Physical Therapy for Plantar Fasciitis

I had surgery and the physical therapy works

Walking long distances

I can’t work 8 hr shifts can only do 5 hr shift. Have to sit and take a lot of breaks!

My life is all about my pain. I go nowhere. The pain is so bad that I'm afraid I will not be able to walk anymore. I'm on my feet 9 hours/ 5 days a week. I have to work and it is really killing me. I'm not sleeping, the pain keeps me up all night. No one gets it. I look and feel miserable all the time.

I had a very long history with Plantar Fasciitis with two separate injuries; where each injury lasted for several years, separated by twenty years. Fully recovered from the second case in the last few months but it took a lot of time and trial and error.

My recommendations are as follows:

1. Once you have heel pain stop any running and deal with this immediately, otherwise it can get a lot worse and much harder to treat.

2. Massage the Plantar to make it more flexible and cure it. See instructional videos at https://www.healthoutcome.org/condition/5/plantar-fasciitis-treatment/19/massage-recommendations

3. Use some support for your arch, good shoes - wide and comfortable and with good Orthotics either custom or off the shelf.

4. As the pain subsides you can increase activity level

5. Give this time. Plantar Fasciitis takes months to get better especially if it was neglected.

My Experience

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The first case started around 1995 (my mid-thirties) and was a result of starting to run for about three miles each for three times a week. It took a couple of months and I had a heel pain, in both legs, which I ignored for several months and as the pain increased stopped running. At this point the pain it was pretty bad but I continued dancing twice a week which made the pain progressively worse. After few more month, I had to stop dancing and a friend told me I had Plantar Fasciitis. By now the pain was so bad that I couldn't stand or walk for more than half an hour without severe pain and as a result, couldn't walk or stand for more than 15-20 minutes. This was bad.

I started going to podiatrists to find a solution. The first offered Cortisone shot so I moved to #2 who gave me soft Orthotics that didn't help much. I then did Physical therapy for a couple of months and a bunch of stretching and strengthening exercises which didn't help much.

The third Doctor, Dr. Koenigsberg http://www.remingtonpodiatry.com/ , taped my leg and the pain disappeared immediately. That was magic! After that, he worked to fit hard-shell custom orthotics that can have the same effect as the tape. After a few tries with different fittings of custom Orthotics my left foot healed and the right was much better but not cured. This process took about six months with the different fitting.

I then visited my fourth Doctor, Dr. Larry Ollof http://soarmedical.com/providers/lawrence-m-oloff-dpm , that added a simple rise to accentuate the Orthodics correction and that moved my right foot from almost cured to completely cured.

I used these Orthotics ever since and went back to dancing and a little running with no issues. I remade the Orthotics with Dr Koenigsberg in 2004 with no issues.

About four years ago, in my infinite wisdom, I started running and after reading about barefoot running took the Orthotics out and run with no Orthotics and with no cushion shoes. After a year of running with no Orthotics and with some barefoot running as well, the Plantar Fasciitis came back to my right foot at 2011. Oops.

I immediately put my old Orthotics back on, which didn't help and then visited Dr. Koenigsberg back. He looked at my Orthotics and thought they were good. We tried tapping, three times, which this time didn't work at all. We tried two Cortisone Shots, the first one gave relief for a few weeks and then I had a short run that made the pain come back. A second shot had no real effect. I then tried a highly recommended PT than only made things worse and also tries Acupuncture at a Chinese clinique in Sunnyvale. The treatment included mainly needle in my head that had no effect.

Finally, about a year ago while hiking and suffering I started to massage the Plantar area especially the side and back of the foot where the pain was the most sever. I had some immediate relief but more importantly, when I waked-up the next morning the pain was completely gone! So I started doing this message after every hike or dancing and a year later the pain is gone. I started running again about six months ago and does 3-12 miles a week with some weeks more. I don't run more mainly because I spend most of my outdoor time biking.