First five days post-plantar fasciitis surgery review and experience

by Sandra
(Brooklyn, Ny)

I had Plantar Fasciitis Surgery performed on 6/6/16 on my left ankle. I've had chronic PF pain for a good 3 years. I work in the hospital so I'm on my feet 12+ hours a day.

I've had three rounds of cortisone shots, muscle relaxants, painkillers, wear daily night splints, compression socks, orthotics, performed daily stretches, and bought specific PF shoes (Acics Kayano Gel 21).

I even bought a foot rocker which definitely gave me immediate relief. I would do 90 secs, 3-5 times a day. That helped a little bit but I was still in constant pain which made me miserable.

I'm 24 years old 115 pounds and have extremely flat feet. So I've had multiple x-rays and MRI for the doctor to just prescribe me naproxen and topical lidocaine which did nothing for me.

I was fed up and finally decided to do the surgery, the ankle and foot surgeon was great she told me she was going to make an incision, put a camera inside and try to release some of the tightness by cutting parts of it.

I got the surgery done she told me to take off work for 8 weeks I did and to stay off my feet. No weight bearing and gave me some percs to take the edge off.

I woke up with no pain and went home, as soon as I laid in bed my foot started burning, was very swollen and red. I felt the pain creeping up but I didn't take any pain killers because I wanted to see how much pain it would cause me.

30 minutes later I felt excruciating burning and tearing, it was unbearable. I started crying because I was in so much pain so I popped a Perc and tried to sit in a comfortable position. 10 minutes later I was still in excruciating pain to the point I wanted to die.

So I popped another Perc and a few minutes later I felt it kicking in. I fell asleep but barely got any sleep because I couldn't find a comfortable position to sleep in so my tendons wouldn't stretch because the stretching caused me pain. I tossed and turned that night and barely got any rest.

Day2-

I woke up in pain again, asking myself why I decided to get surgery but honestly the pain was better than the pain I experienced with my PF so I dealt with it.

This time I popped the Perc and didn't wait for the pain to get worse. 30 minutes later I felt no pain and I used my crutches to use the bathroom but mainly stayed in bed. I iced my foot and tried to elevate it but when I would try to elevate it it it would cause my fascia to stretch and caused me pain so I just iced it and laid on my side since that position didn't cause me any pain.

My doctor made an incision on the Bottom of my foot by the heel, but for some reason only the top of my foot hurted not the bottom where the stitches were. I asked my doctor why she said it's because she had to release a tight tendon at the top that was connected to heel, that made sense since most of my pain was on the top of my foot traveling down to my big toe.

Day 3-

I made the mistake of trying to bear some weight on my foot, biggest mistake of my life.

I immediate felt excruciating pain so I sat my fat ass down and iced my foot, popped another Perc and fell asleep. My foot was extremely swollen, red and was very hot to the touch

Day 4-

the swelling had gone down, I still can't bear any weight on it. When I sit on my bed with my knee bent, it stretched the top of my foot and its tendons. It hurts so I try to do that position for an hour then I'll lay on my side, because I'm sure stretching it slowly will help my tendons. I definitely feel a lot better. I usually pop a Perc in the morning and one at night but day 4 I skipped the Perc in the morning but I had to have one at night since I felt burning at the top of my foot.

Day 5- I feel good, finished the round of antibiotics today. Icing has helped with the pain and swelling. So far my ankle hasn't had the same plantar fasciitis tearing pain that I have to endure every morning but then again I haven't beared any weight on it.

I'll continue updating you guys on my journey.


Good luck with your PF journey.



----



Joshua Comments:

Hi Sandra.

Yeah, stay off the foot for a while. You were just injured from surgery. Important structural supports were cut. LOTS of inflammation and pain enhancing chemical being releases.

People often don't realize that the Plantar Fasciitis Surgery (any surgery, really) is going to cause injury, by which I mean, skin and tissue and tendon/etc are going to be cut, which is an insult and an injury to the body. So it's going to hurt for a while after....

As you've discovered, stay ahead of the pain with the pain killers. :)


So you had Plantar Fasciitis and Plantar Fasciitis Symptoms.

You felt it up around your ankles? Say more about that.


And what exactly did the surgeon cut on? Something on the top of the foot?


Tendonitis is bad enough.

See: What Is Tendonitis?

Then you add surgery on top of it which literally alters the structural support mechanism of the foot.

Hopefully that helps, we'll see.

And, surgery ignores all the factors that got you to 'need' surgery in the first place. They are still in place: inflammation process, too tight muscle and connective tissue, and nutritional lack.

You'll want to deal with those to help ensure a good recovery back to a pain-free state.

One thing you can do is, once the incisions heal/seal, is to ice dip as described in the How To Reduce Inflammation page.

That will increase circulation (faster healing) and get pain enhancing chemical out (reduced pain).


Keep us updated!










----------------------
Please reply using the comment link below. Do not submit a new submission to answer/reply, it's too hard for me to find where it's supposed to go.

And, comments have a 3,000 character limit so you may have to comment twice.
-----------------------



Joshua Tucker, B.A., C.M.T.
The Tendonitis Expert
www.TendonitisExpert.com