Plantars fasciitis or as it’s properly called, plantar fasciitis can ruin your life. It almost ruined my wife’s career as a classical singer. She’s the reason I created this website. This is her story…
Lisa Drew, Contralto
My name is Lisa. I am a professional classical singer and travel extensively throughout the United States and Europe. I suffer from Plantar Fasciitis.
A few years ago my husband and I decided to get our bodies in shape. We joined a local gym and instituted a workout regiment consisting of cardio and weightlifting. I love the treadmill, so this was my choice for cardio.
We were doing great – minimum of 3 days a week and I was up to 45 minutes on the treadmill. finally getting a good rhythm going. Suddenly one morning, I woke up to extreme heel pain and could barely walk from my bed to the bathroom. I found I could barely put any pressure on my right foot initially, but as the day wore on, I was able to walk more.
We still went to the gym, but my workouts on the treadmill were becoming increasingly painful and I began to research the symptoms on the internet. Turns out this was a quite common ailment and I found the explanations I needed to form the conclusion that I had developed plantar fasciitis.
I live in a large city and am fortunate to have a group of locally owned shoe stores that specialize in problems for feet. They employ an in-house podiatrist that travels between their stores and will help diagnose and confirm foot problems and give recommendations for treatment. All at no cost.
This is where I found out about women’s Haflinger shoes (and men’s Haflinger shoes). Haflinger is a German company that has been written up extensively in articles for combating the pain of plantar fasciitis. Many a person that suffers from it that has worn these shoes has been able to heal in time with consistent wear of these shoes.
They are not an inexpensive shoe, usually around $100 a pair, but they did exactly as promised and corrected my problem. Within a year I was able to walk around without pain. In addition he recommended a plantar fasciitis night splint that keeps my foot flexed while I sleep which lessens the chronic pain when I get out of bed in the morning. I also have plantar fasciitis inserts now in my athletic walking shoes which support my arches (and in my “pretty” shoes which I refuse to give up!)
One of the big problems with plantar fasciitis is that once you have it, it can come back at any time and with a vengeance. When the pain went away, I was feeling so great that I fell into my old habits – walking around barefoot (a big no-no), wearing trendy shoes, etc.
Then one of my concert tours brought me to LA & San Diego. I was walking alot through the downtowns in some of my not so supportive shoes and guess what? Yep – the pain came back. All this was a good year after the pain went away. The bad thing was that I was booked for a tour in Italy in two weeks.
I mustered my way there, managed to perform, but the walking was next to impossible. I had to allow enough lead time so I could join my colleagues, and if the walk was too far, I had to arrange transportation to get me to the venue.
There was only one time where vehicles could not get me to the performance space due to the medieval village we were performing in. That was an excruciating walk I don’t care to experience again. After that I was forced to hang out in the hotel lobby with my foot up or on a bag of frozen peas from the market (ice is not readily available in Italy like it is in the States.) While my friends were off seeing the sights, I was with my laptop depressed and stuck until I could return home.
I was able to find a pair of Birkenstock sandals (men’s birkenstocks) which seemed to really help, although my first choice is the Haflinger.
I went back to my regiment when I got home and about 6 months later, most of the pain is now gone. I am careful to wear supportive slippers around the house and I just discovered a shoe call Kumfs from New Zealand that are extremely comfortable and have the same supportive cork footbed as the Birkenstock and Haflinger shoes do. Not to mention, they are leather and fit my wide foot very nicely.
Do you have a story about your battle with Plantar Fasciitis that you would like to share? Leave us your comment and we will post it on this site, or share it on the Forum. Either way, we would love to hear from you! This site is meant to help everyone who suffers from this ailment so that we don’t have to live with this chronic pain.
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