Plantar fasciitis

[RaraRachael]

OH has been told he likely has PF. He's been referred to a podiatrist but waiting time is 4 to 5 months. He's in extreme pain and finding walking difficult.
GP has now tried 3 different painkillers but none making any difference.

Is there anything he could do to alleviate the pain until he gets to see the podiatrist?

Birkenstocks were a miracle cure for me. Wear them indoors all the time and never bare feet.

Freezing a water bottle and rolling my foot over it for ten minutes every morning. Also the exercise the physio showed me was press both hands up against the wall while stretching one leg out behind you, bending, straighten again. Alternate.

DH always uses shaped insoles in footwear now - even slippers and garden wellies.

Steppers insoles. The real ones or the snides. There are exercises to do and there's also a splint you can wear at night. I wear sliders in the house. Decent shoes with good support on the ankles is pretty good as well.

I got most relief from freezing a sports bottle of water and rolling it under my foot. Also, ibuprofen gel.

Has he been given exercises and advice about footwear? PF is usually discussed on here on the Style & Beauty board in relation to shoe recommendations, but that's not to be helpful for your DH.

Pay to see a sports physio asap.
Rest as much as possible.
Dont spend tonnes of cash on shoes etc until he’s seen someone.

He saw a physio at our GP surgery who gave him exercises but no advice on footwear.

Can you afford to pay privately? I had appalling PF for 18 months waiting for various NHS appointments, I tried every single other thing to no avail (I have a big thread on here somewhere!) Eventually I paid for private shockwave therapy, 6 sessions over 6 weeks and it was completely gone - magic!

I'm under a consultant for this atm.

Ive had three sessions of shockewave, and I do daily exercises. These include five minutes morning and evening rolling my heel over a spiky ball.

Consultant said 'find the painful bit and roll hard'.

Definitely making progress over 8 weeks.

I haven't adapted my footwear. Neither consultant or physio have said I should. Buggered if I'm changing my life for this!

I had it for ages. Did do the exercises is a desultory way. What I found helped most was wearing crocs all the time indoors. Possibly it was on the way out anyway but it did relieve the worst of the walking pain.
i took naproxen full time for a week I had to do a lot of walking and found it helped then but 1. assume this has probably been tried already and 2. Not a great longer term solution.

I got the spiky roller that I used every day. Pain went away after about six months.

I never walk bare foot, even getting up in the night for a wee, I wear fit flops.

Every pair of foot wear, I have PF insoles in. I didn’t buy specific shoes.

Thankfully, now pain free.

I agree with this, crocs have also been great .
I've gone from being barefooted most of the time to not taking a step barefoot.
The compression type bandages for wearing under socks have worked well for me.
I had it for almost a year but never tried painkillers, it's a nasty condition.Really good Thai foot massages were painful but certainly helped.

It's such a painful condition. Get some half insoles and use them in all shoes. Mine are from Vionic. My podiatrist said Berkies are too flat, and you need something with more of a heel. That's the tricky thing about this condition, everyone recommends different shoes! He needs to stretch his calves. Stand on a stair and gently lower your heels and hold for 30 seconds.

Tell him to go get a sports massage on his calves (and rest of his legs if tight). PF is often exacerbated by tight muscles.

He can also roll his heel on a golf ball. It may hurt but in a very delicious way.

The exercises help. Rolling feet over rolling pin, picking up marbles with your toes. A chiropodist can help with exercises and in soles. But it takes approx 18 months to cure, then it goes. But you have to rethink your footwear, I can’t wear adidas gazelles anymore.

You can’t go barefoot anymore with PF.

That’s the thing, I’ve been really lucky, I don’t need to wear special insoles now. I can even wear my LouBous and Valentino rockstuds on occasion.

Agree about stretching your calves and spikey roller and wearing Crocs. All help manage the symptoms.
I found shock therapy useless though. Total waste of money and excruciatingly painful.
Having PF is a bit like having verruca. It'll fuck off its own time but there's little you can do to actually get rid of it. That's my experience.

Stretching the calves (eg exercises on stairs) and spikey rollers help. I paid for some sort of pen meant to give relief. Apparently if you lose weight that helps too. I think my plantar fasciitis developed after I didn’t warm up/cool down after running.

Superfeet insoles are good I think.

If he goes to a specialist running shop they will recommend shoes and insoles. I think the Scholl feet section at Boots has the insoles as well.
It’s good to have the shoes to wear inside the house instead of unsupportive slippers as well.
I had insertional Achilles tendinitis and the physio recommended some exercises - could you have a 10-min physio consultation? Once I got the right exercises that made a big difference.

Yes, those (adidas gazelles) absolutely killed my feet - I got insertional Achilles tendinitis from wearing them and literally could barely walk for the pain. It has been six months now and I still have to be careful. Skechers Archfit have helped a lot.