Former Athlete With Plantar Fibromatosis Unable To Perform Minimal Daily Duties

by Adele Broodryk
(North-West, South Africa)

I struggled with foot pain for 8 months prior to surgery, the initial diagnosis being plantar fasciitis. We tried everything to lessen the pain, steroid injections, shock wave therapy, podiatric inner soles, nothing helped. I am an athlete, used to training for 2-3 hours a day.

The pain was so severe I stopped running and took strong pain medication throughout the day.

Its been 7 weeks post-surgery, with the lab results stating that I did not have plantar fasciitis, but plantar FIBROMATOSIS. This is a lot worse.

The recovery process have not been easy at all, I have pain 24 hours a day, the worst having a burning sensation in the toes and foot. I cannot do anything for a long period of time, resulting in my husband taking care of me and all the responsibilities. We are trying to conceive but I am afraid of the medication I am taking to cause side effects.

I am on Lyrica, initially the dose was 150mg/day. This has been increased to 300mg (150mg in morning and evening).

I wonder if it will ever get better and whether I will ever be able to run again, or just complete my usual daily activities.

How long does it normally take to recover from this?


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Joshua Comments:

Hi Adele.

Tendonitis and See: Plantar Fasciitis are predictable mechanisms that cause all sorts of pain and problem, and that surgeons tend to like to do surgery on, without ever asking WHY the problem showed up in the first place.

My responses in no particular order....

1. I'm a guy so have no idea what pregnancy is like, but it's my impression that it's pretty tough and unpleasant on the body. And if you're in pain and can't even be on your feet......it sounds like a bad idea.

If only because right now, all your focus NEEDS to be on your foot and recovery.

You're foot and lower leg, I should say.

And yes, becoming pregnant while on most any medications seems like it creates a very unnecessary risk to the baby.

(I'm a big fan of babies and healthy babies....)


2. How long does it normally take to recover?

That depends on a lot of variables, including:

- your overall health
- the scenario in the foot before surgery
- the scenario in the foot after surgery (how much of what did they cut)
- your nutritional status
- how your body responded to the stress of surgery
- the self care you do pre and post surgery


But in general, there's nothing surprising about being in severe pain 7 weeks post surgery. Depending on what they did in there, they did some major damage to your foot (that's the nature of surgery).


3. -Maybe- fibromatosis is worse.

The body shapes itself to the forces placed upon it. If you're a runner, it's no surprise that your plantar fascia thickened up (to become stronger to withstand the forces placed upon it from your running.

It does present the problem, of course, that -more- tissue, and more of your foot's structural integrity, was cut, cut out, partially or completely severed.


4. Will you be able to run again?

I don't know. That depends on your motivation levels, what exactly they did during surgery to the foot (did they sever the plantar fascia, meaning, did they remove a major structural support of the arch of the foot?), and how you go about rehab (which includes fixing the original problem that causes the pain and the fibromatosis in the first place.

It's too early too tell. First step is to get you out of pain.


Things For You To Start Learning About

See: What Is Tendonitis?

See: Pain Causing Dynamic

See: Process Of Inflammation


Questions:

A. What are you doing for self care aside from the pain killers?

B. What exactly did they do during the surgical procedure. What, and how much of what, did they cut?

If you don't know, find out.




See Related: Plantar Fasciotomy At Age 34 Still Have Pain 5 Weeks After

See Related: Tendinitis vs Tendinosis Long Time Athlete Who Can't Train Anymore