Diagnosed with plantar fasciitis several months ago (with bottle opener sign on x-ray). It began to improve with increased stretching, ice treatments etc… I even returned to running 3 weeks ago. It actually felt better to run than walk around all day on it. I was feeling encouraged. After tuesdays run I had pain that felt different. Before it was a burning sensation, in the middle of my foot, this was a “damn it this hurts like heck” pain directly on my heel. By the end of the next day I was limping around everywhere. The pain feels like its directly on top of/under my heel spur. I’m staying off of it as much as possible but its still sore today.
PF sufferers, any ideas what I’ve done? Last night it was painful just rolling the frozen bottle over my heel.
Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks–
Inferior heel pain syndrome is from many factors. Tight posterior tibial, gastroc/soleus is just one (albeit common) etiology. You likely now also have infracalcaneal bursitis. The presence of a large heel spur (your “bottle opener” sign) is just a clue that the long plantar ligament (not the plantar fascia) has been tugging on your heel for a very long time. We rarely ever remove inferior heel spurs anymore BTW. Other issues such as Baxter’s nerve entrapment or a calcaneal stress fracture also can masquerade or be misdiagnosed as plantar fasciitis. This is part of the reason so many people respond to so many different things with self PF treatment (the diagnosis wasn’t quite right to begin with).
Lots of fixes and treatments for plantar fascitiis, but here are two that I’ve found to very effective:
#1: Night splint. This will stretch the fascia and can alleviate symptoms with just 3-4 days of continuous use.
#2: Foot Wheel. I believe the website is thefootwheel.com or footwheel.com, but this is like a mini trigger point roller for the fascia and foot, and it can really improve mobility.
Thanks for the input. This is very helpful. I’ll guess I should schedule an appointment with a different podiatrist as my original one was not exercise-friendly.
Listen to jim or else, I think he is a wiseguy (Think soprano like) . I think he works for one of dem Waste Companies in Northern Jersey. ;0).
O.P.
Besides everyday with water bottle and the massage stick I find it feels better once I brought down my mileage to 30 a week. Like Jim I do not do bottle and stick enough. I think key is to do it religously. Like a wise man told me it is the off season time to heal a bit.
Not to hijack but Jim I signed up for Eagleman and Pocono. Also thinking about IMArizona. What you doing coming year ? Pm me. Maybe we could get together for some rides/bricks
Lots of fixes and treatments for plantar fascitiis, but here are two that I’ve found to very effective:
#1: Night splint. This will stretch the fascia and can alleviate symptoms with just 3-4 days of continuous use.
#2: Foot Wheel. I believe the website is thefootwheel.com or footwheel.com, but this is like a mini trigger point roller for the fascia and foot, and it can really improve mobility.
I hope that helps!
Ben Greenfield
x2 on the night splint. The only thing that helped mine including cortizone injections was sleeping in the splints. It still took a long time but it did work.
Search it on here there are a million threads about it.
I got the trigger point stuff and it helps but you need to do it every day. I don’t… I’m dumb.
It does feel better to run sometimes but the next day I pay big time. Every other day lately is working ok.
Good luck.
I know I read the “my effing foot” thread looking for hints to improve my foot issues. I guess I’m paying for not stretching over the last 2 decades! Better late than never?
Yep, I may done too much too soon. I started back doing 5-6 days per week. At this point I’d love to be able to run 3x week.
Barefoot as often as possible - around the house and on weekends.
A chronic tendon strain needs a bit of stress to give it a jolt (see eccentric exercises for Achilles and patella tendonopathy), and going barefoot will initially make the pain appear worse, before it suddenly gets better. Even try running barefoot for maximum effect
More barefoot will also help strengthen the bones, ligaments and muscles of the foot.
(From my experience 3 months of podiatry, physio, massage and rolling the arch, without improvement, was followed by as much barefoot as I could get in a working week, and the pain was completely gone in 3 weeks
Barefoot as often as possible - around the house and on weekends.
A chronic tendon strain needs a bit of stress to give it a jolt (see eccentric exercises for Achilles and patella tendonopathy), and going barefoot will initially make the pain appear worse, before it suddenly gets better. Even try running barefoot for maximum effect
More barefoot will also help strengthen the bones, ligaments and muscles of the foot.
(From my experience 3 months of podiatry, physio, massage and rolling the arch, without improvement, was followed by as much barefoot as I could get in a working week, and the pain was completely gone in 3 weeks
Interesting suggestion, as I have been trying to protect my feet for months. I’m quite diligent about wearing shoes everywhere (even if I get up in the middle of the night).
