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  1. #1
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    Plantar Fasciitis

    Ok guys, I have plantar fasciitis in both my feet. I've been to a podiatrist and was told to take it easy (which is very hard for me as skateboarding is my life/ my main mode of transportation), ice my feet, massage my feet, and if I could, get an orthotic. I know some of you are screaming "SEARCH FUNCTION JONG" right now but i've looked and I have a bit of a different question than has been answered in previous threads about feet and plantar fasciitis. Which would you say is more important seeing as ski season is right around the corner, getting an orthotic for my walking/running/skating/everyday shoes or getting custom footbeds for my ski boots? As of right now, all I have is Super Feet in my ski boots and Dr. Schol's insoles with HTP Heel Seats in normal shoes. What do you guys think? Which is it? Expensive orthotic or expensive footbed? Both? (holy crap, my wallet just got really scared)
    "I reckon i'm one of the only people who could ski this line" says my drunk friend

  2. #2
    bklyn is offline who guards the guardians?
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    1. Get this to wear at night http://www.thesock.com/
    2. Wear an orthodic in supportive shoes until you get better
    I'm just a simple girl trying to make my way in the universe...
    I come up hard, baby but now I'm cool I didn't make it, sugar playin' by the rules
    If you know your history, then you would know where you coming from, then you wouldn't have to ask me, who the heck do I think I am.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by bklyn View Post
    1. Get this to wear at night http://www.thesock.com/
    2. Wear an orthodic in supportive shoes until you get better
    1) that sock thing looks goofy but i'd bet it would actually be helpful. i'm over my PF now, but always had lots of pain first thing in the morning. my trick was to stretch out my achilles in the shower with a blast of hot water on it. always helped a LOT.

    2) biggest mistake of my life was going for so long without orthotics. i'm actually to the point that i believe that everyone, problem or not, should invest in some decent orthotics or footsoles with arch support. a little prevention goes a long way. i use http://www2.yoursole.com/ soles in all my shoes now. (the flipflops are awesome too).

  4. #4
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    Get the orthotics for the street shoes. You can likely use them in the ski boots as well. As odd as it sounds do a lot of stretching of your hamstrings. Also stretch the your calf muscles as much as you can right now.
    It's not so much the model year, it's the high mileage or meterage to keep the youth of Canada happy

  5. #5
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    Plantar just plain sucks and can take a while to get over. Take care of it now, otherwise you can get heel spurs that grow out to reattach to the fascia.

    Mostly repeated stuff

    1. Stretch your calves
    2. Anti inflammatories
    3. Plantar boots or socks at night
    4. orthotics-superfeet are better than nothing. Stay away from the cushy sneakers if you don't have good insoles.
    5. ice -massage-if you have a hot tub, jet your plantars
    6. Don't wear loose shoes
    7. Don't walk on sidehills in loose shoes.
    8. If you keep boarding learn to tape your feet, this will take a lot of pressure off the plantars.
    9. When you get up in the morning put your feet gently into your shoes and progressively put more weight on them.
    10. Don't go barefoot.
    11. If they hurt doing a certain activity, stop doing it. This is probably the hardest thing to do.

    You'll probably notice the pain less in your ski boots. The winter is when my feet heal up a bit and don't hurt so bad.

    Good Luck
    Last edited by mtcham; 09-25-2008 at 11:44 AM.

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by L7 View Post
    Get the orthotics for the street shoes. You can likely use them in the ski boots as well. As odd as it sounds do a lot of stretching of your hamstrings. Also stretch the your calf muscles as much as you can right now.
    do you really think you could just move an orthotic designed for street shoes into a ski boot and it would still get the job done? would it hold up? that sounds a bit dodgy to me. What do the rest of you guys think?
    "I reckon i'm one of the only people who could ski this line" says my drunk friend

  7. #7
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    from wiki....

    Prolotherapy has been shown to be effective in treating Plantar fasciitis.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by durangotang View Post
    do you really think you could just move an orthotic designed for street shoes into a ski boot and it would still get the job done? would it hold up? that sounds a bit dodgy to me. What do the rest of you guys think?
    IF it fits. Bottom line is the orthotic should never be cut down any smaller than the foot it supports and a liner or boot should fit the foot and therefore the orthotic.

    Typically a street shoe orthotic won't give you the same support a ski boot orthotic should but would still give most people way more than a super feet will. I'm not sure why you think a street orthotic wouldn't hold up. In a ski boot the orthotic never needs to flex and would see a lot less wear and tear. With a street orthotic you have about 1cm of urethane between the impact of your heel and the concrete. Skiing you have 180 cm of fiberglass and wood impacting on much more forgiving snow and 3-4 cm of binding, boot, boot board and such.

