Monday, September 17, 2007

Victory & immense pain

First we'll talk about my victory. I went for a walk this morning (no, that's not the victory!). About halfway through the walk, I have to cross a big street. There's no light there, so I pretty much have to cross at an opportune moment between a break in traffic. This morning it was pretty busy, so I had to jog across the street.

And when I got across, I kept jogging.

I jogged for just one block, but that's one more than I jogged yesterday. And let me just say that I have *never* jogged in public before, outside of forced exercise in P.E. At first I was nervous/embarrassed about a few cars that were driving by, and then I was especially embarrassed when another (in shape) jogger crossed my path at the 1-block intersection.

But who cares.

I jogged.

*****
Now, my immense pain... I bought some arch supports for my new shoes, in hopes that it would help my crampy/burning foot problem when walking. It did NOT. It was probably 3 times WORSE today than without the inserts. About 2/3 through the walk, I honestly didn't know if I could make it home because with every step, it felt like knives stabbing into my feet. Obviously I made it and kept going, but MAN, it was unbelivably painful.

Now, my question is, do you think this is just my feet in shock b/c they've never been supported like this before? Do you think they need to get used to the inserts, or is it just totally abnormal for me to be in such pain using these things?

3 comments:

Princess Dieter aka Mir said...

I got plantar fasciitis about 10 years ago. It was so bad, I'd cry walking. That stabbing pain..like I was walking on knives. Yes, horrible. And if I stand or walk too much at my ginormous weight, it acts up again.

HOwever, never again the way it was. Literally, if I had to pee in the night, my hubby would have to get up to HELP ME get to the bathroom, cause my feet were so bad.

But, I went to the podiatrist. He had me putting my feet on ice for twenty minutes, two to three times a day. (Did it while watching tv.) He also gave me stretching exercises for the feet (these are available online, I'm sure. Everything's online!). And he also had me taking anti-inflammatories OTC (aspirin, motrin) for when it was at its worst. He also injected my feet with cortisone.

And I got orthotics. And I kept a belt in my nighttable drawer to do the heel stretching first thing I woke up BEFORE I got out of bed.

I went one year and a half wearing boots and sneakers (to hold the orthotics in place). I gave up all heeled shoes. That did it. I was able to go back to wearing platform heels (never stilettos again, sadly, the weight thing). But that got rid of the active fasciitis. I do preventative if it acts up from walking alot or standing a lot. Mostly, I just keep my feet up as much as possible and stretch them daily. That keeps it gone.

But the acute fasciitis is torture. Get your feet checked to make sure you're okay there. You may not have it, mind you. But prevention is better than a year plus of wearing sneakers and boots and weeping in pain in the morning.

Trust me. Better to pay for a podiatrist to check you out than risk damaging your feet.

Feel better. I hope your problem is easily and QUICLY solved, but do the google for "plantar fasciitis" and do the stretching exercises several times a day. That alone might do the trick.

The Princess

Princess Dieter aka Mir said...

Oh, I just fuond the exercises online. Here ya go--

http://www.plantarfasciitisbraces.com/plantar_fasciitis_stretching_exercises.html

Easy. Effective.

Me

Heather said...

congrats on the jogging! I am so out of shape, I dont think I could jog for long. I also have no arch in my feet, so I think a lot of what you are feeling is that. Have you tried New Balance's? They have really good support in their running shoes. If its that bad too, I would go see a podiatrist.