The Plantar Fasciitis Community Will Help
PF Surgery on 4/13......today is EXACTLY One month later
Hi all!
I just realized it's been one month since surgery! AMAZING. If you want to read more about my experience, you can click on the red "KIM" at the top of this post. Select the box that says discussions commented on, and change it to Discussions started by and you can follow my journey.
Today I feel great. I am on my second week of PT and second week in a black walking boot. I sleep in my boot and only remove when I shower. I am able to easily walk without crutches and I started driving a few days ago. I haven't had a pain pill in a few days. This has been a very gradual progression. Two weeks ago when I moved from a cast to the walking boot, I was very uncomfortable. It was very distressing because I was now in a new "pain".....after a few days it went away. Within a few days of being in the boot I went from being able to walk with crutches, to walking on my own.
I've been very careful not to over do it during this time. It feels great to have freedom, but I also know that if I do too much, my ankle will swell and I won't feel so good. So I am beginning to learn how manage my activity/tolerance level.
As an example, I have about 500 steps in me in any given day. Three days ago, I had maybe 200 steps. I don't literally count them...I'm just trying to give you a gauge of how I manage my activity. Each morning I think of a few things I'd like to accomplish, and break them into smaller bits. If alot of walking is going to be involved, I'll switch to crutches. I also, NO MATTER what.....stop and ice 4 x per day.
This is what I did today:
showered/dressed.....iced/elevated for an hour
Drove to CVS, drive through pharmacy
Drove to Wal-Mart and walked a decent distance from handicap parking to the inside. I used a "scooter" and cruised around like normal....it was so nice to shop without pain. I think people were surprised to see someone with an actual "injury" using a scooter. I shopped for about an hour. Had someone push my cart out to the car and load.
Drove to the bank
Came home/ ate and iced
Walked to mailbox
Attempted to sweep the floor, did a very small amount and started to feel queasy. Sat down, iced.
Got up attempted to sweep again.....really felt queasy again....sat down.
Heated up some dinner/ate, felt better....but I'm done for the day. It's 5:00.
I will probably go to bed, ice/elevate/ watch t.v for a couple of hours and then come downstairs for a bit....then head to bed.
So that is what MY experience is like ONE month after PF release.
Now, if I continued to push through the "sick" feeling and keep going, I'd be in bed all day tomorrow. I have medication to help with the sick feeling, but the doc said that is my cue that I am over doing it.
Tomorrow, I expect to wake up and feel pretty good. I'll prioritize a few things and repeat. Each day, gradually adding more.
I go to the doctor at the end of next week. My ankle is not as swollen. Last week it was the size of a a softball every day. Now that I am icing and watching my activity level it is getting smaller.
The other foot (that didn't have surgery) also has PF. That foot hurts so much more than the foot that was operated on. I can easily walk about ten feet barefooted with no pain.
I'm so sorry that some people have not had success with surgery. I'm far from claiming myself a success....but I feel so much better already. I am very optimistic. My hope is that at the end of June I will still be healing well and can talk my doctor into doing the other foot in July. BC I'm not on pain pills I can feel my other PF foot.....forgot what that pain was like and how miserable it is....would love to get that one done well.
For those of you new here....there is alot of information on PF here. Just remember that everyone's situation is different, everyone's doctor is different. This is just a place that people come to share their battle w/ PF.
If I could offer advice to someone who has PF.........I would say the following:
1) Find a doctor who really wants to work with you, who is empathetic and wants you to get better. If he/she says "it takes time" and doesn't offer many different treatments....go find another.
2) Learn as much as you can from people about the problem.
3)Try everything you hear about as a way to cure it.
4) Don't accept the pain....pain is not normal.
5)If your doctor doesn't do the surgery frequently....find someone who does.
6) Ask lots of questions, gain a FULL understanding of any surgical procedure.....talk to as many people you can. Understand different approaches.
7)Remember, the body wants to heal it's self. But it is a slow process. Ligaments are really slow to heal. Different doctors give different time lines.....my doctor said ten months to full recovery.
Good Luck!
