It struck like lightning, hurt like hell and would not go away.
Plantar Fasciitis, it is not your friend.
I tried a podiatrist. He doctored up my insoles and created an arch padded ankle sleeve to isolate and immobilize the arch. This helped reduce the extreme pain of walking but did not improve the core issue after four weeks. I was hopping like a wounded bunny and had to curtail all walking at work. Wearing a boot at night was the #1 pain reducer, worked like magic – after 2 nights I could sleep without the pain waking me up. But with modified arches, the arch/ankle wrap, special socks, massage balls, and the boot – there was little to no overall improvement after eight weeks – just a reduction of pain. The podiatrist added more padding to my insoles. I tried super expensive shoes. My foot still hurt like crazy. I was still hopping like a hobbled warrior, just shy of needing crutches. Then I started doing the stretches in the this video. As someone who’d had Achilles issues from cycling, I really liked the low impact versions presented – not doing a death drop or negative heel drop on stairs or raised surface sounded good. It was. Within 4-5 days I could feel a difference. Within 7 I was much better, I could walk again. And I know it works – 4 months in if I skip 2-3 days of stretching I can feel pain coming back into my heel area and 1-2 days of stretching puts me back in line. I still have small steady pain, but I can walk normally with nothing more than a decent set of $20 insoles. And that’s not something I could do before stretching. Thank you Dr. Richard Blake!