...I have to carry on walking around the house, and I am hoping that all these small steps wont make my PF worse , especially as my house has a staircase! I seem to suffer from full blow PF, which is scaring me ...

Yesterday I received my Birkenstock sandals which I ordered on the internet after reading that they help with PF. I tried them on as slippers for walking around the house but the arch support really hurts my arches, because my arches are already affected by the PF. Maybe It is too late for wearing these sandals and I need to wait until I feel better. I get the impression that Birks sandals help to prevent the problem but cant cure it.

Have you ever worn Birks sandals ? I am also planning on buying some good trainers as you suggested. I am waiting to feel a bit better to go to the shops. Can I ask you, which trainers you are wearing and would recommend ? Which brand and which model ? I currently have some basic Adidas trainers, they are ok but dont have any gel soles and I really want to buy some with gel cushions and shock-absorbing soles. I would really like to have your opinion on this because you are going through the same thing and I do not trust these sellers in the shops who dont seem to know what they are talking about and who obviously havent got a clue about PF !!

I tried icing my feet a lot last week but it got worse after that. Maybe I did the icing for too long, I have to say I was not really looking at the time and I may have overdone it. But I will try the peppermint tea and salted water.

Can I ask where you live? Do you live in the UK ? And how old are you ? You seem to be a bit like me, very active and sporty, and wanting to get back to a normal active life.

Many thanks Yasmiina for all your help and I really look forward to hearing from you again.

Have a good weekend and all the best.

AJ

11

Hello Aurelie,

I am glad my reply to you got through because when I wrote it I got the message that it needs review and approval by the website administrator as I had included links to other websites.

I am 33 years old and used to be very active. I was on my feet sometimes 12-14h daily. In the past year I had only 2 days completely off when I was just relaxing at home, not doing anything special. I think I pushed myself too hard and this was my body's way to tell me to stop and relax. I found it extremely hard at the beginning, was very frustrated and utterly miserable. I still caried on with my personal training and lifting weights even a month after my left foot started to hurt. I only came to my senses when my right foot started hurting as well.

I live in the UK but I am not English. I am originally from Latvia and Yasmiina is not my real name. I am in Latvia at the moment staying with my mom.

If icing hurts your feet, don't do it! Listen to your body and never ever harm it. There are so many things and people that will do it for you. You have to love and pamper yourself.

My trainers are Asics, my previous trainers were Nike. I don't know which model they are, I just asked for the maximum support when I bought them. I also have Footbalance insoles which I don't use because they started hurting my arches. I used to have very nice high arches which have now collapsed as a result of PF. So, I will have to learn to live with flat feet. There are some yoga exercises for feet, also for fallen arches which I occasionally do. You can type in youtube foot yoga and they will come up. But before you start doing anything, you have to be relatively pain free. As I said never ever do anything that hurts or make the pain worse.

In the worst period of pain I took Ibuprofen for 10 days. It kind of helped but it stained my teeth. So, when I went to the hygenist to remove them she asked me how many cigarettes per day I smoke. The irony in this is that I have never ever smoked in my entire life! :-)

As you can gather I am not a big fan of the conventional medicine with its synthetic drugs and surgical methods. I firmly believe that our body, mind and soul are connected and the physical illness is the indication that something is not right in your mind or soul.

If you are like minded there are some good books I can recommend.

Joseph Murphy "The power of your subconscious mind"

Peter Kummer "Nichts ist unmoglich" (I don't know whether it is translated into English, I read it in Latvian, the original is in German)

All Louise Hay's books. Also Luule Viilma's books. Again I don't know whether there is an English translation. They are in Estonian in original but I read them in Latvian.

About Birkenstock sandals. They are good for healthy feet to prevent any future problems. In our case the soles are just too hard. We both have to wait until we get better to start wearing them.

I will let you in the secret that no doctor or specialist will tell you - if you need to walk around the house wear high heels. The higher the better. It is counter intuitive and sounds outright illogical and stupid but it helps! The reason is very simple, you get your heel of the ground and 90% of your weight is on the balls of your feet. BUT stretch your calves very frequently because wearing high heels shortens the calf muscles which in turn pull on your fascia thus making the whole thing even worse.

One of my friends who has had PF in her left foot wore her trainers for 6 months. Now she has been pain free for 1.5 years and can wear whetever she wants. It is encouraging and gives me hope. Although I am aware that every case can be different and we all have different degrees of damage sustained to our feet.

The doctors are divided when it comes to walking barefoot. Some say that it should be shunned, the others encourage it. The truth as always lays in the middle. Once you are relatively pain free you can start with walking 100m on a soft surface like grass or thick carpet. As civilised and highly developed society we have forgotten to walk barefoot. We have lost touch with our Mother Earth, we have deprived ourselves of being able to feel the terraine beneath our feet. If you would desensitised the feet of an animal it would die within days, wouldn't be able to survive.

In cultures where they don't wear shoes or wear just very basic open sandals, only 3% of population will ever experience any foot problems. In our Western shoe wearing society 75% of people at some stage of their life will have foot conditions such as bunions, hammer toes, mullet toes, tailors bunion, plantar warts or in our case PF.

I have also baught 2 pairs of barefoot shoes. The brands are Leming and Vibram five fingers. I am not able to wear them yet but I intend to gradually make the transition from the conventional footwear to barefoot shoes. But I can't emphasize this enough - the feet have to be completely painfree before any changes should be attempted. And even then it has to be a very gradual process. It took years of wearing incorrect footwear to damage them, it will take years to mend it and make transition to a more natural way of walking.

I hope all of this is helpful to you. If you have any questions please ask!

Happy Midsummer!

