Hello, my name is Arya and I’m in my twenties. I had been suffering from plantar fasciitis for 3 years. Let me tell you about all the non-invasive treatments I tried that didn’t work and finally the one that did work. Maybe my story can help you.
If you haven’t been affected by it, I would still encourage you to read on as 10% of the population will get it eventually.
What is plantar fasciitis?
If you’re reading this, you probably know what it is but just in case this is new to you, it’s a deterioration of the tough band of tissue that connects the heel bone to the toes. It’s fairly easy to tell if you have it – the first time you get up in the morning you’ll feel a sharp pain in your heel that usually goes away. Sometimes the pain may appear in the afternoon after a day on your feet. Symptoms do vary from person to person.
How did I find out I had it?
I had been running and going to the gym for years with the odd niggle here and there – sore muscles, joints, etc. Nothing that some rest didn’t quickly resolve. One morning, after a usual hard sprint on the treadmill, I got out of bed and felt a very sharp pain in my heel as I stood up. I limped my way to the bathroom and by the time I got there, the pain was gone, so I went on with my day and forgot about it. The next morning the same thing happened and so on every morning. I ignored it as the pain went away every time. Just another niggle I told myself. However, when I went for my next hard run, the pain came back quickly whilst I was on the treadmill and I had to listen to my body and stop. I decided to lay off running for some time to give my heel some rest.
At this point, I wasn’t aware that my pain had a name. I got used to making my first steps in pain in the morning and then forgetting about it as the pain went away. It was only when I came across a video on Youtube mentioning plantar fasciitis and its telltale symptoms that I realised what I had. To this day, I don’t know if it was a pure coincidence that Youtube showed me this video or not. I had not been researching anything related to heel pain at that point.
The treatments I tried
Stretching
The Youtube video that I came across explained that plantar fasciitis occurs as a result of muscular imbalances. For instance, if the calf doesn’t do its job to push the heel off the floor, then the plantar ligament will take over. It’s not designed to take this load and will quickly get overused. The video even went on to mention the hips and the back being possible causes. I knew I had tight calves and hamstrings so I went ahead stretching them like mad. I was eventually able to hold my hands to the floor for 2 minutes whilst stretching hard my hamstrings. Unfortunately all I got in return was back pain and I eased off the stretches.
Ibuprofen
I then went to see my GP who surprise, surprise, prescribed me a 7-day course of ibuprofen. When I questioned it saying I don’t need painkillers, he said that it was to reduce the inflammation. 7 days later, a year later, nothing had changed. He also talked about steroid injections for acute cases but mine wasn’t acute and I didn’t feel like having a big needle in my already painful heel. Multiple injections would be needed too.
The classics
Rest, ice, spiky ball, plantar stretches, plantar massages, taping, I tried all of this without success. Losing weight is also recommended but as I was slim, this was not an option. I even did some calf strengthening exercises too, thinking they would “wake up” the muscles.
After a few weeks of not running, I was feeling a bit frustrated and started again, albeit quite gently. The pain was bearable but I’m not sure if it was advisable or not to even run.
Heel pad
At some point I was given heel inserts to put in my shoes. The idea was to shift my weight forward, off my heels. So I was walking around with heel inserts but that didn’t help since I was walking little anyway. I wasn’t overweight either so if my heel couldn’t handle my weight, then it was my heel that needed fixing, not my weight!
Night splints
I bought this on Amazon and tried it. It took some adjustments to get the right tension – too little and it would have no effect, too tight and it would be painful. The night splint keeps the feet at around 90 degrees and the fascia in the stretched position so that in the morning, there is no sharp pain when doing the first few steps. The sharp pain is meant to be the fascia suffering from micro tears after healing overnight, so the night splint stops that from happening. It sounded reasonable enough and indeed I was fairly pain free every morning but it wasn’t a long-lasting solution and the pain came back when I stopped wearing it. It was a bit annoying to sleep with it initially but I got used.
Blanket support
I read on a forum how someone got rid of their plantar fasciitis literally overnight. How? By not having the weight of their blanket pushing their feet down all night. In their case they simply pulled the blanket off their feet but in the UK, it’s too cold for me to do that. Plus I usually have cold feet. So I excitedly got a frame made to support the weight of my blanket, feeling very optimistic about it and thinking my plantar fasciitis would come to an end. Sadly it did not but the pain was reduced in the morning. I couldn’t tell if it was psychological or if the blanket really made a difference but I kept using it.
Acupuncture
I even tried acupuncture. As I was avoiding hard runs and long walks, my heel wasn’t painful during the day, so when I turned up to my acupuncture session, I was without pain which was a bit frustrating for my therapist. Perhaps this didn’t help!
By then I had been referred to a specialist who sent me for an MRI scan. The scan wasn’t helpful and the specialist only mentioned surgery as the next step if nothing else worked and didn’t even recommend it since I wasn’t in a lot of pain. I skipped it. The pain in the morning had become mild.
Then one morning the pain was gone and gone for good. I ran hard and long eventually and it never came back. What made it go away? To this day, I have no idea. It went away, but it didn’t go far. My other heel immediately became painful. It’s as if my condition jumped from one heel to the other, as if it was a contagion. It was sooo frustrating still not being able to go for a hard run when one foot got fully healed.