Tags: Planter, after, fasciitis, month, one, surgery
Views: 51
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kim on -
My bad. When you click on my name, it takes you to my page....you can scroll down and see what I have commented on and what I "Started"....here you will find different posts about my surgery from day one.
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Permalink Reply by T. D. Sharkey on -
Hopefully in the nine days since you have written this you have been busy getting on with your life. I'm considering the surgical route after over two years with it. Currently I am in a boot. An MRI revealed a stress fracture, so I am going from non-to partial weight bearing over a period of seven weeks. I want to give it some time, not a lot, but some, to see what I have left in the foot and then consider my next option.
I found the surgeon I am likely to use purely by serendipity. I had had PF for about six months, but was running in an adventure race (kind of like a triathlon, but it is team based, in the woods, has route finding, mountain bikes, etc..) when I heard a woman on another team, perhaps a little younger than me, talking about PF. I was all ears. She said she had the surgery over a year earlier and it was, and I will never forget her words, "the best decision I have ever made." I certainly got the name of her surgeon (and luckily it was a memorable name..)
Fast forward a year and half filled with different orthotics, ECSWT, and waiting. I am trying the boot, but sent that doctor an email. I am near Tampa and he is in Orlando. He was kind enough to call me and spent about a half hour talking to me about the procedure he uses. Naturally, he prefers conservative measures, but when they fail, he says he can fix it. He claims he has had cops back on their beats and triathletes training again in as little as four weeks(!) after the surgery. (He does say that is the exception more than the rule..) He only does a week in the cast before swapping that for the boot. I want to talk to him more about how that can be done so quickly.
I mean this is what I don't get. They say this connective tissue heals so slowly, and that is one reason why this is a tricky problem. Then how is it that you can cut it and have it heal in four weeks or so?
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Permalink Reply by Kim on
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My doctor has been very realistic. She too has had patients who are back in action very quickly. I would say that I am not back very fast. I'm also conservative by nature and that is why I have been so slow to push myself. You said it exactly connective tissue heals very slowly.
I've spent the last three weeks in my boot. My activity increasing each day. But if I do too much, and I have pain...I ice and elevate. I was able to go this last week without any medication and very little pain. I also started with Jenny Craig weightless. I didn't want to gain any weight laying around. I'm down ten pounds!
I went to the doctor this past Thursday. She told mr to start alternating boot to sneakers. Said to only wear sneakers next six weeks. I bought a new pair (all my others were running shoes w RX inserts). She said not to wear those. Anyway. I took three steps and felt a rip up my calf muscle. Went back next day to her office. She said I basically backslid three weeks. She said that I needed to keep off as much as possoble, let calf heal. The good news is that lengthen my calf muscle, which complement my lengthened planters.
I do believe the recovery for this is easier when you are younger and in better shape. I feel a huge difference having lost the ten. Another ten gone and I'll b back where I was in October of 2010 before the pain got so unbearable that my activity/training came to a hault.
Good luck. Everyone has a different experience and follows instructions from doctors differently and receives different treatment plans.
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Permalink Reply by Deirdre Hegarty on
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Hi Kim
well done, but gosh a month and still icing etc, that in itself puts it out of the question for me. would not be able to be off work so long, best of luck hope it speeds up, keep the updates coming
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Permalink Reply by T. D. Sharkey on
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See that you popped back and answered a few posts. How is it going with you?
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Permalink Reply by Kim on
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Hey :)
It's going ok. This is a very slow healing process. You have to be very careful not to do too much in one day.....there seems to be an invisible meter on my foot and ankle, if do too much it swells and I get uncomfortable....not to the point of needing pain pills. I mostly experience swelling....but it feels so good to be up and active, it's really hard to pull yourself back in. I think the emotional/psychological part is the hardest right now. I want to be active, but can't. I feel as if each day I take one small step forward, and a half a step back by the end of the day......
It was two months yesterday since the surgery. I'm still wearing my black boot, but alternating with a sneaker. I ice 2-3 times per day. I have no pain at all....unless I over do it.
I can be on my feet moving around about four hours a day, but not all at once. The only time I experience pain is when I stand in one place for a few minutes. I have PF in both feet, honestly the one that I didn't have the surgery on hurts more than the one I did have surgery on.........
Thanks for checking in :)
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