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Plantar Fasciitis and Physical Therapy

As I've stated before, I tried the stretching, I tried the night splint, I even had three cortisone shots in my foot--three times!

But I can't say enough about the physical therapy, which was a combination of so many things: stretching, icing, ultrasound, some kind of pain patch, as well as the best and most caring advice I could have gotten on how to help my heel pain myself.  This was to stretch my calves (gently), since this is attached to the bottom of the foot and will stretch there too.  It's hard to explain in writing, but she said it's all connected.

I also, during the regular evaluations, was able to see improvement, which gave me hope. Against all my fears, my PT encouraged me to walk for exercise: she advised me about what types of surfaces would be better than others.

I didn't walk into the PT office with hope. This was my second round. The first one was not so successful. In fact, I had just about given up. I can't stress enough how important it is to have a therapist that is measuring and reporting results so you can see your improvement. The first round, I went with whoever could take me soonest because I was in so much pain. No surprise that it was a waste of time. I also was getting the cortisone shots at the time, so it was hard to know if I was improving or not, since I wasn't having any pain.

I didn't know the first PT wasn't a good fit for me until I went to the second one.  There, they would first put heat on my foot to loosen all the muscles.  The she would massage and gently stretch.  Once I was loosened up, I would be able to do the exercises.  Then they would ice my foot for a good while.  I don't even remember much of what the first PT did, except I think he had an ultrasound machine. I have memories of my kids when they were toddlers going to PT with me.  Now they are teens and don't talk to me. C'est la vie!

Enjoy this picture of the Grand Canyon I took in 2019 (I think).




 
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