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sudden return of plantar fasciitis

After a couple of years, I have had a sudden onset of plantar fasciitis
in my right foot. The cause is unknown as I have been walking with the
same shoes regularly since December and have dropped quite a few pounds.
The only thing I can think of is that I changed my route this past
week to include gentle inclines. Anyway, aside from returning to my
normal route, what can I do to stop the pain and maintaining walking? I
DO have a spare pair of "superfeet" insets that I tried out this
morning. The pain was gone, but this started to create heel blisters on
the affected foot, plus the inserts tend to unbalance my feet to that
most of my weight is on the outer edges of the shoe.

I had been walking 6 miles/ 4 days a week from Dec until a month ago
when I added an additional mile. And, up until this past week, I have
been walking on flat surfaces. Then I decided to try and be more
adventurous and include gentle inclines. Hard to believe the gentleness
would cause the condition, but that has to be it as I had no pain with
the same shoes all these other months. Now the question becomes what to
do about it. Funding is limited and I've been using the same style of
shoes since Dec. I just added the Superfoot insert I had as a spare,
but it started to cause blisters on the back of the heel, so not a great
fit. Should I be looking for a different insert? I definitely need
something that won't move throughout the duration. With the insert I
had, I took it out of the shoe when I started feeling the blister
developing and it was quite hot on the bottom so it's moving inside the
shoe. Tomorrow's my day off from walking and I cut it short today due
to the circumstances, but Mon I hope to start up again if I can figure
out the best plan with these shoes. thanks.

On Sun, 9 Aug 2015 11:29:49 -0700 (PDT)
Ed Prochak wrote:
I was just listing suggesting ideas I found.
I never had problems with PF.

But I think orthotics are not the same as the padding in shoes. I only know this from the orthotics my son used to wear. They were firm with little cushioning.

Obviously the orthotics option is low since the OP doesn't want to see a doctor.

Ed

I was lucky. A friend had orthotics he wasn't using, and they fit me
fine, so I didn't have to see a doctor. I was well in 13 months. But
after 12 months, I developed achilles tendinitis in the other foot,
and that lasted a year too. Put a permanent end to my string of PRs.
--
Bart Mathias

Thanks for all the suggestions here. After two days since the onset of
the fasciitis, it is just about gone with the most pain when I first get
out of bed. I still haven't tried any deliberate walking, but did haul
out my bicycle and rode it yesterday. The bicycle is not my preferred
aerobic activity, but if I have no other choice, I'll use it. I do have
a mechanism to make it stationary if I have to. I still think if I was
25 lbs thinner, a lot of these foot issues would be far less prominent,
but I haven't been that thin in 25 years.

With some suggestions from another group, it was pointed out to me that
there are apparently custom versions of Superfeet inserts now available,
particularly in "black" and "copper" colors. I did find a couple of
stores somewhat close to me carrying those, so I am planning a trip to
them today with my shoes to check out these custom versions. I'm hoping
for the best. The spare "green" one I had basically eliminated any
further pain when inserted into the shoe, but I realize now that the
green ones are/ were a very poor fit for me and I shouldn't have even
used them years ago. Anyone offering commentary on Superfeet custom
versions would be welcome. I just hope they'll let me try them first
since the cost is up there.

Off to the stores in a few hours, so if luck is your thing please wish it!

On 08/10/2015 07:47 AM, Twittering One wrote:
Anyone have comments on Asics Kayano?

They are moderate stability & still very flexible.

I've been wearing them for my city walks about 2 months now.

They are very comfy & cushy.

But I'm confused right now about whether they're the answer.

The problem is that I tried various running shoes in the past and none
of them worked without causing blisters, which were sometimes massive.
This was even through a well known running shoe store with runner
employees. After two years of only cycling, on a whim, I decided to try
out "Starter" brand. Since December, Starter has worked with only
occasional heel blisters when switching to new pairs (which I work
around by using Kinseo tape for a couple of weeks until broken in) and
then the recent fasciitis that reared its ugly head this past Sat.
These shoes only last a month at 24-28 mi/ week walking, but they are
ultra cheap to replace and I'm really hoping one of these stability
inserts will work with it to stop the fasciitis. Green is definitely
out, but maybe copper or black--- will find out today. Most of the pain
is gone and even moreso with the improper fitting green insert, so I'm
anxious to see what one of the custom styles does. Blisters are another
matter though, so there is concern that an improper fit might trigger
them.

Not so innocent! Thanks for the list! I carefully read over every one.
Out of the 20 years I've been walking, I've had #1,4,5,7&8. 4,5,7
happened long ago, when I first started out, and I was trying to walk
too fast and too far. Luckily, the weight came off fast enough that all
were remedied within a month. Out of all, #8, the hip bursitis, was the
most severe and lasted the longest. I wasn't able to return to walking
for a couple of years and only cycled instead. Now, I'm extremely
careful with the right hip and carefully stretch both hips for several
minutes before walking. I also sometimes use a prescription strength
NSAID cream rubbed into that hip if I feel any signs of discomfort and
it helps a lot. Can't use NSAID's consistently all the time though and
thankfully I don't have to. For the current one, the fasciitis, I had
already determined that I was going back to my flat path and I have the
inserts installed and ready to go. Will try out today. Interestingly,
I've not had #9- runner's knee- not while walking, but while cycling.
Apparently, when I started cycling, I was in high gear too much and that
put too much pressure on the knees so once using low gear much more
often, the problem was solved.

