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Old 08-15-2011, 01:10 PM   #3
Janet Rosen
 
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Location: Left Coast
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 4,339
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Re: Plantar Fasciitis and injuries

Don, I feel your pain! I had bilateral plantar fasciitis for the first time back in the early 1980s and was taped for a couple of months.

At that time the feeling was an absolutely rigid custom orthotic was the best way to go. Now maybe that works for some, but what I have found via trial and error over the years is quite different (and perhaps things have changed if this doc of your's recommends minimal shoe).

I find that too rigid an orthotic or too much of a "good shoe" in the old fashioned sense is something my foot fights against after one day. I do best with casual, soft, thin soled shoes, some of them as is, and some with a minimal, flexible insole from the pharmacy foot care shelf. I also do best if I don't wear the same model of shoe more than two days in a row . Canvas sneakers, with a light flexible insole, and Okabashi slides are my standbys but if you need something nicer for work it may be a bit harder!

If I start to get a flare up, I do an exercise, seated, feet on floor, about a foot apart. Keep heels down, raise front of feet, flex toes down (so arch is flexed, not stretched), pivot so big toes meet in the air, reverse to bring feet back to original position - repeat a dozen times. And also the thing about making ice in a round shape (like small paper drinking cups) is very good - you can roll bottom of your foot over that.

If there is a predisposition because of tight or short Achilles tendon, which in some of us is anatomical and can't be fixed by stretching, only mildly abated, then it is important to NOT make it worse by using a shoe with a recessed heel (Birkenstock or the ones that claim to be like walking on sand).

Janet Rosen
http://www.zanshinart.com
"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
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