Finally, A Cure for Plantar Fascitis

There has recently been a major breakthrough in the area of treatment for plantar fasciitis and I don't know why I didn't figure it out sooner. When my symptom began to present itself a month ago; that little annoying stretchy feeling on the bottom of my foot, I did what any fat, fertile, female over the age of forty does...she blames her weight (see archived article from January 6). And even though, as I said before, I am no longer overweight, I knew I was paying for having been so. Frankly, I think I'm like an alcholic; once overweight, always overweight, if not in body, then certainly in mind. People tell me I look thin but when I look in the mirror I see fat. But I digress.

So I simply blamed the four F's and moved on with traditional medical approaches to treating my condition, sans medications. I stretch, stretch and then stretch some more. It was actually working a little, but remember, I do not expect this treatment to work quickly. It's a slow process. Each morning I was noting slight improvements in my level of discomfort.

But this morning I was almost pain free and I halfway expected to be, because I did something yesterday which I have not done in about 2 months and in retrospect it coincided with the onset of my symptoms. I rode horses! Heels down! I rode horses. About 6-8 weeks ago my horse sustained a serious injury to his hoof. Basically he ripped half of his hoof off. I will be unable to ride him for 6-9 MONTHS! This was on the heels of another accident with another horse, in which she fell and broke her pelvis. So she was on stall rest for 3 months and is only now starting to recover. I have been horseless for 6-8 weeks. Now, I've been horseless before, but never quite this long and usually I find a friend's horse on which to tool around. But this time I got a little fed up with the situation, could I say "depressed?" I don't know about that, but just didn't want to ride. Stayed away from the barn. Except for the obligatory weekly check up I prepared myself for the worst (foundering and death of the horse) and essentially separated myself from the situation. I know you horse riders out there will think I'm not right, but as with all horse stories...there's more to it. Suffice it to say I haven't been riding at all.

But I'm over it now. Just like that and with a little help from my best-buddy-web-site-designer- horseback-riding-buddy-horse-boarder, Christi Bacot, I'm over it and went out to her place to ride some of her fine horses. It was then that I remembered...heels down. I spent two hours with my heels down. This was something I did at least two hours, four times a week for the past decade. I passively stretched out my plantar fascia 8 hours a week. Probably exactly two weeks to the day after stopping I began to suffer from plantar fasciitis. And about 12 hours after starting up again Iwoke up almost pain free! Not cured, but on the way.

It's amazing how we women tend to blame so many things on our weight. I have patients with hand pain who blame it on their weight. Now, don't get me wrong; we can blame a lot of bad things on our weight, but a lot of these repetetive strain conditions are due to just that; repetetive strain and lack of flexibility. If you begin to develop a painful symptom, start trying to remember what you may have done recently to affect that part of your body. Or as in my case, start thinking about what you haven't been doing. What has changed? Then start trying to modify those activities.

The question I have now is; will insurance companies pay for a horse? There's logic behind doing it: a horse and one year of board will cost about as much as office visits, night splints, physical therapy, anti-inflammatories, cortisone injections and surgery. And it's the treatment that keeps on giving. What could be better?