Plantar Fasciitis. If you have successfully treated this please can you tell me how? I'm thinking of shock wave treatment.

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I feel like I've tried everything but willing to give anything a go.
Currently rolling my foot on a ball.
I have the sexy sock too.
Don't wear flat shoes.

I've just read that you should not take ibuprofen but I've been taking it up until now to ease the pain.

I have just been reading about shock wave treatment. Anyone had this?

Thank you.

I had PF for 2 years and it disappeared completely after 1 summer wearing Birkenstock’s (well, actually schuh’s dupes).

Gosh thank you for the replies. It affects all aspects of my life at the moment as I'm constantly thinking about it, how to treat it and the things I can't do because of it.

I'll buy Birkenstock's today. I have Fitflops but they don't feel like the support is in the right place.

That clinic in London sounds amazing but I'm up north. I feel like I'd pay anything to make it go away. It's been just over a year on and off.

I'll try taping and look into the boot. I know I should be more dedicated to calf exercises so will make this a priority.

What do the NHS offer as treatment? Those of you who had the injection did you pay privately? I was wondering if this was an option depending on cost.

Huge thank you for your replies and sympathy.

I’ve tried lots of things, what has helped the most is foam rolling my calves, compression sock, orthotics in shoes and recently Birkenstock’s for summer. The best orthotics I have are from PlantarFix - I put them in my trainers, walked over to a friend’s and my pain (which had been low level but constant for about 18 months) has been pretty much gone ever since. I don’t think I’d believe it if I saw someone else say that, but it is true. These ones:

www.plantarfix.co.uk/collections/all/products/plantarfix-orthotic-adjustable-support

All of you who recommend Birkenstock’s, is there a particular style that is best?

I wore those weird support socks 24/7 and did strengthening exercises - the ones where you drag a towel towards you using your toes.

In fact lots of exercises for reversing fallen arches helped me. Not sure if that was specific to me though. I never saw a specialist and really wish I had done now as I think it would have helped me recover more quickly and put preventive measures in place sooner.

Try Oofos flip flops - not overly pretty but v good. PF is the worst,you have my sympathy

Oh, I saw an podiatrist on one of the running forums saying that you need shoes with secure ankle straps for plantar fasciitis. Something about putting pressure on the area of injury to keep the shoes on? So be careful with Birkies/Crocs as the good they do will be offset by further damage to your arch.

I wore Tevas to heal my PF, ok so they're not attractive but they seem to fulfil the secure ankle strap brief better than others.

Teva Tirra are the ones I had. In fabric though. I still wear them for long walks, they're exceedingly comfortable.

I had it for well over two years - I tried, stretching, rolling, ice etc. Then I saw a podiatrist who was next to useless. I went back to my GP and had a steroid injection which was bliss for about 8 weeks then the PF came back with avengence. Went back to the GP was referred to a physio.
He gave me some stretches to do which I had not done before and he did ultrasound treatment. This was the magic ingredient tbh. The PF slowly eased over the 6 week course of treatment. I still stretch every day and wear crocs around the house but I am convinced it was the ultrasound that really made a difference. I was actually in despair at one point because I was in so much pain and nothing was helping.

I saw a podiatrist who suggested some off the shelf orthotic insoles and lots of stretches. She told me my calf muscles were extremely tight. I wear trainers almost all the time anyway, so footwear wasn't a problem, but I actually find Birkies can make it worse (I wear the Arizona ones which don't require that toe claw grip to keep them on), so in the summer if walking a lot, I will be quite mindful.

The thing that made it go away (and keeps it at bay) is calf massage. I went for a couple of proper massages and asked them to work on my calves - it was agony, but taught me techniques I could use at home. Every day after my shower I would massage the plantar ?tendon on my foot and my calves, now I do it every other day or so. I've noticed this year that I'm noticing a bit of discomfort (wearing my Birkies more often with the lovely weather), and I'd slacked off a bit on the massage, so have upped it again and it's doing the trick.

Standing on edge of stairs and lowering heels helped. But the ultimate, and immediate cure was spending a day decorating the outside of my house (so was up and down a ladder all day). Completely gone the following morning and never returned. All that clinging on by my toes to the rungs must have sorted something.