12

Hi again,

Forgot to mention the stairs. If you are walking upstairs put your entire foot on the step. Don't step just on your tiptoes. I read about a lady in another forum who had completely torn her fascia by walking upstairs on her tiptoes. Needless to say the pain is unbearable and the recovery time much, much longer.

We don't need this. :-)

13

Hello again!

Thank you so much for all the information. I am sure all of this will help, but I know it will be very long. I have just got back from the doctor. My test results are OK, which in a way is good as I started to get worried that I may have diabetic feet or something as the pain is so bad. I am now almost 100% sure it is PF. However my GP did not want to refer me to an orthopedics clinic yet, she says it is still too early. I would really like to have an MRI scan done so that we can see the extent of the inflammation. Because the pain is so bad and is located everywhere (heel, arch, ball, toes), I suspect that I may have ruptured the ligament as you were explaining earlier (I think I read that story from the lady who ruptured her ligament by going upstairs on her tiptoes). When only my heels were hurting I did go upstairs on my tiptoes, but the GP said that it would be very unlucky that I ruptured the ligament on both feet.

Thats why I would really like to have an MRI done, to see exactly what is going on.

Have you had one done to check how damaged your plantar fascia was ? Or to look for any other injuries. I would not be surprised if I also have other problems, such as an Achille tendon problem, as I still have a sharp pain in the back of my heel when I bend over.

I will look after my feet as much as I can, stay in bed as much as possible and see what next week brings. I am still taking Naproxen (anti-inflammatories) three times a day but it is not helping. The ibuprofen I took for two weeks was not helping either. Like you, I dont like taking medicine. I have never really had any bad health problems in the past so I never really thought about the connection between the mind and the body but I do tend to agree with you and I may consider reading a lot of stuff about all this!

Thanks for your advice about the Birkenstock sandals. I will keep them in the cupboard until my feet are ready but I imagine they wont be for a long time. It is a shame as they do feel very comfortable apart from the arch support that takes some time to get used to, I guess. I also really love the look of the new Birks sandals. I bought the Mayari ones, they look quite nice on the feet. But for now I think I will have to keep my feet hidden in trainers!

I also read that the Earth shoes are quite good for just walking outside on short distances. There are quite a lot of similar brands that do comfortable shoes for people suffering from PF but most of these brands can only be found in America, but I think you can find Earth shoes easily in the UK.

What you say about high heels makes sense when you think about it and I would give it a go but the problem is that the balls of my feet are very sore. So I dont think it would be a good idea to put all the weight on them! Plus I never actually wore any high heels in my entire life and dont know how to walk in them!

Good luck with your barefoot shoes when you start wearing them! Let me know how you get on in the next few weeks. I wish you all the best and again, many many thanks for all your advice!

Have a good time back home in Latvia!

Aurelie

14

If you want, I can give you one of my personal email addresses on the forum (one that I no longer use) and you could send me yours to that address to communicate (it might be easier). And I would then send you the email address I use on a daily basis. No problem if you prefer not to!

Cheers!

Aurelie

15

Yes, I would like that very much! Thanks!

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Hi there!

I have just posted my email address to that forum but my reply is waiting to be approved because an email address was included. Lets see what happens...!

Aurelie

17

Maybe try to cheat the system and write your e-mail address like this: myname at yahoo. :-)

I woke up this morning thinking about your poor painful feet. I never had it that bad that the whole of my foot would be painful. The pain was very localised. At first it was in the heels which is why I could get round it wearing high heels. At the moment I get occasional ache in my arches but it's more of a discomfort and tired feet feeling than the horrible pain I used to have.

I have never had any scans done on my feet and I have not seen any specialist on NHS. I have seen a physiotherapist and an osteopath privately. They both said that because my feet were not painful when they were poking around and my calves were not tight that I would make a good recovery and no treatment was necessary.

I guess it just takes a long time to fully go away.

I wish you the best of luck with your recovery! I noticed a spontaneous, huge improvement about 2 months after I started experiencing the sympthoms. That is supposed to be what happens in the majority of the cases.

18

Hi ya!

Thats a good idea, I had not thought about it. My address is at hotmail dot com. Hope it works this time!

You got me very worried because both my feet are sore everywhere and it is painful and tender when I or doctors poke around. When I walk it is often like walking on glass and it can also feel like I have lots of bruises everywhere under my feet. I am so scared.

The other thing I am worried about is that I damaged the nerves under my feet when I did the icing about a week ago. As I mentioned in a previous message, it got much worse after the icing. I would ice both feet 2 to 3 times a day but I did not time it properly I think, even though I knew it can be dangerous. I would put a large ice bag (wrapped in a teatowel) under both feet while working on the computer at home. And often, I would not watch the clock very carefully and it is possible that I did it longer than 20 minutes each time, I am really not sure about this. But then again, if some nerves were damaged, the feelings would be different, surely. I heard that you loose any kind of feeling in your feet, you experience burns and cold sensations, tingling, you cant sleep at night etc. At the moment I can sleep at night again (thank god), its really when I am on my feet that the pain is unbearable.

I am seeing another GP tomorrow morning to have a second opinion and I will tell them about the icing. I will also ask them to refer me to an orthopeadic clinic. Fingers crossed.

I am so confused right now. There is nothing worse than not knowing what you have, what damages you made and how long it will take to recover if you manage to recover at all. Very scary.

Feel free to send me an email and I i'll let you know how I get on. Good luck to you too, I am glad to hear that you are making progress every day.

Have a lovely day,

Aurelie

19

If you want to exchange e-mail addresses use the private messaging system (the orange button with 'Message' on under your name / s)

20

Of course! Thank you for the tip! I had not even noticed that orange button (I have just started to use this forum last week!).

Cheers!

AJ