Shall a just be done with it and cut off my foot?

[TokyoSushi]

I have severe plantar fasciitis in one foot. I've had it for about 10 weeks. It is beyond painful and quite frankly every step makes me feel sick.

I have:

• been to the GP, 'it's plantar fasciitis, nothing you can do, hang your heels off a step a couple of times a day and eventually it'll go, could take up to 6 months though. Ooh it is painful isn't it, look you can hardly walk on that foot, hey ho, crack on with it... 🙄'
• taken ibuprofen, didn't do much, stopped
• done the exercise where you hang your heels off the back of a step
• done calf stretches, heel stretches, foot stretches, all the stretches
• rolled my foot on a frozen water bottle
• rolled my foot on a golf ball
• rolled my foot on a special spiky massage ball
• bought expensive recovery sliders and worn those without fail around the house
• worn Birkenstocks around the house
• worn trainers around the house
• gone to yoga
• completely rested, elevated and iced it for days
• carried on as normal
• done stretches before getting out of bed in the morning
• placed my foot very carefully on the floor when getting out of bed

NOTHING WORKS, it is hurting all the time and I can't bear it anymore. DS(13) says the way I walk looks like I have my foot in a bear trap!

Please help me!!!

Hoka trainers sorted mine. Now I live in Hokas! They are cheap at Sport shoes . Com

try the real crocs if you can, they are much better

Been there and empasize. In the short term, I would get the special gel cushions for pf you can wear with shoes to relieve some of the pain. Long term I would strongly advise you to get special insoles made. I also found regular stretching helped. If its really bad, have it x-rayed to make sure it hasn’t developed into a spur. Its a bugger and will take time. Best of luck.

Hoping this thread is still open
I am desperate too. Have an advanced bunion on my left foot, arthritis in my big toe and broke my second metatarsal - stress fracture believed to have happened as the load shifted when I walked because of the bunions and arthrtis . I started to weight bear and have developed plantar in the ball of my right foot and both heels. The podiatrist gave me half insoles which seems to have started the plantar - unable to get an appointment for months with the podiatrist. Have become virtually house bound. I dread getting up every morning and in so much pain I am considering amputation, You see people with prosthetic feet jogging. My quality of life is zero. I am only 7 stone so not even over weight.

Have a look on Youtube for Tom Morrison Toeability and do his exercises 4-6 times a day, every day, building up to 8 times a day. They only take 5-10 minutes, but the time investment is well worth it and the stretches are fantastic for resolving plantar pain.

Yes. I had it about 10 years ago after PF lasting months with me hardly able to walk. Very painful injection but it did cure it with only the odd few days since

Ten weeks isn’t long for plantar fasciitis.
sorry, OP.

Barbara O’Neill on YouTube advocates for castor oil compresses for many ailments. I haven’t heard her mention PF but it might be worth giving it a go.

I found Birkenstocks made my PF worse. Fit Flops or Crocs helped.

I'm still here, I still have it, hideous!! 😭

Did you try real crocs?

It is HORRIBLE. I sympathise entirely. I'm going to sound like a crackpot here, but after 6 months of this myself, a friend did Reiki on me.

I agreed as a desperate last resort, not having any faith in his oddness at all(!) but genuinely, about a day and a half later, it had gone.
Never had it since.

Oh @TokyoSushi I really feel for you. You probably don't want to hear this, but mine only got better after about a year. I'm 18 months on and can now walk barefoot without excruciating pain or get up in the night to go to the loo and not be hobbling....but it has really taken time.

What definitely helped was getting arch support insoles in ALL of my shoes and never, ever going barefoot. I also wear Crocs as slippers inside the house. Honestly although the pain has gone I'm still really careful as I'm so scared of it flaring up so I still almost never walk barefoot and use the insoles and the Crocs. I lost 1.5 stone too and one of those shiatsu foot massage machines which was agony at first but which really helped.

