Now what did I do?

Getting to the bathroom in the morning or the middle of the night is one of the hardest parts of plantar fasciitis -- stretching the plantar fascia before stepping made a huge difference for me -- to stretch the plantar fascia bend the your knee 90 degrees hold the heel still and pull the toes back -- you can feel the fascia stretch with the fingers of the hand holding the heel. 10 X 10 sec is ideal (I always do less). Its good to do this a few times a day if you've been sitting for a long time. The hard part is doing it when you are waking up -- I often do a modified plantar stretch on the mattress while I try to get my wits about me. I had my first bout of plantar fasciitis when we had a new baby in the house and trying to respond to a crying baby before he wakes the other kids, while dragging your foot is pretty unpleasant. Stretching helped a lot-- i am pretty sure that this is the article I read back then-- last week my other foot started up so I started the stretching again: J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2003 Jul;85-A(7):1270-7. Tissue-specific plantar fascia-stretching exercise enhances outcomes in patients with chronic heel pain. A prospective, randomized study. DiGiovanni BF, Nawoczenski DA, Lintal ME, Moore EA, Murray JC, Wilding GE, Baumhauer JF. Department of Physical Therapy, Ithaca College, University of Rochester Campus, New York 14623, USA. benedict_digiovanni@urmc.rochester.edu Abstract BACKGROUND: Approximately 10% of patients with plantar fasciitis have development of persistent and often disabling symptoms. A poor response to treatment may be due, in part, to inappropriate and nonspecific stretching techniques. We hypothesized that patients with chronic plantar fasciitis who are managed with the structure-specific plantar fascia-stretching program for eight weeks have a better functional outcome than do patients managed with a standard Achilles tendon-stretching protocol. METHODS: One hundred and one patients who had chronic proximal plantar fasciitis for a duration of at least ten months were randomized into one of two treatment groups. The mean age was forty-six years. All patients received prefabricated soft insoles and a three-week course of celecoxib, and they also viewed an educational video on plantar fasciitis. The patients received instructions for either a plantar fascia tissue-stretching program (Group A) or an Achilles tendon-stretching program (Group B). All patients completed the pain subscale of the Foot Function Index and a subject-relevant outcome survey that incorporated generic and condition-specific outcome measures related to pain, function, and satisfaction with treatment outcome. The patients were reevaluated after eight weeks. RESULTS: Eighty-two patients returned for follow-up evaluation. With the exception of the duration of symptoms (p

Getting to the bathroom in the morning or the middle of the night is one of the hardest parts of plantar fasciitis -- stretching the plantar fascia before stepping made a huge difference for me -- to stretch the plantar fascia bend the your knee 90 degrees hold the heel still and pull the toes back -- you can feel the fascia stretch with the fingers of the hand holding the heel. 10 X 10 sec is ideal (I always do less). Its good to do this a few times a day if you've been sitting for a long time. The hard part is doing it when you are waking up -- I often do a modified plantar stretch on the mattress while I try to get my wits about me. I had my first bout of plantar fasciitis when we had a new baby in the house and trying to respond to a crying baby before he wakes the other kids, while dragging your foot is pretty unpleasant. Stretching helped a lot-- i am pretty sure that this is the article I read back then-- last week my other foot started up so I started the stretching again: J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2003 Jul;85-A(7):1270-7. Tissue-specific plantar fascia-stretching exercise enhances outcomes in patients with chronic heel pain. A prospective, randomized study. DiGiovanni BF, Nawoczenski DA, Lintal ME, Moore EA, Murray JC, Wilding GE, Baumhauer JF. Department of Physical Therapy, Ithaca College, University of Rochester Campus, New York 14623, USA. benedict_digiovanni@urmc.rochester.edu Abstract BACKGROUND: Approximately 10% of patients with plantar fasciitis have development of persistent and often disabling symptoms. A poor response to treatment may be due, in part, to inappropriate and nonspecific stretching techniques. We hypothesized that patients with chronic plantar fasciitis who are managed with the structure-specific plantar fascia-stretching program for eight weeks have a better functional outcome than do patients managed with a standard Achilles tendon-stretching protocol. METHODS: One hundred and one patients who had chronic proximal plantar fasciitis for a duration of at least ten months were randomized into one of two treatment groups. The mean age was forty-six years. All patients received prefabricated soft insoles and a three-week course of celecoxib, and they also viewed an educational video on plantar fasciitis. The patients received instructions for either a plantar fascia tissue-stretching program (Group A) or an Achilles tendon-stretching program (Group B). All patients completed the pain subscale of the Foot Function Index and a subject-relevant outcome survey that incorporated generic and condition-specific outcome measures related to pain, function, and satisfaction with treatment outcome. The patients were reevaluated after eight weeks. RESULTS: Eighty-two patients returned for follow-up evaluation. With the exception of the duration of symptoms (p