    Street orthotics take a lot of abuse and need to hold up. Ski boot orthotics have it easy in comparison.
    It's not so much the model year, it's the high mileage or meterage to keep the youth of Canada happy

  9. #9
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    Because of my high arch I have bought two pair of Dr. Scholl's, then cannibalized one pair to make more arch support.
    Cheapest footbed out there and you make it yourself.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by durangotang View Post
    do you really think you could just move an orthotic designed for street shoes into a ski boot and it would still get the job done? would it hold up? that sounds a bit dodgy to me. What do the rest of you guys think?

    I use my ski boot footbeds in my hiking boots and my running shoes in the off season. Unless the street shoe is custom made/modified to accept the orthodic, you should be able to switch the orthodic back and forth between your ski boots and street shoes with no problem.

    But it wouldn't hurt to talk to the podiatrist who makes the orthodic and see what he thinks about it.
    it's all young and fun and skiing and then one day you login and it's relationship advice, gomer glacier tours and geezers.

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  11. #11
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    I suppose there's no other option but to get some kind of custom orthotic/footbed. I suppose instead of new skis this season I can look forward to new orthotics!!!! Yeahhh!!!!! ......ok it's not as exciting but I am getting quite fed up with this whole sore foot thing. thanks for the input guys
    "I reckon i'm one of the only people who could ski this line" says my drunk friend

  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by mtcham View Post
    10. Don't go barefoot.
    this is extremely important. i have hard wood floors and hate to wear shoes in the house. i bought the yoursole flipflops for around the house and this helped tremendously.

    Quote Originally Posted by mtcham View Post
    You'll probably notice the pain less in your ski boots. The winter is when my feet heal up a bit and don't hurt so bad.
    so true. i have a chronic ankle sprain and towards the end of ski season i barely had any problem. once ski season ended, my ankle sprain immediately came bank - and bad - partly because i wasn't getting the full support i was getting from my ski boot and partly because i started wearing flipflops again (reef sandals). as an experiment, i took my ski soles out and put them in my street shoes and my problem improved almost immediately. then i got the yoursole sandals and i haven't had any problems since. (i know ankle sprain =/= plantar fascitis but it's all ligament related.)

    fwiw, i have no stake in yoursole.com. they just worked a miracle for me. if price is an issue, they do have a clearance section for as low as $15. i bought 3 regular priced ones and 3 clearance ones and they all work the same.

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by mtcham View Post

    1. Stretch your calves - and achilles.
    2. Anti inflammatories
    3. Plantar boots or socks at night.
    4. orthotics-superfeet are better than nothing. Stay away from the cushy sneakers if you don't have good insoles.
    5. ice -massage-if you have a hot tub, jet your plantars
    6. Don't wear loose shoes Or Sandels. Consider Heat molder Sandels if like them.
    7. Don't walk on sidehills in loose shoes. Intersting - in my PT one the excercises was to walk barfoot on the outsides of my feet (arhes in/up)...
    8. If you keep boarding learn to tape your feet, this will take a lot of pressure off the plantars.
    9. When you get up in the morning put your feet gently into your shoes and progressively put more weight on them. Do "Alphabet stretches" before gettingout of bed. Keep a tennis ball bedside and roll it with your feet to message the PF before getting up - this really helps the "first steps pain"
    10. Don't go barefoot. AT ALL!
    11. If they hurt doing a certain activity, stop doing it. This is probably the hardest thing to do.
    12. Biking really has help me...

    You'll probably notice the pain less in your ski boots. The winter is when my feet heal up a bit and don't hurt so bad.

    Good Luck
    X ref this thread for details on heat moldable sandles and useful links

    My orthotics fit in my boots and are better than my Superfeet footbeds... I would strongly encourage you to get Orthotics over footbeds if you can only afford one or the other. You will spend a lot more time in you shoes than your boots... and bring your boots with you to the fitting - they may be able to make them to fit both...

    I've also noticed an improvement since I start taking Glucosamine / Chondrotin (sp?)... but that was at the same time I started biking so its tough to say if its really helping.

    Do NOT allow your legs/ankles to become weak. I have noted a strong correlation between plantar pain and weak ankles - I think this is why biking has helped. If you have flat feet - stop running and start biking.

    Lastly, do nt make the mistake of thinking you are "cured" when your pain subsides - you have to manage this... if you go back to "normal" after improvment, the pain will return. Treat it like diabetes - you manage the condition, you don't "cure" it.
    "Those 1%ers are not an avaricious "them" but in reality the most entrepreneurial of "us". If we had more of them and fewer grandstanding politicians, we would all be better off."
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  14. #14
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    Stretch gently. Too hard (that's what she said) will increase the inflamation and prepetuate the cycle. The night boots are great for this. Take Ibuprofen and ice massage regularly to control the inflamation. Some cross-friction massage will break up any adhesions (ice afterwards).

