Plantar Fasciitis- Deluxe Edition

You know that scene from Willy Wonka where they get on the boat for a lovely, peaceful journey but then it gets more and more crazy and terrifying, until finally Veruca Salt’s father says “Wonka!  This has gone far enough!”  Wonka: “Quite right sir- STOP THE BOAT!”

That’s they way I feel about my foot.

It started as a simple pain on the bottom of my foot and gradually the situation took on a life of its own.  The pain was in an unusual place, the bottom of my foot towards the outside of my heel, but lacking any other diagnosis my doctor and I agreed to call it plantar fasciitis.  It was also discovered that I had a bone spur on the heel- well, now that you mention it, it does feel like there’s a marble embedded in the bottom of that foot.  The pain on the side of my foot was attributed to my stepping down on the outside of that foot (subconsciously) to avoid the bone spur.  Fair enough!

I took time off from running and embarked on a treatment program that involved shockwave therapy to break up the scar tissue around the bone spur.  I tried every home remedy for PF I could find, including stretching, massage, and wearing supportive shoes constantly (even when going to the bathroom in the middle of the night). My foot still hurt, but when I got the doctor’s okay I started running again, just a mile to start with and gradually working my way up to three whole miles, three times a week.

Although my foot didn’t hurt while I ran, it still hurt on and off during the day, especially after sitting for any length of time.  Getting out of bed in the morning was ridiculous- I had days where I seriously contemplated crawling to the bathroom.  The doctor said the shockwave treatments were softening up the area with the bone spur, but I didn’t feel any real difference.  I felt like I was stuck- I was afraid to increase my mileage for fear of making my foot worse and none of the therapies I tried at home seemed to make a difference.

I was getting to the end of my rope when I listened to Tim Ferriss’s podcast interview with Stefi Cohen.  First of all, she’s amazing.  I can’t recommend this interview enough.  In addition to her other accomplishments (including holding the world record for deadlifting 4.4x her bodyweight) she’s written a book about back pain.  She said that pain doesn’t always indicate damage, and something clicked in my brain.

There’s no reason to still be having pain in my foot.  Whatever damage there was originally has had more than enough time to heal.  Research shows that 95% of heel spurs don’t cause any pain.  I considered the possibility that the foot pain was something my brain was perceiving out of habit, rather than any lingering injury.

I tried stepping down barefoot for the first time in months.  At first it felt like I was stepping on a rock.  I also noticed that my foot was very tense and couldn’t help rolling to the outside.  I took a few minutes to practice stepping down normally without tensing my foot.  I also noticed how good it was to actually feel the floor under my foot, after wearing shoes constantly.  Then I practiced walking around the room, and after a minute or so couldn’t really feel the bone spur.

It’s not like I solved the problem entirely in that moment, and I still have a lot of work to do. But I felt a shift in my mind (and body) about what’s really going on in that foot.  Instead of waiting for the pain to go away, I have to train my body- and brain- to move normally again.  Meanwhile…

Even though my runs have been short, running three miles is so much better than not running at all!  I’m can’t wait to start training again.

Fun fact: while researching that scene from Willy Wonka to make sure I got the dialogue right, I found out Gene Wilder was the only one who knew what was going to happen on the boat- everyone else just thought they were going for a normal boat ride.  No wonder everyone looked so terrified!