Plantar fasciitis…no, not peanut fascists.
By 
dad2twins on Apr 4, 2008 in Did I ask for your advice?, Featured, Random thoughts..., Warnings, What was I thinking?
Plantar fasciitis. What is it? Well if you have to ask, you have never had it. In a nutshell (pun intended), it is a painful inflammatory condition caused by excessive wear to the plantar fascia of the foot. See picture below.
Guess what? I have this crappy, f@#ked up condition. It is MISERABLE!
Let me start at the beginning. No really, I’m going to tell you anyway.
Rewind to January 2007. My wife and I thought it would be great to get orthotics. We had heard the benefits of orthotics were fantastic. No more sore back, tired legs, headaches, etc. Besides, my left foot has been sore for years. It was an old injury I remember getting during a band photo shoot in San Francisco when I thought it would be fun to jump off a 20 foot wall at Fort Point below the Golden Gate Bridge. (Kids, don’t do stupid things when in bands.) So, I finally decided to do something about it after all these years. I figured orthotics in my shoes would help the problem with my left foot.
Nope!
Little did I know that this would send me on a trip to several doctors and over a dozen tests to figure out why the pain got worse. Come to find out after the first trip to the Podiatrist, that I had broken my foot back when I did my little stunt off the wall. Who knew I had such pain tolerance. But, the Doctor said that it had healed fine and that was not what was causing my pain. He gave me a shot of cortisone. Took my money and sent me on my way. After a couple of weeks the pain was worse. It seems the cortisone reduced the swelling around my nerves in my foot that had somehow protected me from having more pain. Now…. MUCH MORE PAIN!!!!
The Podiatrist was washing his hands of me and suggested a Neurologist. This is when the real fun started. Have you ever gone to a Neurologist and had the electric shock nerve conductor tests? F*@K!!! That hurts. So much for historical tolerance to pain. Oh, and then I had a back MRI? Blood tests for Diabetes, and a EKG on my brain.
Remember, this is all for my foot pain. Now comes the half a dozen drugs I was prescribed. I felt like I was a drug addict with all of the pills they wanted me to take. Lest you think I was getting the good stuff (read Vicodine) NO! I was on pills I can’t even name. Don’t want to try to name, and don’t plan on naming.
Finally, one year later, I said enough is enough. I decided to take my life back. I stopped all of the medications and went to the only place I knew I could get sound, sage advice. Yes, the internet. When my Dad was dying, we often found ourselves on support sites that dealt with is disease. They taught us much more than the Doctors were willing to tell us.
Fast forward to this last March. Flying to Hawaii I find the standard Sky Mall magazine that is in the seat pocket in front of you. As my ass is crammed into the tiny coach seats with to sleeping kids next to me I naturally gravitate to this fine publication. In it is a device to help people with Plantar Fasciitis. (Light bulb goes off!) Huh? What’s that? I read the advert info and another light bulb goes off. That’s it! As soon as I get to an internet connection at the condo in Hawaii I start the research.
So, to wrap up this marathon post. I have stopped all of the prescriptions I was on, start a course of physical therapy dictated by the on line support groups, and I am well on my way to a better left foot. Mind you, it is still sore. I still can’t walk more than half of a mile before I start to really feel it. But that more than I could walk before without terrible pain in my foot. My kids are much happier I can play with them more. With any luck and a diligent routine of physical therapy, I should start feeling pain free in about 6 - 18 months.
I’ve started counting.
Final note: From what I’ve read in the support groups, it seems that the Podiatrist should have thought of this condition. Needless to say, I won’t be visiting him again. Thank you Doctor for a year of crappy tests and countless consumed pills I didn’t need. I hate you.
| 2.9 |
My husband is going through much the same thing. He saw a podiatrist who made custom inserts for his shoes, and he swears it made the problem worse. Glad you’re finding something that works now. Being in pain is, well . . . a pain!
Hey - there’s a message for you at my site!
I hear that condition is just excruciatingly painful. Sorry to hear you have to deal with it.
Glad to see that you were able to figure out the solution on your own, I just wrote an article on Plantar Fascitis where one of my recommended solutions is stretching and strengthening exercises.
To read the complete article see, Plantar Fascitis Causes and Cures.
Yours in health.