  15. #15
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    i tried all the above for 6 months

    and a steroid injection cured it in one day..........and it never came back
    picador

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by jon gaper View Post
    and a steroid injection cured it in one day..........and it never came back
    fwiw, i had 3 in both feet and it never helped for more than a week or so at a time.

    also, i had surgery on my right foot and 6 months later the problem was back. i didn't even bother doing surgery on the left foot. i gave up and after a couple of years it just went away on its own.

  17. #17
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    A little off topic but when all you guys had foot problems did you ever find yourself feeling extremely jealous at all the people around you with no foot problems at all? Dammit this crap is annoying! I'm so depressed but i guess these things happen. this has been a lot of help guys, thanks. and if what most of you guys say is true then hopefully my feet will start feeling better when the snow starts falling.:-)
    "I reckon i'm one of the only people who could ski this line" says my drunk friend

  18. #18
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    yep, its easy to let depressions creep in, especially if you can't do the things you like to do. when i had my PF in full flare-up some 15 years ago, i couldn't stand in one place for more than 10 minutes without searing pain. i had to live with that condition for probably 3 years. but back then i didnt have as many resources (internet) to research my condition. i was pretty much a slave to whatever my podiatrist said and did. after he failed to solve my problem, i just resigned to my life with the condition. if i could have had just this thread to read 15 years ago, i'll bet my condition would have been solved within a year. so there's plenty to be optimistic about.

    start a program of doing ALL the things recommended above. keep at it and your problem will be solved soon.

  19. #19
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    I got flat feet and I had PF for awhile ,the biggest probelm was the pain getting up in the AM and not being able to run.You gotta do the stretch before getting out of bed /take IB prophen and it goes away eventualy...could be years tho .I did get a good set of custom orthotics and a motion control runner

    actualy I found alpine/tele/skate skiing were NOT a probelm cuz there was so much support from the boots

    I used my custom orthotic in my skate boots /runners/street shoes and a 30$sole footbed in my ski boots

  20. #20
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    anybody else have any life-changing advice?
    "I reckon i'm one of the only people who could ski this line" says my drunk friend

  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by durangotang View Post
    anybody else have any life-changing advice?
    I take it your PF is no better? What have you been doing for it?

    I've been taping in the mornings and it's relieved the pain a bit.

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by durangotang View Post
    anybody else have any life-changing advice?
    Yeah.

    I think that those "Heel Seats" are stupid. Lose 'em. You need a real orthotic-i.e., a rigid base that serves to limit inward rolling of the foot upon impact. Start with the Dr. Scholl orthotics. these are the ones with the hard plastic piece that runs from heel to roughly mid-foot and has a full-length insole glued to it. It may not work for you, but it's a great start at $20-30. If these do not work, then you may wish to contemplate custom ($$$) orthotics. Also, as others had suggested, stick to wearing shoes that are designed for support. There are lots of really nice running shoes that you can use, if you don't already.

    So, first, Dr. Scholl orthotic + running shoe designed for over pronators (i.e., support shoe).

    The reason that I suggest running shoes is that I am unaware of shoes for other activities (in your case boarding) that are engineered for the needs of overpronators. You'll have to do your own research here.

    There are also ways to tape your foot that will help a lot. Hard to explain here, so I suggest that you look that up as well.

    If you are able to successfully manage this, the plantar fascia, like any connective tissue, will become stronger over time with increased load-bearing exercise. In this event, your plantar fasciitis may go away for good. It did for me and that was 15 years ago.

    On a side note, it's not clear to me how strengthening of the calf muscles alone is going to make a difference. I also don't feel that orthotics in your ski boots is worthy of consideration.
    Daniel Ortega eats here.

  23. #23
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    I've been icing my feet by filling up a bucket with ice water and soaking my whole foot in it. it feels like it does a better job of icing than rolling my foot over a frozen can or bottle. What do you guys think about that? is the bucket a better way than rolling your foot over a frozen bottle or can?
    "I reckon i'm one of the only people who could ski this line" says my drunk friend

  24. #24
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    Find a practitioner of Active Release Technique. This will usually be but not exclusively a Chiropractor.
    Three or Four sessions= cure

  25. #25
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    that's quite a claim. did you do it or do you know someone who has?
    "I reckon i'm one of the only people who could ski this line" says my drunk friend

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