spokesNspin

I think I may have mentioned here before the problems I have had since January with Plantar Fasciitis. It has pretty much kept me from running or doing any significant walking or hiking since that time.

Initially I tried an anti-inflamatory, ice packs and a night splint.  No help at all.

In May I tried ESWT(Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy).  I had limited temporary success with that.  I had five treatments at $250 per treatment. It was supposed to have taken three treatments. They were not covered by health insurance.  In a short time my foot was pretty much back to being in pain most of the time.

You might think I was crazy to spend so much money. Let me say that when your foot is in constant severe pain you will try just about anything.

I felt like the podiatrist didn’t really take time to talk and think about my case.  I would come in for a treatment and pay the $250 to pay for his machine and go out the door.  His comment was that at least I was still bicycling so I needed to be patient with running.

I started to think about what could be the root cause of the problem and why it wasn’t improving.  Even though it didn’t appear that bicycling caused the problem could bicycling somehow be related?  Bicycling does amazing things to calves and quads.  My calves are connected to my feet.  Could over use and all the years of cycling be causing the problem?

I discussed this idea with a few people and decided to try massage therapy.  I have been going weekly for about six weeks. 

Each day I make sure to do some calf and ham string stretching on my own.  I have been really impressed with the results.  I have had much better improvement than with the ESWT.

One day this week I took my first run in several months.  I wanted to be careful not to damage anything so I only ran for 15 minutes.  My foot seemed fine after the run and 24 hours later.

I think the problem was the ESWT was like trying to repair a tightly stretched band without taking the pressure off first.  You just can’t fix it.  I believe the podiatrist should have considered this.  Sometimes I think doctors don’t take the entire lifestyle and body into consideration.  My doc was a podiatrist and my problem was the foot in his mind.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for now. Maybe once I get to a certain point with the massage therapy I could go back to ESWT to put the final nail in so to speak.