Welcome back to FixPF! A Renewal Physical Therapy campaign to give everyone the tools they need to fix plantar fasciitis heel pain so they can spend less on medical professionals and more on the rest of their lives.
This is Todd Rundell, owner of Renewal Physical Therapy and the bane of plantar fasciitis heel pain everywhere. Each episode will be a fictional case study based on real patients, and research articles from pubmed.
Today we talk about Shelly.
Shelly is the 48 year old mother of four teenage girls. They are all in a variety of extracurricular activities so she is constantly on-the-go. She has always been a high energy person. As a child her mother described her as “full of zest” and her father called her “Sarge”. She knew how to get things done. And she knew how to command others to do the same. This has served her daughters well, and they are becoming women who know how to not look to their own interests but also to the interests of others.
Being on-the-go all of the time is not draining for Shelly. She enjoys it. However, about 3 months ago during ballet recital week she began having some discomfort in her heels. It was painful in the morning a little bit, but by the end of the day it was excruciating. Long days at recital helping the owner of the company make everything run smoothly took its toll on both of her heels.
After 1 month of the heel pain lingering she began doing her own research. Her heels weren’t under her command and she needed them to be. For two months she got to work. She bought a night splint (which was a life saver in the mornings), she did ice massage, and she started stretching her calf muscles. This relieved the morning pain almost entirely, but the pain in the evenings remained distractingly painful.
After 3 months of the pain lingering she went to see her physical therapist. He noticed that her hamstrings were stiff and were limiting her knee motion. He recommended she begin stretching her hamstrings. After one week of this she was amazed. Her heel pain was entirely gone. Occasionally she has heel pain when she is on her feet for too long, but nothing a good calf and hamstring stretch can’t fix.
If Shelly’s story sounds like your story, but you need some training on how to most quickly and effectively reconcile your symptoms we would be honored to help you. Reach out today!
Sincerely,
Todd Rundell
Harty J, Soffe K, O’Toole G, Stephens MM. The role of hamstring tightness in plantar fasciitis. Foot Ankle Int. 2005 Dec;26(12):1089-92. doi: 10.1177/107110070502601215. PMID: 16390645.