Plantar fasciitis & Morbidly obese

dhaemon

I'm 443 lbs. and I briskly walk(5 KPH) every second day with Adidas sneakers. The next morning, freaking ouch! As soon as I get out of bed I have to hobble my way around for the first 10 minutes.

I checked online and my symptoms match Plantar fasciitis. The pain is under my foot, from the heel to the top of my arch.

Anyone have any tips besides not walking?

turryandsally

I'm older than you (52) and I had lots of trouble with my knees, feet, etc. when I joined a gym a few months ago and began walking on the treadmill. I found that a stationary bike works well for me - they have some at my gym that fit my larger behind!! While I still have some aches and pains, I'm able to persevere, and I'm lifting some weights and riding the bike 5 days a week.

Best of luck on your journey - I'm available to be a new friend, if you're in need of any! I can use all the support I can get!

Bruceapple

New shoes or new inserts and change inserts every three months and new shoes every 6 months, even if they look ok.
I wear Brooks BEAST, they are for big heavy people, Go get a plastic Plantar brace at the pharmacy to sleep with. It holds you foot to and "L" shape and it seam to help. Make sure your shoes are wide also.
Good Luck

52cardpickup

A tennis ball will be your best friend. Roll it under your feet for a good 5 minutes before you get out of bed (sit on the side of the bed and roll roll roll). It helps stretch out the tendon so that when you finally get out of bed it's not so painful.

Also, what the person above me said about proper footwear and inserts if necessary. This will help prevent strain to the tendon, but the tennis ball will help to stretch out the tendon after it shrinks when you're sleeping.

ETA: A soda bottle will also work. Make sure you're applying enough pressure to really stretch the foot.

Kate7294

You need to stretch regularly. Keep a towel near your bed, loop towel around one foot and pull on ends to stretch, hold stretch for a minute, repeat, and now do other foot. Do that before you get up. *****Do not go barefoot. *****Put your shoes on before you get up. Always wear good shoes and insoles. Arch supports!
During your day try to get up and stretch hourly if you can. Pushing toe area against curbs if outside. Etc. You can freeze bottles of water or even tennis balls to roll your foot over.
Don't let blankets weigh down your feet if you sleep on your back. Try propping up knees so feet are in a more natural position. This is what those braces at night do.

Beyond this....An Orthopedic Doctor can possibly give you cortisone shots. <<<<Extremely painful but can help for a short while. Eventually they can go in and cut tendons similar to carpal tunnel surgery. Personally I ended up ripping mine so while tender surgery was no longer an option.

I used to work standing 12+ hours on concrete floors. Still put my shoes on before getting out of bed. I never go barefoot unless at a pool. Rarely bothers me anymore. Hasn't flared up bad since around 2002 here.

Good luck.

lacroyx

New shoes or new inserts and change inserts every three months and new shoes every 6 months, even if they look ok.
I wear Brooks BEAST, they are for big heavy people, Go get a plastic Plantar brace at the pharmacy to sleep with. It holds you foot to and "L" shape and it seam to help. Make sure your shoes are wide also.
Good Luck

2nd on the Brooks. Also, New Balance makes shoes for heavier people too. It can be pricey but trust me, it's worth it.

apetranovich

I would make sure you have the correct footwear. I wear Asics Keyano and they are amazing and I feel like my feet don't hurt AS MUCH. I think there's nothing that takes the pain away completely unfortunately

LisaRN9

I like to freeze a bottle of water and roll my feet on it to stretch them. I also do frequent hamstring stretches when walkiing and hang my feet off a curb to stretch from time to time. After a walk, i stretch for at least 20 minutes and include and stretch where i WRAP A band aroud my foot and pull it toward my head. Frequent stretching during a walk alleviates my pain.

ewhip17

The "do not go barefoot" advice mentioned above is huge. I've dealt with this for a long time now - the first round lasted a year. And now I always, always, always wear shoes. From the minute I get out of the shower in the am to just before I go to bed. And I have to have shoes with good support in the arch. I love Doc Martins but they are so flat on the inside that if I wear them for any length of time without inserts I start to get that plantar pain back. You can get OTC inserts but if it's really bad you may want to get custom orthotics.

Palamedes

Some quick rules on shoes:

1. If they do not fill comfortable the moment you put them on, do NOT wear them.

2. Never wear a shoe two days in a row. You have to let shoes dry out before you wear them again.

3. Inserts can help, however, make sure they feel comfortable to you.

Be careful that one set of symptoms is not masking another problem. For example, I have plantar fasciitis. However, I also have tarsal coalitions in both ankles. Turns out the plantar fasciitis was a symptom of a larger issue. Go to the Doctor and have him give you a good check out.

hermann341

As someone with plantar fasciitis and formerly much heavier:

Go to podiatrist and get the diagnosis confirmed. This will include x-rays to see if you have heal spurs as well. Cortisone shots may be done to help calm the nerves, but will not completely eliminate the pain. The doctor will probably recommend custom orthotics, which unfortunately are quite expensive ($350 - $400) and not covered by most insurance. However, they will last for years and are extremely worthwhile to get a pair for the shoes you wear the most (i.e. your work shoes). For exercise shoes, get Superfeet green inserts. They are full length so they won't move around in your shoes, and you custom cut them to match your feet. I have multiple pairs, so that I don't have to move them around between my different pairs of running shoes.

Use the heal stretching boot and the frozen water bottle to help reduce pain.

The biggest things that helped, though, were losing weight (removes pressure from your feet) and getting fit (strengthens feet). Every time my plantar fasciitis has flared up, I knew I had gained too much weight.

Raynne413

I have plantar fasciitis in both feet. It comes and goes. The things that have helped me the most are stretching before I get up in the morning, rolling my foot over a frozen water bottle, foot massage, and these inserts: .
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003I3TI0O/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also avoid the elliptical. For some reason, that really irritates it for me.

brenn24179

inserts help a lot. My hubby had to get a cortisone shot and inserts in his shoes but he said the inserts at Walmart (around $50) were just as good. Some machine you stand on and it tells you your problem. I have had plantar fasciitis also, it comes and goes.

danielcollins76

Hey, I had this, had to stop playing football (the soccer type) for 6 months. When I woke up in the am I had to hobble or crawl to the bathroom.

I used these stretches and had to wear the right footwear. Heel inserts helps but only temporarily. I found shoes that had little support to the top of the feet made the problem worse.

You may have low arches, get checked at a good sports shop or doctor.

Put a sports bottle of water in the freezer so when you get back from a walk you can roll your foot over it and it stretches but stops the bleeding. And it feels nice!

Keep it up, weight lose will help a lot to.

http://stockportccg.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Plantar-Faciitis_Arc.pdf