[at-l] Heel Spurs/plantar fascitis

[wb4pan at mindspring.com (Chase Davidson)]

Jan,
	
	I had plantar fascitis a while back. My symptoms were mostly that the 
tendon running through my arch would seem to draw up during the night 
or even in shorter periods if sitting with my feet dangling. When I 
first tried to walk I would waddle for the first 100 feet until that 
area got stretched out again. I went to a (I call them) bone Dr.. He 
told me what the problem was before he even examined me. He sent me to 
the local sports therapist center a few times per week. After a month 
I quit going and just did the excersises at home. Occasionally I have 
some slight symptoms and I just do the excersises again and it goes away.
	At the therapy center they examined me. Exam consisted of 
observations as I stood or did different stretches and a little poking 
and prodding. They said the problem was that my calf muscles were way 
over developed in relation to the shin muscles. So when I relaxed, the 
bigger muscle overpowered the smaller and drew up more I reckon. I 
knew nothing of stretching and warming up (never played or cared for 
the regular ball sports and never learned about this stuff) . Two 
other things contributed to my problem. I was purposely gazzeling. To 
produce more speed and distance each step I pushed off extra far with 
my toes each step. I wore the toes off a pair of mid weight leather 
boots! I blame Leki's for some of the problem. Although I do not plan 
to stop using them. Using the Leki's for balance relieved the work of 
all the little muscles that are normally used for balance. So they did 
not develop.
	Three excersises fixed me up. Two of them involved standing on one 
leg (this develops the little balance muscles) and either throwing the 
heavy weighted ball at the ball bouncer back trampoline thingy or 
pulling on this light bungy cord hooked to the wall. Just enough to 
really work them little balance muscles. These excersises were 
performed facing the bungee and then at 45* angels and 90* or 
sideways.  The other excersises was to stand pigeon toed (this 
isolates certain muscles) and raise yourself to your toes. Often I did 
this with my toes on a 2" high platform so that when my heels were 
down they were  below my toes.
	Sounds like mine wasn't as bad as yours. Mine didn't really hurt 
except when starting out. Recently I went back to same DR. and he sent 
me back to same center. This time I was having some occasional 
stabbing back pains. Like when I went to get up out of a chair... yeow 
I got gun shy and would get up real slow. I was so worried that 
several thousand miles of backpacking had worn something out in my 
lower back. Luckily everyone said nope, the backpacking was very good 
for me and keep it up!
	The problem this time was that my hips were rotated slightly so that 
one leg was shorter than the other, which cause a crooked spine. They 
said this was quite common and repaired quickly. After about a month 
of strengthening the opposite muscles everything straightened out :-) 
So I joined a gym to do a little mild strengthening all over. I think 
perhaps Leki came into play with this problem too. For years i have 
noticed that I push off more with my right arm and Leki. I use the 
Leki's all the time, up hill, down hill, and on the level. I figure my 
arms may as well be doing something. When i get real tired I kind of 
slightly hunker over on the right side and push along and the left 
does a lot less work. I think this strengthened me crooked.
	Well that was kind of long winded but that is what happened to me 
best I can recall and spell it. Perhaps it will help someone avoid the 
same problems.

chase


Jan Leitschuh wrote:

> Another hiking foot question:
> 
> Thanks, all, for the stretches.
> Should I be stretching the heel/leg when it's tender? Even now, I can
> palpate sore spots. 
> 
> And yet another question - I know in horses a vet can take a portable
> ultrasound to a tendon and find a tear, etc. They can review it again
> in a month, and assess healing progress.
> Do they do that for lame people? Who should I see (what type of
> diagnostician) for a diagnosis? 
> A physical therapist sounds good, shouldn't I get things diagnosed
> first? Who can "envision" the problem internally? Do they do x-rays,
> or what?
> I've been calling it plantar fascitis, but it's just a guess.
>