Ten years ago, 60 years old, I weighed 245lbs and thought I’d get into shape by walking on the treadmill. It worked OK. I started losing weight but got plantar fasciitis in the process . My local podiatrist gave me a shot a couple of times. It worked for awhile. Then he gave me a $400 orthotic. It got worse over the years. I had to have an operation on my right knee, same side as my plantar fasciosis.
Then my back started hurting, same side as my foot pain. It was so painful I went to a neurosurgeon cause I thought I had a slipped disc. I could barely turn in bed. He said there was nothing wrong with my spine or discs. The pain was tremendous in my lower right back.
So, I had excruciating foot pain that made it almost impossible to stand and excruciating back pain that made it difficult to lay down. Quite a predicament.
I went to an orthopedic foot surgeon, M.D. type, for my foot problems. I asked him to amputate my right foot I was in so much pain. He laughed and told me to buy a special shoe that had a bump in the middle of the sole on the outside. Told me to come back if it didn’t help and he could operate but only a fifty/fifty chance of “success”. It helped a little. But finally I had to retire. I am a pharmacist and the pain in my foot and back was too much standing all day.
Finally found Dr. McClanahan’s website. I started reading and reading and reading. Mind you I was a physiology major with tons(8 years) of anatomy classes at Berkeley and UCSF School of Pharmacy. All that fancy learning can’t replace common sense.
Combining his information with other information I figured out it was my shoes and my weight that started my problems along with overuse on the treadmill . But then I dug further into the mechanics of the foot.
The plantar fasciitis had progressed to plantar fasciosis. The pain in my foot caused my gait to change. The hobbling after a few years damaged my knee. Then the continued hobbling caused a severe sacro iliac inflammation.
I purchased Correct Toes then transition shoes(Altra) then minimalist Lems shoes. Toe socks and metatarsal pads helped also. It took about two years. And now I’m almost completely healed up.
If it wasn’t for Dr. McClanahan I’d probably be bed ridden.
People don’t realize how excruciatingly painful plantar fasciitis can be. Add back pain and knee pain and it can be life altering. I was lucky to find Dr. McClanahan’s site. But there are thousands, maybe millions of people going through the same thing.
Please write a summary newsletter about how the foot, knee, and the back are tied together….how bad shoes squish the toes together wrecking the normal arch. Toe spring and heal lift and stiffness in the shoe also ruin the normal mechanics of the foot…and then damage your knees and the lower back. God designed our feet without shoes. That’s the way I walk around the house, with my correct toes on.
Thanks,
Charles Roskam
