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I have this too and i just do the stretching, massages, and have inserts inside my shoes. But if this isnt doing it for you my doctor told me I would have to see a podiatry specialist. You might have to have surgery or special orthotics made. good luck:)

Sadly, no.

The stretches and “whatnot” are by far and away the most effective “non-DR” way to effectively cure/manage palantar fasciitis. Quite a sad realisation at that, considering most patients never get over the initial pain the stretching causes and thereby, cease to stretch, just making their problem worse.

Your job isnt going to help you at all, and in all likely hood, you will need to see your Dr. if the pain contiues. In your question, you dont mention chronicity so i cant advise you on that. But, if its getting worse instead of better, stop being stubborn and go see a doctor. This is one of those “compounding worseness” type problems, as in, the worse you let it get, the worse it will continue to get.

And yes, i did just make that term up, but it should describe the situation adequately.

For non dr methods… a simple change to the proper footwear could be the most effective(stay away from heels!) and medicinally, over the counter “Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs” (NSAIDS) are your best bet. This is assuming you dont have erosive essophagitis, peptic ulcers, gastric bypass, or an allergy to them, or anything that falls within that general realm and applies to you. Note to self: Reading the back of the box helps lol. Motrin/ibuprofin(same thing) are the most common. I would reccomend taking 1000mg tylenol every 4hrs/16hrs(4x’s) with 800mg motrin every 6hrs/18hrs(3x’s daily.) Im not a doctor so dont quote me on those, but in my experience in the hosptial, thats the general rule of thumb and is QUITE effective at meteing out a medicinal can of whoop-ass to a plethora of general aches and pains as well. And yes, you can take both together without turning your liver and kidneys into prunes.

Note however if you do use this method… you MUST STILL DO THE STRETCHES IF IT MANAGES THE PAIN!!!! Pain management is to FACILITATE the streching, and allow the eventual discontinuance of the medication. In my opinon, this would be the best way to go about it if you have “white coat syndrome” or the “i dont need no freakin whack quack dr” mentality.

If this has been going on for awhile though, i would recommend seing a dr. He/she/it WILL recommend the streches, possibly get you referral to see a physical therapist, MAYBE the odd podiatrist depending on how jacked up your feet are, for specialized fit and footwear. Additionally, naprosyn(and all its variants) will generally be perscribed at this point as well. It falls into the same NSAID family as motrin but is much more potent. Just remember, with all NSAIDs, accumilation in the system is required for theraputic effect… ie you wont notice pain relief form an NSAID until the 3rd-4th dose generally.

Quite common to hear people complain about how NSAIDS dont work when they only poped the first dose… now you know why.

If the oral NSAIDs are ineffective… then you will probably get an injection of Kenalog(an actual steroid, glucocorticoid if you want to be specific) in the realm of about 40mg’s. This is VERY effective in the management of this type of pain and lasts for as many days as milligrams, tending to make it the prefered choice among chronic sufferers of this condition. Works wonders on eczema too. This medication does have a myriad of side effects to potentially be aware of, but your dr can go over those with you. The most notable are generally strange dreams, nightmares, restless sleep, head ache, sterile abcess at the point of injection, and blanching(whtening) of the skin. Occasional mood swings as well. Most of these can be managed by simply being ALERT and “slowing your roll” if necessary lol.

The more concerning side effects tend to come with long term use of the roid, and so i will not go over them here.

As for what happens after this step, i couldnt tell you, as this is the furthest i have gone in managing/assisting in managing with my patients and RARELY have seen a repeat customer with agressive use of phys therapy and the injection should it be required. In fact, ive only had to give the injection 3 times because, as initially stated, the streches are the most effective method and once physical therapy gets ahold of my patients… I generally dont see them again till they get something else!

Hope that helps.

I have been having the same problem since april. The thing about my “pain” is that it happened one morning in april, hurt like heck for 2 -3 days and then went away. I did go to my family doctor and he could not find anything wrong with my foot. He gave me some mobic to take if I needed it. I never had another problem until the end of July. But this time is was a whole lot worse and I could not hardly walk or put any pressure on my foot. I did go see a podiatrist about 3 weeks ago and she said the best thing to do right now, to start with, is to do the stretches and she gave me a script for celebrex and flexeril if it got really bad again. The 2nd day of this attack I had to crawl to the bathroom becasue I could not put any pressure on my foot at all. And when I was putting on the pressure on my tip toes trying to walk around she said that was jsut causing another problem. She did tell me to wear more supportive shoes. She said no more flat shoes. And to wear shoes with mroe arch support. And not to really wear heels, but if I did wear shoes with wedged heels. But this is where you really need to see your own foot doctor to let her tell you what shape your foot is and the best fit shoe for you. The stretches really do help me. Best of luck to you!!