Plantar fasciotomy

Also know as plantar fasciitis realease. So, it's been 4 days post-op now and I thought I'd take a second to update how I've been doing. I mostl laid in the couch for all of Monday, all if Tuesdy, and most of Wednesday. I limped around using crutches, even though I was allowed to put weight on it, I just couldn't really.

I saw the doc yesterday for my first post-op check up. He said my incision looked so good that he asked if he could take picture! so, beware, if in the future you stumble across some medical journal with picturea of a plantar fasciotomy.... It COULD be MY foot;) anyway, I was glad to hear that it was looking just as it should. I was worried about wether I should be puttin weight in it or not... You see, I don't want it to heal too tight because I'm not walking on it. At the same time, now that I'm missing 1/3 of my fascia band, I'm scared if I over stretch it I'll wind up with a wobbly foot, that wouldn't do me much good either!! But the doc confirmed that I surely don't want it toheal too tight, and that I should be trying to walk on it, and that I most definitely needed to be walking on it w/o crutches in two weeks' time.

So for the rest of the day I tried to hobble around with out the crutches, they were a nuisance anyway. Today my foot is feeling awesome! I mean, I still can't walk on it correctly, but there are good things I'm feeling. For instance out of bed in the morning it honestly feels like my right foot (unoperated on) is tighter that the fixed left foot. Which is hopefully for me. I can move and stretch my foot w/o any sort of pain. And even when I stand on it, I don't really feel any PAIN with it. It's more like uncomfortable because it stretches my arch and therefore tugs at the incision. So because I've been babying that spot I've been walking on the outside ball of my feet, but the more I so that, the more I'm worried it's going to mess up my gait and ruin something else (probably my knee or something!)

This evening I switched from the walking boot they gave me to my regular sneakers and they seemed to feel a bit better. So for right now, I am supposed to be walking on it, it's only dressed with band aids which I'm supposedto take off every night while I sleep.

Anyway, so over-all it's feeling pretty good. If I knew for sure that my leaning limp would go away, Im totally ready to d this again in a few weeks!

Final step, new start

As most people who know me know, I have been suffering from bilateral plantar fasciitis for two years now. It could have been something that I ran my self into... Just before I got pregnant with our 4 th child I had started heavily exercising, working out, and losing weight. I trained for a 5k with some friends and while I did that I lost about 40 lbs and it was the best and healthiest I had felt in YEARS! I unexpectedly got pregnant and tried to keep up the exercise, but just couldn't. I delivered a baby two years ago this month and I was very anxious to get back to the gym and lose the rest of the weight gained in pregnancy and feel healthy again.

At the same time my eldest started kindergarten and we started doing A LOT of walking. And before I knew it, both of my feet were crippled. And they were never the same again. I don't know if it was the running before I came pregnant, the 50-ish pounds I gained while pregnant, or all the crazy walking I did afterward.... I'll probably never know. But I started to do PF treatments within a few months when I ad also a doc recognized what was going on. I got new shoes, custom orthotics, two night-splits, 8 weeks of physical therapy, lots more weeks of chiropractic care, MRIs, X-rays, cortisone injections, more new shoes, LOTS of resting, and NO more walking or gym workouts. As I've continued to gain weight from my incredible lack of activity it has gotten to be very frustrating for me.

Last month I got to spend the whole month at my moms house and I thought that my feet would rest a bit, cooler weather, softer sub-floors... But after painting her house and putting up backyard fencing and even more painting projects I left Colorado with throbbing, awful, painful feet. I was so fed up with it that the day I got back I called and schedules surgery for less that a week later.

I had my plantar fasciotomy procedure yesterday and it went quite smooth. The procedure was super quick. And now today, the following day of the procedure, I do feel a small painful twinge at the incision site, and I don't feel comfortable putting much weight on it yet, but they say I should be able to soon. It's just wrapped in ace bandages and then I have an awesome little walking shoe to go over it. And some fabulous crutches to hobble around on!

I had the procedure done on my left foot and I will go in in 3 weeks to have it done on my right foot. So hopefully this last step helps cure the problem and I'll be able to exercise and play volleyball again without any painful side effects. Oh how I hope so!!!