I fought pf for about 7 months this year. went to a podiatrist who is a friend and fellow triathlete, he couldn’t help me and I tried about every damn thing mentioned on here, I spent over $2,000 on doc, massage & gadets that people are mentioning on here. what worked for me is I found some one who practices Graston Technique, they broke up the scar tissue in the bottom of my foot and on the calf. Took about 5-6 weeks with 1-2 treatments a week. I also stopped running and rested the foot. foot is better and I am now back to running and am slowly building back my mileage so I don’t reinjure the foot.
I highly suggest you find someone who practices Graston and go see them right away. pM me if you have more questions, pf sucks but it can be fixed in a month or two with treatment and rest.
I fought pf for about 7 months this year. went to a podiatrist who is a friend and fellow triathlete, he couldn’t help me and I tried about every damn thing mentioned on here, I spent over $2,000 on doc, massage & gadets that people are mentioning on here. what worked for me is I found some one who practices Graston Technique, they broke up the scar tissue in the bottom of my foot and on the calf. Took about 5-6 weeks with 1-2 treatments a week. I also stopped running and rested the foot. foot is better and I am now back to running and am slowly building back my mileage so I don’t reinjure the foot.
I highly suggest you find someone who practices Graston and go see them right away. pM me if you have more questions, pf sucks but it can be fixed in a month or two with treatment and rest.
Was the procedure painful and how would this affect my heel spur?
It sounds like you are doing all the correct things to alleviate the problem. After about 6 months of similar pain and trying everyone’s helpful suggestions I went to go see a PT at Rebound PT in Wellesley, MA. MY therapist is actually a pretty accomplished IM triathlete so having a connection was interesting but not necessary. A combination of things finally helped; tossing out all my flip flops and going with Sole Flip Flops, stop walking around the house bare foot and got a pair of Sole indoor shoes (very ugly but comfortable), being honest about my during the day shoes and getting ride or a few that really would hurt my foot. Wearing a night splint helped but I did a bit of hacking on mine to open the toe area. Daily foam roller on my legs, hips and ITB as well as rocker roller stretching for my calfs. Tossing out my Newtons and getting a pair of Brooks. Getting extra sets of Aline Insoles for all my shoes. I do have custom foot beds but I find they are took thick. All of this as well as 3 months PT and I can no run with zero pain and discomfort. I would find a PT who runs a lot and has even suffered from PF as mine did and even after things improve follow there advice.
You may also want to look at dry needling as people have reported great success with it. For me they put some prescription liquid on my heel and ran and electrical current through it to break up the scar tissue.
I too did everything to protect my foot, which became exhausting. In the end I went against all advice, threw my $300 orthotics in the cupboard, stopped the cotton wool treatment, and decided to stress the foot. I had stumbled across pages of supporting articles on the Internet, and after having had patella tendinitis for 3 years I knew that tendons are notoriously hard to heal thru rest and care.
Standing on a ball and walking barefoot as much as possible will punish that sucker into submission, such that it will never return. Night splints, rest, orthotics and 24 hr shoes will have u paranoid for the rest of your running life. Every twitch in the foot will have you backing off.
from my experience barefoot was the answer. also cheaper, easier to continue and more natural than the other gadgetry and techniques
Barefoot as often as possible - around the house and on weekends.
A chronic tendon strain needs a bit of stress to give it a jolt (see eccentric exercises for Achilles and patella tendonopathy), and going barefoot will initially make the pain appear worse, before it suddenly gets better. Even try running barefoot for maximum effect
More barefoot will also help strengthen the bones, ligaments and muscles of the foot.
(From my experience 3 months of podiatry, physio, massage and rolling the arch, without improvement, was followed by as much barefoot as I could get in a working week, and the pain was completely gone in 3 weeks
This was the opposite of my experience. I am ALWAYS barefoot - the only shoes I own are running shoes (seriously whenever we go to the US the first place we hit is the thriftstore for long pants and shoes and our relatives meet us at the airport loaded with jackets (we have 4 kids also)) and my PF pain got worse and worse until I started wearing my chanclas (thongs? what do you guys call those?) all the time and then it got better (along with icing). Go figure.
It feels like a rough massage with a dull butter knife. The metal rods that are used can leave bruising, but nothing that bad. Even with everyone elses response on here, I would still recommend Graston over them all. All the foot rollers and trigger point stuff in some way does what Graston does, but with Graston a PT or Chiro will know where to work on you vs. Us just rolling shit under our feet. The the thing my guy told is that when they go in and perform Graston they are breaking up scar tissue and causing tram to the foot and calf. After a session, the foot and calf will need rest. As you will see most people are recommending you pound the foot everyday with stretching and rolling, where is the rest to let it recover?
I have no affiliation with Graston in any way. I am just like everyone else on here who has had pf. I read slow twitch and did all the shit everyone says for 6 months. Then on month 7 I had Graston and at the end of month 7 I had made so much improvement I could not believe it.