More stretches
I was still convinced that plantar fasciitis was a result of muscular imbalances as that made a lot of sense to me. Perhaps my other foot got affected because subconsciously I was shifting my weight on it. So I tried various calf stretches again. It felt good to stretch but it didn’t get rid of it.
I also bought a foot massager. I knew a massage wouldn’t cure it but it did feel good and brought temporary relief, especially when the pain flared up in the evening if I had been on my feet all day or walked too much that day.
My gait
I had been seeing a physio for an unrelated issue and he commented on my shoes. I was wearing soft sports shoes and the soles had worn away on the outside to the point that my feet were slightly tipping away to the sides. The soles were particularly worn just below my small toes and the sole with the painful foot was slightly more worn out on the outside than the other.
I had been aware of how my soles were wearing out but never paid much attention to it. Someone had to point it out to me for me to realise how badly and unevenly worn out the soles were. The implication was that I was that every time I was walking or running, I was throwing my weight on the flat part of my feet. Yet the feet are designed with an arch to absorb the shock and I wasn’t making use of that. As soon as I realised that, I was convinced that this was the reason for my plantar fasciitis.
I set about to learn how to walk again. I had to remind myself to shift my weight inwards over my big toe. I still forget from time to time to this day. My shoes are still worn on the outside. But I am buying better supporting shoes and I don’t let them wear out as much. My plantar fasciitis still wasn’t cured, perhaps because I am still not walking perfectly as I should. Or perhaps it was taking a long time as I was also taking a long time to change the way I walked. By then the sharp pain in the morning had completely gone for some time, replaced by a dull ache.
I tried to go back to running gradually but as soon as I approached my steady running speed which had dropped inevitably, the sharp morning pain would come back and I would even start feeling some pain the same evening. No matter how slowly I increased my running speed, as soon as I picked up speed, the pain would pick up too.
No footwear
My uneven and flexible shoes were cast away as I had been told they were not providing enough support and to choose more sturdy shoes. I was still using shoe inserts at that point. I decided to go back to basics and against he advice I was reading online – I thought I’d go barefeet, at least indoors. After all, if some shoes are not good, maybe no shoes are good. Maybe nobody with plantar fasciitis had tried going barefeet. I was ready to be bold and walk where no one had walked before… barefeet! Especially with my new walking technique.
It didn’t last long, only a few days. I could feel a constant dull pain in my heel. I bought some fancy slippers with a very thick and spongy heel designed for sufferers of my condition and it was bliss overnight.
Shockwave therapy
My physio mentioned using shockwave therapy to get rid of plantar fasciitis. I would need several costly sessions and I was also very pessimistic as to its chances of success as I had tried so many things before and been disappointed. I also thought that it got rid of the pain without addressing the cause so any success would not be permanent. For these reasons, I declined.
By then, I was pain-free. You’d think that was the end of my journey with plantar fasciitis but I was only without pain because I did not run and I did not walk for long. No hiking for me. As soon as I did either, the pain would come back. Fortunately, as soon as I eased off, the pain would go as well.
Portable shockwave therapy for home use
I eventually came across a fairly new invention that proclaimed to offer shockwave therapy at home. It was a small device that cost only around £30 and was readily available online. I had not tried shockwave therapy due to its cost and muliple sessions and this one cost only £30 to purchase the device. In the worst case, it was £30 wasted. I was ready to take that risk and bought the device even though I was sceptical.
I followed the instructions and used it initially 3 times a day for a month and cycled through the frequencies. I had no pain before I started the treatment, so the only way to find out if it had cured my condition was to start running again. I didn’t want to go all out, not that I could anyway, not having had a proper run for 3 years by then.
I started running gradually, warming up very carefully and stretching before and after. I upped and upped my speed slowly but surely over time and eventually found myself running hard. I was nowhere near my steady speed from previous years but this was the fastest I was running without pain.
I still feel vestiges of the pain in the morning when I get up, especially after a hard run but I think this is in my head. I’ve been climbing very steep mountains, and hiking all day long and did not feel any pain the next day. I still use my portable shockwave therapy device one a day on most days as I am so active and don’t want the condition to come back. For £30 only, it turned out to be an excellent investment. But before you rush to buy it let’s put it in context. I was not in pain anymore when I started using it. It was just that running would cause the pain to come back.
What did work then?
There was not one particular treatment that got rid of my plantar fasciitis in one swoop. Rather some treatments eased the pain which gradually went away. Would the pain have gradually gone away without those treatments? I can’t say.
Stretching felt good and even if it had no bearing whatsoever on this condition, it’s always advisable to stretch anyway. Night splints provided relief, as did removing the weight on the blanket on my feet, although it’s not always clear if the relief is in my head or not. Rolling my feet on a spiky ball provided some immediate and very temporary relief. The foot massager was and is bliss. Acupuncture was certainly not pleasurable not provided any relief. Improving how I walk had no noticeable impact but that perhaps because I am still working on it. In any case, it makes sense to use the arch in the feet.
Rest had the most impact by far, if only by the fact that by not running I was avoiding my heel being in pain. It was frustrating not being able to run or hike for years but near the end when the pain was gone, running was causing it to come back, so it was clear that rest was important.
Perhaps the portable shockwave device merely accelerated what rest took a few years to do?