One thing they don't mention there are blisters. I've almost always had
bouts of those and carefully have to watch my socks and when I've
switched pairs of shoes. My cure was always "duck tape" because it was
readily available, but I recently finally started using both kinseology
tape and/or leukotape, along with tincture of benzoin as a prep if
needed. The benzoin will allow the tapes to stay on for days if needed,
right through showers and all.... although I do have to watch for skin
allergies which I find do start developing.

Not so innocent! Thanks for the list! I carefully read over every one.
[]

One thing they don't mention there are blisters. I've almost always had
bouts of those and carefully have to watch my socks and when I've
switched pairs of shoes. My cure was always "duck tape" because it was
readily available, but I recently finally started using both kinseology
tape and/or leukotape, along with tincture of benzoin as a prep if
needed. The benzoin will allow the tapes to stay on for days if needed,
right through showers and all.... although I do have to watch for skin
allergies which I find do start developing.

Sam,
It is puzzling why you seem so prone to blisters.

Is there any correlation between model/brand of shoes and where
the blisters occur?

This I'm not sure of at it's been 3 years since the severe blisters.
All I know is that I visited various running shoe stores near me and was
fitted with top brands by runner employees. I would almost always start
getting blisters at the 2 mile mark. The best store and I worked
through 4 pairs over a 90 day period and never did find any that were
blister free.
Are you an unusual shoe size? (extra narrow maybe?)

No, don't think so.... 11 W.

Ever tried different lacing techniques?

I've just recently begun to learn about this. None of the employees
suggested it three years ago other than making sure the laces were as
tight as possible throughout the length of the lacing area.

And the blisters happen primarily from walking? Not from running?

Running, forget it. Haven't retried it for over 20 years. My first
attempt resulted in all sorts of luckily temporary injuries and pulls,
so I can't answer about the blisters. As far as walking is concerned,
with my current shoes, if they are going to appear, it will be the heel
areas until the shoes are broken in. This is far better and more
tolerable than all the hot spots and blisters I'd get from the shoes 3
years back.

Not sure I have any answers, but maybe describing more details may give you a clue of something to try.

Well, I was going to try the shoes with the inserts now in place today,
but it rained here all day and I decided to wait until tomorrow. I'll
be trying out two inserts over the next couple of days: Superfeet
"copper" and "black". I have some concerns that the inserts will
trigger blisters, but I won't know for sure until I do my walking
routine. Other than that, I feel pretty confident that the support they
offer will prevent a plantar fasciitis recurrence but to be on the safe
side, I'll be sticking with my flat roads for a while.

Today was the first morning back at it with the new inserts. I decided
to try the Superfeet "copper" first. I've been carefully trying to
stretch the plantars and also massaging on a water bottle. 50 min into
the walking though, I could start to feel pain so I stopped. I
compensated the other 45 min using a stepping machine I have, which did
not further stress the same area of the feet.

Now I'm debating what to do: return the inserts for the next higher
pair (which would be the blue I think), or stick with what I have and
incorporate alternate activities for the other half of the walking like
I did this morning.

On 08/14/2015 04:59 PM, Michael wrote:
On Saturday, August 8, 2015 at 8:42:38 AM UTC-5, Sam Seagate wrote:
After a couple of years, I have had a sudden onset of plantar fasciitis
in my right foot. The cause is unknown as I have been walking with the
same shoes regularly since December and have dropped quite a few pounds.
The only thing I can think of is that I changed my route this past
week to include gentle inclines. Anyway, aside from returning to my
normal route, what can I do to stop the pain and maintaining walking? I
DO have a spare pair of "superfeet" insets that I tried out this
morning. The pain was gone, but this started to create heel blisters on
the affected foot, plus the inserts tend to unbalance my feet to that
most of my weight is on the outer edges of the shoe.

Appreciate any suggestions and thanks in advance.

Sam

There's some good research on high load strengthening of the foot. I use it quite a lot to battle back PF and to keep running.

Thanks for this, I added the methods to my routine yesterday. I don't
have much of a step where I live, but I do have a stepping machine that
offers a "step" in its construction framing and that is what I'm using.

I reread the link this morning as I started feeling a slight recurrence
yesterday, but it turns out that I must have done the dips too fast.
Will go a lot slower for now on.

Not sure how long it takes to get my foot back to normal..... did a
brief walk yesterday, 20 min, but could start feeling the pain in the
affected foot and stopped. It's been 1.5 weeks since the injury.