I am not getting better

[Manny]

Today was my 6th day of therapy for my left foot, you must remember I have phasitis plantar a very painful thing, I took the pills the doctor prescribed and I was ok but when I finished the prescrìpcion I began to feel the pain again so I went to a Therapist following the doctors's intructions and the thing is not getting better.

I did my examination and since then I have only practiced twice, last night it was very unconfortable.

TKD is a high impact sport/ma and maybe this is contributing to my foot problem so I want to ask you what kind of low impact MA would you recomend me in case of: a) I will have to leave TKD for a few months till full recovery or.... b) I will have to leave TKD for ever..... this is a scary thing cause I don't want to stop doing martial arts.

Thank you.

Manny

 

[terryl965]

Manny why don't you just wait until it heals, the things is a low impact MA is still going to hurt just not as much. Give it time and rest.

 

[jks9199]

Manny,
Plantar's fascitis can take a really long time to heal. You might need a night splint that holds your foot straight, too. My doctor told me that it could literally take years to heal... or even never heal fully.

 

[ATC]

Did you get a boot from the doc to wear? Also not sure if shoe inserts would work. The doc has to make them for your foot but might work. I know my daughter had a tendon problem with the bottom of her foot that killed when she walked. Took her to the foot doctor and he made an insert that he had to where all the time. Took about one week to get use to the insert but after that she said that when she had shoes on and the insert in there was no pain. The doc also said that she would need surgery to fully correct it. Well she wore those implants until she could where them no more and now she has no pain. Something to look into.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Manny, I know it feels like this has been going on forever, but it has not. You say that you felt better after taking the pills you were given. What were the pills, if I may ask? I suspect they were some variety of antiinflamatory. Possibly steroids.

The inflammation of the muscle fascia that causes your pain can take months to resolve. Sometimes years. And sometimes it never completely resolves. Tae Kwon Do is certainly going to contribute to the problem. I don't know what you do for a living, but anyone who spends a lot of their day on their feet is also at high risk for this problem.

Treatment is aimed at reducing the inflammation. I don't know what has been tried with you, but the options include non-steroidal anti-inflamatories, oral steroids (although a few studies have shown this to be no more effective than the NSAIDs), steroid injections, splints (worn at night), massage or surgery. Surgery is the last resort, of course, and if you go that route then the most promising form is coblation surgery, from what I have read (although ER is my field, not podiatry).

Assuming you were on a course of NSAIDs (as is the usual first treatment) with at least some relief, then it would make sense at this point to put you back on NSAIDs and add one or more additional treatments. I'd think local injection of steroids plus possibly night splints. And time. Lots and lots of time.

I do not think that changing arts would be of much (if any) help. The footwork of any art is going to stress the foot. Patience will be reguired...

Good luck Manny. I always enjoy reading your thoughts.

 

[StudentCarl]

Manny,
I'm not surprised. For me it took the combination of losing weight and having the surgery. That was 15 years ago. Last night I ran 2 miles and did team practice. I suggest seeing your doctor again.

Best wishes,
Carl

 

[Manny]

Thank you all, the pills doctor gave me were antinflamatories one of these pills were Keral (dexketoprofeno trometanol 25 mg) the other pill I don't have it at hand, also I was given a shot of antinflamatory too. My problem is the WEIGHT and concave feet.

I have reduced my TKD sesssions too and cero kenpo class too. Talking about the splinter or boot the doctor hasn't order one for me yet. My therapist said to me at the end of the treatment she will do a test and then write the conclusions to my doctor.

Every time I stand pu from bed or from a chair the heel kills me till I start to walk so then the pain eases alittle. As you may know I cant run without pain.

Last night we did some kicks most of them spining back kicks and the disconfor was high.

The kenpo classes are not high impact or demanding we very few kicks (low ones) and mostly we do are hand techs,trowing and pins so I think that maybe this classes can be as rough on my feet.

I will take some rest this week and keep on tne therapist, next week I will see if a couple of kenpo class are bareable.

Manny

 

[Sukerkin]

Time and more time is the major element in dealing with this. My latest bout with it has lasted about nine months so far with no sign of it improving much. I can hardly walk first thing in the morning as the pain is akin to someone hammering a hot chisel into my heel.

For martial arts, what I have found is that you can work through it and the pain subsides enough to let you practise - of course, here I speak about Iai rather than TKD, so the demands are a little different.

One of my fellow students suffers too and what he found to work were the shoe inserts mentioned above.

