Plantar Fasciiitis

[Ed]

Zip,

Do you own stock in the company? I already have a call in to my doctor. If it worked for you, it might work for me. Four applications a day and $50 per tube sounds like an easy way out to me, and I'm always in favor of that. Even though I've started my program of stretching exercises and will continue with it.

Thanks to everybody who's contributed. I'm still all ears. If you have never had this stuff, it can be very debilitating. One of its characteristics is that the pain is worse after extended rest. Fortunately I knew that from experience on Tuesday, even though I didn't know its name (worse after the drive home, worse after getting up in the morning). So I kept my rest stops down to about 5 minutes per 1-1/2 hours. When I arrived home, I could barely make it from the car to the door. I used a cane for the rest of the evening and the next morning. If I had rested a few hours on the trail, I would probably have had to fire up my SPOT and join the ranks of the RWOAPGT (Rescued While On A Perfectly Good Trail).

[zippetydude]

Hi Ed! I don't own stock in the company yet, but if others here find it works for them like it did for me, I might buy some stock and contact the company to offer a testimonial. I personally couldn't believe that it made quick work of a months-long, seemingly intractable problem. Seemed too good to be true. I've had a couple flare ups since then, but I keep it on hand now and it's all over within a day or two.

I've developed some arthritis in my knees and hips. My daughter works as a scribe at LLUMC and in her conversations with doctors has come across a medication that one of the doctors, who is a trail runner, swears by. It's called Mobic. I have a call in to my doctor too, only about Mobic instead of Voltaren. I'll be trying it out in the coming weeks, and if I can resume running like I used to enjoy, I'll report back on that one too! This getting old is for the birds, I'll tell you that. I'm hoping this Mobic stuff is the new Vioxx, only you get to keep living while taking it.

z

[Ed]

This getting old is for the birds, I'll tell you that.

As Betty Davis said, 'Getting old ain't for sissies'.

[Hikin_Jim]

I'm hoping this Mobic stuff is the new Vioxx, only you get to keep living while taking it.

Sheesh. Some guys are so demanding.

HJ

[zippetydude]

[Sally]

I came down with PF when I was a runner. I decided that I would rather prolong my days as a hiker, stopped running, and it cleared up soon after. I went o a physical therapist (having a daughter in the profession has it's perks)She gave me stretching exercises and a special splint to wear at night when sleeping. I have heard that going barefoot is a no-no, but I think I did it anyway.

[Wildhorse]

Peter Mackay, of Elite Performance in San Diego, is worth consulting. He helps many athletes. He helped my wife with this and identified the root cause. In her case a muscle in her hip had stopped working. Her lower back tried to do the work instead. That caused her pf, among other pains. A combination of massage, stretches and chiropractry helped, but ultimately Pilates got her hip muscle working again, solving all the problems. Peter connected her with all of the therapists and trainers. A massage therapist working with a Pilates trainer got the muscle to start working and to regain its strength.

My wife was able to stay fit through biking when the pain was too bad to hike. Peter kept her moving. He is so well respected among pro athletes because he keeps them going.

[cynthia23]

Everyone has had excellent tips. Wildhorse's overall point that PF is really multifactorial is very true. Very interesting about the foot gel Zip. I also think HJ's advice about stretching is excellent. Stretching is crucial. And Guest's tip about barefoot walking is very good advice for any kind of foot problem. I try to walk barefoot somewhere at least once a day. if you can go up and down some gentle slopes in the park, even better. I think in general the small muscles of our feet do not get enough exercise and that a lot of us have very weak stabilizer muscles. You mentioned a wobbly knee. It sounds like you would maybe benefit from some physical therapy exercises to strengthen those muscles around the knee (you would need to get a referral from a dr.) and then maybe carefully transitioning into some light leg work with weights at the gym. Most hikers don't do any leg strengthening exercises, because they think that just hiking or trail-running is enough, but it isn't. If you're just hiking, your legs plateau at a certain level of muscular strength and then with age start to weaken. You have to work them with weights, IMHO, or you just gradually get weaker and weaker. At least in my experience, when I stop going to the gym, I start having a lot of pulled muscles and problems like PF.

[Ed]

Thanks to everyone for their excellent advice. I have started my program of stretching exercises (Dr. HJ), and have a call into my doctor about Voltaren gel (Dr. Zip). If neither works, I will keep Wildhorse's recommendation in mind, it's certainly convenient since my primary residence is in the San Diego area. When I talk to orthopedists about my wobbly knee, they simply shake their heads sadly. Since I do not hike as frequently as I would like, I spend a great deal of time at a fitness center doing leg exercises: leg presses, stair stepper, stair case, treadmill with the incline ramped up, stationary bicycle with high resistance. I often do 5,000' of gain in one trip to the fitness center. But my legs are still spindly compared to what they once were. Downhill is my big problem, I am not much faster going down than up. Which is why Skyline is more than half of my hiking now. I've done Skyline eleven times since last October, with some interruption for my New Year's Day fractured humerus. I'm slow, but it was the roundtrip hike from Humber Park to Mt. San Jacinto last Tuesday, my first hike since last September with downhill, that was a big bummer, not the Skyline hikes.

And I am still all ears, if anyone has more input on PF.

[cynthia23]

Ok, here's another, focusing more on the wobbly knee and downhill hiking woes--have you tried working out (at the gym or at home) with a half-bosu ball? It's that blue plastic halfdome you see at many gyms now. I do a lot of exercises while standing on it, like squats and (while holding onto a TRX strap) one legged curtsies and one-legged squats.) You might want to invest a little $ in hiring a trainer at the gym for a few sessions and have he or she focus specifically on improving functionality. I've done that several times and found it well worth the money. The heavier weight machines are good at improving overall strength but don't do much for balance or stability. I have found doing these balance-type exercises on unstable surfaces like the Bosu to be very helpful at improving my downhill stability. I'm assuming these exercises strengthen the small stablilizing muscles around the knee and they might help you. Can't hurt, at least.