Ah Op, I feel your pain! I've had it on and off in both feet for many years. One of my brothers also gets it - worse than me - to the extent that he ended up in a wheelchair. Not great for skinny runner.

It doesn't seem to matter what you do - it just eventually goes away. But until it does, you can only rest it and take pain killers. Voltarol helps a bit, as does a cold glass bottle, and thick, thick socks when when you have to hobble about.

Ah sorry to hear you are still suffering. I have had it for just over a year now and it is finally manageable.

I had heard that you shouldn't wear shoes that have no backs, after years of wearing birkenstock clogs. I got a pair of Sketcher trainers with arch support and it was what finally tipped me in to healing I think.

It is an excrutiating pain and I now realise I was not nearly sympathetic to dh when he had it about a decade ago.

Good luck finding the right thing that helps a bit, I do think every foot is different so needs different support to help it. My dh is very flat footed and I have a really high arch. Both ends of the scale can cause PF. So what works for one person won't work for everyone.

And yes, it does take time. A ridiculous amount of time to heal. Although mine is better and I can walk barefoot again, it is still painful if I have walked too much and I still hobble to the loo first thing in the morning.

PF is hideous. It can last months. You dread walking.

Then one day, it's just gone. So weird.

Do the heel dropping exercises. Also write out the alphabet with your feet.

Crocs. Hokas. Never ever barefoot.

I had PF for a year on the one foot before it moved to the other.
I swear by Asics trainers. Do you under/over pronate. Maybe look at getting insoles for this. I went to a Sports Injury clinic but the inserts he made were too expensive for me. This was about 12 years ago now. I took up a boot camp twice a week the year before last and it started again, so I gave up. Then I found Asics and can stand and walk and be really comfortable in them. I also suffer from extensor tendonitis which is also incredibly painful but since wearing Asics its dissappeared.

I have tried cutting out alcohol, sugar and drinking more water but nothing helps. I can not sleep through the night as it feels I have run a marathon in barefoot and my heels ache, they are also really dry which makes me think the insoles the podiatrist gave me are not right as they are very hard and provide no cushioning. There was one night when I slept really well and the next day no pain but then it returns again. I am convinced stress and poor mental health makes it worse. I am obsessed now with the pain and it is all I think about. I am struggling thinking is it the fracture still healing or the bunions? I am convinced I will end up in a wheelchair and I am only 52

Have you tried wearing a splint at night??? Mine was loads better even after just one night. I slept fine with it in. It was a few pounds on Amazon. I wore for a couple of months as I was terrified it would come back.
Also I went on a ski holiday once and a week in ski boots cured it too.

@@sandycloud not tried a splint - bit cautious as still recovering from the metatarsal fracture and paranoid I will get another stress fracture. I will ask my physio when I see him next week, I feel I am being fobbed off by professionals they just shrug and said I have literally worn my feet out and made me feel I am old and on the scrap heap at 52. I see people my age and older walking and jogging and I could cry

Fitflops are very good ime but your GP should refer you to orthoptic dept at your local hospital for therapy and to have insoles made for your shoes.

That was a quick post earlier, it actually is a teeny bit better, I was on the NHS waiting list for the 'foot & ankle clinic' but they cancelled my appointment so I have just very recently gone private.

I've had one session of ultrasound therapy so far, as well as doing 'all the things' and last week I did actually have 2 hours where it 'didn't hurt that much!'

So on it goes, I'm living with it, and I feel like I'm probably about 70% of the way through it, which it better than being right at the start, right? Right?! 🫣😄

I was seeing a physio at the time for a bad back and mentioned the ski boot curing my plantar fasciitis and she said a colleague was doing research into splints. I’m 53. I’ve just started running. It’s depressing when you read it’s a middle aged woman thing….

@TokyoSushi sounds positive I hope things continue to improve for you.

@sandycloud I am interested how a ski boot could have cured the PF surely it was uncomfortable to wear and I would have thought aggravate the condition even more? I go from feeling I need heat on my foot to cold. I was also told to put up with it as I am probably going through the menopause