Hiya, Steff's insignificant other half here, she asked me to reply as i've had this condition myself.
I'm sure your doc told you some of this but PF is a condition that often affects police officers, posties and really anyone who spends a lot of time on their feet. But, can often affect women who wear high heels.
It's mainly caused by poor fitting footwear, or footwear that is not supportive to the ankle.
My own condition was also caused partly because my achillies tendon was shortening and pulling on the PF.
I had 6 weeks of physio, mainly using ultrasound on the affected area....but tbh i found little benefit from that.
The first thing i would suggest is to get either some gel inner soles for your shoes..available from boots and loads of other places..you get what you pay for here, so cheap isn't always best and remember they will still have to allow enough room for you to get your feet in the shoe as well. May need to get a cheap pair of trainers that are slightly larger than usual or something like that.
I've also heard that the Croc sandal type shoes are great for people with PF.
By far the best thing is exercises. You can find some interesting vids on youtube about the sort of exercises to do for PF.
The two exercises i found to work were:
1/ Get a plastic bottle ( i found a coke one to be best), the more bobbles and grooves on it the better. Fill it with water and put it in the freezer.
Once it's frozen, sit down and get it under the affected foot and just use your foot to roll the bottle backwards and forwards for about 20 mins.
This helps the circulation in the foot and you notice the effect of this.
Do this about 3 times in 90 mins, while watching the telly or something about 2 or 3 times a day.
2/ stand with your hand on a kitchen unit or the edge of a table. And bend your good leg, so your foots off the floor. Now lift your bad ankle off the floor, keeping your toes on the floor (hope this makes sense) so that your kind of bobbing up and down on your bad foot. Do it as slowly as you can as your trying to stretch that muscle under your foot and also your achillies. You'll really feel this in your calf after about 6 goes. After a while i found i could just about do 40 or so.
I ended up having a steroid injection for my condition, but those exercises really helped.
If i can be of any further help just ask away. After a few weeks you'll be fine and the discomfort will go, but keep doing the exercises.
I was originally told it would affect me for the rest of my life, but have had no sign of any reoccurence for over 12 months now...touch wood.
Good luck.
not happy cos I can't walk without pain and gotta run 10k in 8 weeks!!!!!