Another vote for birkenstocks. When mine was at its worst I bought some new balance trainers and they were great as well. Echo the pp who said no flat soles-arch support is critical!

I had really bad plantar fasciitis for over 2 years in one foot - got referred via my GP to a foot clinic and had physio exercises, then 2 x lots of shock wave therapy. Nothing worked, so in the end I had a steroid injection and it sorted it out straight away. That was a year ago and although it came back a tiny bit, it's so much better now than it used to be.

I wear fit flop sandals all summer and boots with inserts in the Autumn/Winter. I bought slippers with a good shape in them and I never walk around in bare feet!

Fit Flops are absolutely brilliant - the most comfortable things I can put on my feet - would highly recommend them!

Expensive gel 3/4 orthotics. Never wear 'cheap shoes' either. I bought a pair of those cheap flat ballet type shoes and that's what triggered it.

I wear 'Fit flops', air max trainers, Fly boots and Clark's shoes, for 'going out' I wear Alexander McQueen trainers.

I no longer look at shoes as pretty accessories anymore but my PF is in remission!

I've posted in the running section about this as I'm eventually getting fitter, but the pain in my heel afterwards is awful. Is this pf? My calves feel fine as far as I am aware.

Arch supports in ALL shoes.

I wear oofos around the house and outside in summer which are amazing

Or 3/4 insoles in slippers and closed shoes.

Or gel sticky arch supports in sandals and open shoes.

As long as I keep this up no PF.

Just had a look at Oofos - they're pricey but they look very squishy!

Randomly there was a really good article about it in current Slimmingworld magazine with lots of links to NHS advice and treatment. A lady had lost a lot of weight and it helped.

Fit flops worked for me - has to be the wobble-board type that are supposed to give you an arse like Kylie Minogue (they didn't btw). I bought the cheap jelly ones (not toe-post) and put them on the microsecond I woke up and didn't take them off until I climbed into bed at night. PF was gone within a month. I still wear them now because they are so comfortable and I have since bought the slippers as well.

To answer your earlier question, I paid for a steroid injection at a private podiatrist and it was £40. So not too expensive.

I had my injection on the NHS so I was lucky.

I think part of the problem with tackling PF is that there are numerous things that might be causing it so without a good therapist to help you it can involve a lot of trial and error identifying what it is for you and what you can do about it. Causes could be footwear, arches, tight calves, being overweight, imbalances in strength in hamstrings/glutes/quads, tight hipflexors...!

Shock wave treatment got rid of mine after one treatment.

If it helps anyone, I’ve found that these exercises can be v useful:

• heel raises on one leg at a time 3 sets of 10-15 on each leg (increase from 10 as you get stronger). I do these while I brush my teeth
• bare feet sitting, foot on a tissue or towel on the floor, keeping your foot flat, scrunch the tissue using your toes like a fist, lift slightly then release (10-15 x 3 per foot)
• get a strong resistance band around your ankles, stand with feet hip distance apart, knees bent slightly as if you are about to do a squat and maintaining that stance, walk sideways 10-15 steps and back (3 times), maintaining the tension in the band, ie feet stay at least hip distance apart at all times. You will feel this on the outer sides of your thighs

Stretches - yoga ‘big toe stretch’ owww

• yoga squat (I can’t get my heels down to the floor because of tight Achilles but I can feel how much it works)
• heel drops off a step...if you find me in the vicinity of a kerb or step at any time you usually see I’ll have my heel hanging off it
• yoga pigeon pose, reclining or normal, to help stretch glutes
• golf ball massage standing or sitting and manual massage to push out the tendons down the middle of my foot (both hurt). Rolling on a frozen bottle of water also helps flare ups, roll for a minute or two every hour over an evening.

I have suffered from this badly a number of times over the years, particularly after having DD!

What worked for me:

Birkenstocks around the house as others have said
Orthotics in my trainers when at work
Giving up flats - had to throw all my ballet slipper type shoes out.

But what really worked for me was yoga, amazing. Just doing downward dog position alone really knocked it on the head, plus the general foot strengthening of yoga. I have to do 5 minutes of downward dog a day, if I am lazy and don't do it for a bit plantar creeps back.