BS: plantar fasciitis, heel pain help

Subject: BS: plantar fasciitis, heel pain help
From: GUEST,Suffering Simon
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 01:36 PM

I have had this severe heel pain for the past 6 months it has been finally diagnosed as Plantar Fasciitis, has anyone a remedy, any information gratefullywould be appreciated.

Subject: RE: BS: plantar fasciitis, heel pain help
From: DougR
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 01:46 PM

Stretching exercise: bend your foot upwards several times a day and particularly when you get out of bed in the morning to stretch the muscle.
Get a good arch support for yur shoes.

I just had a bout with plantar fasciitis and the podiatrist I went to prescribed exactly that and I am no longer bothered by it.

Good luck.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: plantar fasciitis, heel pain help
From: MBSLynne
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 01:55 PM

If you do a search on plantar fascitiis you will find quite a long thread on it with lots of useful advice.

Love Lynne

Subject: RE: BS: plantar fasciitis, heel pain help
From: Llanfair
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 01:56 PM

When you go upstairs, put the balls of your feet on the edge, and let your heels overlap. This stretches the muscle. I had it for ages, it rather spoiled the mudgather at Muenster a few years ago. It's so painful, I can remember crying with pain when I got up quickly to answer the phone.

I always go for comfortable shoes now, and I have to say that crocs are the very best, they mould to your feet, and you hardly know they are there.

I've got diabetic neuropathy now, so the feeling in my feet is permanently numbed.

Subject: RE: BS: plantar fasciitis, heel pain help
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 03:35 PM

I did the stretching exercises, and 'toe lifts' standing with my toes on the stair, up, down, etc. I also had an elastic 'sock' that went from my toes almost to my knee. Seemed to help.

You might see your podiatrist or chiro for personally fitted orthotics.

Subject: RE: BS: plantar fasciitis, heel pain help
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 03:51 PM

I found crocs to be awful as there wasn't enough support in the arch. They are sure cute, though!

The best thing, as the others have said, is stretching and shoes. Another stretch is to stand facing a wall, about arms-length away. Put your hands on the wall, about upper chest height with one foot with toes almost up against the wall, knee bent, while your other leg is straightened out behind you. Then lean into the wall bending your elbows. Hold for a count of ten, if possible, and feel the stretch in the back leg. Repeat after switching legs. (Well, I know that reads funny, but it's hard to describe!)

Subject: RE: BS: plantar fasciitis, heel pain help
From: pattyClink
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 05:23 PM

The stretching as described above really helped me with a case of this a long time ago, but didn't help a recent really bad case I had, UNTIL I started doing it differently. The toes-on-a-curb method works great for the young and active with little pain, it's not as good for the decrepit.

Sit on a bed or floor, feet out and pointed up. Loop a stretch band or buckled belt around the ball area of one foot. LOCK YOUR KNEES, this is the key part. Pull gently until your foot comes forward as much as it will easily.   Then pull it in a little further, until you feel a strong stretch bordering on discomfort. If you still don't feel a strong stretch, raise the foot a few inches until you do. Hold 30 seconds at a time or as long as you can stand. Repeat a few times. Do it twice or 3 times a day or whatever you feel is helpful.

Other hard-won lessons:

At first if you have constant pain, stay in shoes with VERY thick, shock absorbing soles or springs.   As you get the pain to back off, switch to new, good shoes such as New Balance, that bend very well at the ball of the foot. Many of us who develop this condition do it because we are encased in stiff-soled boots or shoes that don't bend at the ball of the foot much, and your fascia really needs this to stay loose.

Also look into your gait; the root of my problem was having a 'cavus foot' which means I rode stiffly on the outside edge of my foot too much instead of rolling slightly inward with each step, from heel to toe, spreading the force across all five balls of the foot. Other people pound their heels too much. Your foot has its own problems. Check out what might be the root of the problem, otherwise it will just stay with you.

Subject: RE: BS: plantar fasciitis, heel pain help
From: GUEST,the unemployed psychic
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 06:40 PM

I had one the size of a golf ball. Did the doctor thing and scrapping ad infinitum.

As a hypnotist I thought mind control might help but I saw no progress. When it became most painful I threw away ALL my shoes except for one and declared with every ounce of my body and soul that I give up fighting it and immediately took a nap. 45 minutes later the golf ball sized plantar was totally gone save for its outer callous.

Surrender may have had something to do with it but it is in a realm in which a conscious explaination would be counter productive.

Subject: RE: BS: plantar fasciitis, heel pain help
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 07:50 PM

You do what Sorch did and what Kat is suggesting and you'll be sayin' "good bye" to P.F. in no time...

BTW, in case you didn't understand the exercise just think back when you were doing backflips off the diving board... That is the position... It will stretch the crud outta the plantar and will really help...

The Crooks will help, too and a lot cheaper and better than the Berks...

Good luck...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: plantar fasciitis, heel pain help
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 08:03 PM

I had this a few months back. Had me hobbling around wincing especially first thing in the morning. Finally I droped into our local NHS Wallk-in clinic (hobble in in my case). The nurse asked a few questions, then told nme me what it was, and gave me a handout about it with a coupel of exercises. She was clearly very pleased to have something that could be sorted out without any need for medicines and that.

The exercises were the one katklaughing mentioned, where you lean forward against a wall, and one where you keep your heel on the floor while sitting down, and raise your toes. Worked like a charm.

That one patty clink mentioned - "Loop a stretch band or buckled belt around the ball area of one foot." An bike inner tube is excellent for that - I had to do that kind of exercise when I was gettingover a knee op a few years back.

Subject: RE: BS: plantar fasciitis, heel pain help
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 10:41 PM

I had Plantar two years ago; the pain, at one point become so unbearable that I had to sit propped against a wall of the Louvre. The gendarmes were not pleased; they took me to the infirmary where nurse--whose English was less than my non-existent French--wanted to put me in hospital. No thanks!
Anyway, when I returned to California I went to my doctor who offered three solutions: stay off my feet for 2-3 weeks; do the exercises, some of which above, and probably be well in 6 weeks; get a cortesone injection and be done with it. I opted for door 3. The pain of the injection was so intense for about 15 seconds! I would have given up state secrets it was so bad. But within an hour I was walking pain free. I do exercises 3 times a week and have not had a reaccurance.

Subject: RE: BS: plantar fasciitis, heel pain help
From: katlaughing
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 11:15 PM

You can also do the loop/band around the foot while lying down.

Subject: RE: BS: plantar fasciitis, heel pain help
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 22 Aug 07 - 11:44 PM

Good Golly..I could have diagnosed it sight unseen over the internet in two or three seconds tops. How could it take six months? mg

Subject: RE: BS: plantar fasciitis, heel pain help
From: clueless don
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 09:52 AM

I believe that they make special devices for stretching the plantar fascia - you can find them, for example, in running catalogues.

I had a very persistent case of plantar fasciitis back in the eighties (I was in my 30's.) My podiatrist finally performed a plantar fasciotomy, and that did the trick. Many might consider this approach too radical, plus the fact that it worked for me, on that occasion, doesn't necessarily mean that it will work for others.

Good luck!

Don

Subject: RE: BS: plantar fasciitis, heel pain help
From: GUEST,Suffering Simon
Date: 23 Aug 07 - 02:10 PM

Many thanks to all of you for your helpful advice.
This Plantar bloody plague came on me without warning some 6 months ago, and it seems that the stretching of the Achilles is the only thing that works, I spent a small fortune at an Acupunturist to no avail.
I will continue the stretching exercise and I must say what a helpful lot you are.