Something to bear in mind is that peoples experiences with this painful complaint can vary widely and so can their advice. For example, I have been told to categorically never have any steroid type injections for it by some people and others have said it was the best thing they did to treat it.

 

[Omar B]

Dude, you are not going to heal overnight. When I had my knee redone at 16 it took me almost 2 years to get back to where I was. After my car accident in November even now I'm affected by pains in the back and neck (I've got 3 fused vertebra). You are human, you don't have Wolverine's healing factor. Do your therapy and take it slow.

 

[igillman]

Manny, there is an old English proverb that dates from the late 1400's...

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

Your injury is the nail and your TKD career is the Kingdom. In order not to lose TKD forever (the kingdom) you are probably going to have to rest for a while (the nail), maybe even months. Maybe it is time to discover the hand and arm movements of TKD? You have the perfect opportunity to do this. You might want to look at the hand movements of other Martial Arts (Wing Chun springs to mind) that do not do much kicking.


If you have to walk with a cane for a while then there is a whole set of martial arts moves based upon using a cane for defence.
​

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[Manny]

Time and more time is the major element in dealing with this. My latest bout with it has lasted about nine months so far with no sign of it improving much. I can hardly walk first thing in the morning as the pain is akin to someone hammering a hot chisel into my heel.

For martial arts, what I have found is that you can work through it and the pain subsides enough to let you practise - of course, here I speak about Iai rather than TKD, so the demands are a little different.

One of my fellow students suffers too and what he found to work were the shoe inserts mentioned above.

Something to bear in mind is that peoples experiences with this painful complaint can vary widely and so can their advice. For example, I have been told to categorically never have any steroid type injections for it by some people and others have said it was the best thing they did to treat it.

I really apreciate your words, thank you very much. I am wearing the shoe inserts since may and they have worked because they help me to ease the pain.

As you say I feel exactly the same you feel every morning when I wake up, a hot chisel hamered to my foot.

I will try againg to loose weight and keep it with the therapist till the end, I will reduce my training session to once or twice per week for a time and try to be happy this way.

Manny

 

[Manny]

Dude, you are not going to heal overnight. When I had my knee redone at 16 it took me almost 2 years to get back to where I was. After my car accident in November even now I'm affected by pains in the back and neck (I've got 3 fused vertebra). You are human, you don't have Wolverine's healing factor. Do your therapy and take it slow.

Thank you Omar, I must take things easy as you say, I need to improve some things on me and take the time to recover if not full recover maybe a nice recover.

Manny

 

[StudentCarl]

Manny, if you haven't, you should research plantar fascitis/heel spurs. Take a look at X-rays. The inflammation is the symptom from the spur that your body has built. It doesn't go away.

I think I mentioned that my problems were 15 years ago. The surgery was to partially cut my plantar fascia to get it to form scar tissue at the point of the spur (same thing done on both feet a few months apart).

When I broke my toe joint in January, the X-rays showed the heel spurs still there,and the emergency doctors tried to refer me to a doctor for them until I explained that they had been treated and they were no longer a problem.

The meds and boot only deal with the inflammation, and they're a temporary fix. Even if you do nothing for a year, when you are active again you will hurt again. It does help to lose weight, but the core problem is the spurs. If you haven't had X-rays, you should.

 

[jthomas1600]

Hey Manny, sorry about your foot troubles. If you have to take some time off to heal (and it sounds like that might be best) I would suggest you take up swimming if there's a pool available. Swimming is excellent exercise and almost zero impact. Good luck.

 

[Balrog]

Today was my 6th day of therapy for my left foot, you must remember I have phasitis plantar a very painful thing, I took the pills the doctor prescribed and I was ok but when I finished the prescrìpcion I began to feel the pain again so I went to a Therapist following the doctors's intructions and the thing is not getting better.

I did my examination and since then I have only practiced twice, last night it was very unconfortable.

TKD is a high impact sport/ma and maybe this is contributing to my foot problem so I want to ask you what kind of low impact MA would you recomend me in case of: a) I will have to leave TKD for a few months till full recovery or.... b) I will have to leave TKD for ever..... this is a scary thing cause I don't want to stop doing martial arts.

I went through a session of plantar fasciitis a while back. All I can say is to do what the doctor says to do in terms of rehab, get a cortisone shot or two, lose some weight and above all, don't rush it. You have the rest of your life to do martial arts; an extra couple of weeks rehabbing your foot isn't going to be the end of the world.