I share my journey with plantar fasciitis, initially dismissing discomfort as age-related but later experimenting with shoes, insoles, taping, and physical therapy. I found partial relief and deeper insights into managing the condition, as well as some more general lessons about life and caring for our changing bodies.
The discomfort began slowly. I became accustomed to discomfort as I stood on the wooden floor getting out of bed each morning. I made sure to have my Crocs slippers at the bedside so I didn’t have to stand on or walk on the hard floor first thing in the morning or in the middle of the night when I would rise to go to the bathroom.
One morning my wife shared that her feet hurt when she got out of bed, and asked me if I had ever had that issue. Sure, I replied. I’ve had it for several months, maybe it’s just part of getting older. She immediately set out to make doctors appointments, to figure out what could be done and to remedy the situation. I began to realize that maybe there was something I could do to alleviate my pain. I sought out soft shoes and slippers hoping to minimize my discomfort.
I joined my wife at her podiatrist appointment sitting in the back of the room and listening which allowed me to deepen my understanding of plantar fasciitis and feel certain that this was what I too was experiencing. Week or two later my wife had a session with our physical therapist and within a week her pain was gone; but I was far from healed.
My discomfort was rarely severe enough to concern me after the sharp pain on first standing in the morning and this was easily forgotten by the time I was fully involved in my day. Until one occasion when I was dancing and the pain in my foot took me off the dance floor. It was time to visit my doctor. My doctor would certainly ask me questions so I redoubled my effort to gather possible causes for discussion with my doctor.
Over the past year or two I had shifted to wearing Oranginer Barefoot Shoes which I was loving, and often recommending to others. Wearing them motivated me to fine-tune my walking technique so that I would not bang my heel into the hard pavement, and as a dancer I appreciated this challenge, which I felt up to accomplishing. And, I didn’t know how well I was doing. The shoes I had loved and worn most of the time for the previous year or two were Altra Torin running shoes, a deliciously comfortable soft and wide, heel dropped shoe which I had begun wearing after rejecting Hoka’s for being too high and soft and squishy.
In truth, I cannot be certain what caused my plantar fasciitis. It may have been the shoes I was wearing, stepping on a sharp object or some other random act or regular behavior I was doing or not doing. For a couple years I had not been using the custom insoles once made for me at great cost by a podiatrist. The padded cover had worn out and I just stopped using them, planning to fix them or have them fixed. But now I had pain and I needed to do something to remedy the situation.
Stepping on a hard surface caused me pain so I looked for soft shoes and slippers. I found the soft footbed of the OOFAS OOahh Slide Sandals to be a comfy fit, and at the same REI store I found a pair of Hokas in my size and judged that with pain I was experiencing I could sacrifice the solid connection to the ground I had missed when rejecting Hokas shoes in the past.
I begun doing “myofascial release” in my heel, a technique of long duration static pressure followed by release. A physical therapist had taught me the techniques for releasing stressed muscles, and although the area was not a muscle belly, pressing for two minutes and releasing seemed to help reduce my discomfort, so I kept doing it.
I finally saw my doctor who confirmed my self-diagnosis of plantar fasciitis. I shared with him that I had been doing “myofascial release” in my heel, and thought it was helping. I told him that I had many of my shoes in the car, and could bring them in if asked. He supported me continuing to do what I thought was helping and did not want to see my shoes. He taped my foot with some stretchy tape while mentioning that it was not the ideal tape for taping a foot, for which a less stretchy tape would have been better. He suggested that I continue taping my foot and that it would likely heal rapidly.
Back at home I found a good video of foot taping for plantar fasciitis done by a physical therapist from which I learned an entirely different method of taping a foot to address plantar fasciitis and I ordered three rolls of tape. I began taping my foot as I had seen in the physical therapy video, and found the taping to be very helpful, significantly reducing my discomfort.
I now had soft shoes for inside and outside and believed I was on the path to recovery. But after wearing the super soft footwear for only a week, it became clear that they were not the cure for my plantar fasciitis pain. Is anyone looking for good deal on a pair of lightly worn black Hokas Bondi 8 size 10 1/2 wide in excellent condition?
I experimented more with shoes, determining which insoles and which shoes seemed to be most helpful for reducing my discomfort. It became clear that an aggressive insole such as my prescription insoles and the medium high Superfeet hiking insoles and the Oboz Shoes and insoles were all effective in reducing the discomfort. I noticed my old Dansko Wyatt Oxford shoes on the shelf and tried them on. I rarely wore my old Danco shoes, they were never my favorite being a bit too solid and heavy. But they have an aggressive insole and I found my heel discomfort greatly diminished or non-existent while wearing these shoes.
I made an appointment with a wonderful physical therapist (who had previously taught me the myofascial release techniques,) to explore what she might be able to do or teach me to do to help me to further heal my plantar fasciitis. Although she did not think the pressure work directly over the heel was the solution she did some myofascial release massage with me to help release the muscles and tendons that connected into the plantar fascia as it continued up into my legs and taught me how to do self massage on these tissues helping to release them, thereby reducing the stress on the plantar fascia. I believe that if I can find the perseverance and time to do these work on my muscle relaxation it would be helpful and I am concerned that now like in the past I will be less than fully successful in finding the time and perseverance and memory to do such regular actions.
It now seems to me that paying attention to what shoes and insoles that I’m wearing, as well as taping my foot at times I will be doing extensive exertion are important parts of my path to recovery. These actions are easy to do and require less time and persistence than doing the myofascial release.
I’m learning some things from this experience, and as my healing process is not yet complete it is likely there will be more to learn and so far my learning have included:
- pay attention to early discomfort. Something that I have taught people in ergonomics classes and known for years and years and yet found myself not doing……
- Consider potential unintended consequences and long-term effects of the behaviors that we adopt and regularize
- Know that not all the answers to a problem will be found in one place and in one time that there may be many aspects to address to solve a problem
- It takes time to heal and reverse a condition that has taken time and extended repetitive abuse to cause
- Deterioration of the body and having pain on a regular basis can occur for people as they get older and my body will deteriorate with age as everyone’s does, AND it is important to recognize that some deteriorations and pains that occur will be addressable, healable and reversible.
I invite anyone who sees more or other learning we could take from this story, please add your input as a reply to this post. I’m sure that I have much more to learn.