broken-police-officer-medically-retired-plantar-fasciitis

In 2000 at the age of 27 I was hired by a University Police Department (I won’t say the name because of stories I share on the About Christina page – that’s where you can read my full story) and put through the police academy. That is where the plantar fasciitis begins.

You may be wondering exactly what plantar fasciitis is. I know that before I was diagnosed with it I had never heard of it either.

Here’s a great explanation I found on wikipedia…

Plantar fasciitis, formerly called “a dog’s heel” in the United Kingdom, sometimes known as “flip-flop disease” among US podiatrists, is a painful inflammatory condition caused by excessive wear to the plantar fascia of the foot or biomechanical faults that cause abnormal pronation of the foot.

The pain usually is felt on the underside of the heel, and is often most intense with the first steps of the day. It is commonly associated with long periods of weight bearing or sudden changes in weight bearing or activity.

Obesity, weight gain, jobs that require a lot of walking on hard surfaces, shoes with little or no arch support, and inactivity are also associated with the condition. This condition often results in a heel spur on the calcaneus, in which case it is the underlying condition, and not the spur itself, which produces the pain.

A sudden increase in activity can cause plantar fasciitis and that’s pretty much what happened to me. Prior to entering the police academy I certainly wasn’t working out super hard daily like we did in the academy.

Prior to ever considering plantar fascia release surgery I had every conservative treatment possible

  • Icing (frozen water bottles work great – rolled my heel back and forth on them)
  • Stretching and strengthening exercises
  • Corticosteroid injections
  • Anti-inflammatories
  • Physical therapy
  • Custom orthotics
  • Night Splints
  • Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (did that twice for each foot – ouch!)

My plantar fasciitis pain began in the police academy and slowly worsened over the next few years. I would have intense pain in my feet first thing in the morning. After a little while it would ease.

It got so incredibly painful that I couldn’t even run and about the middle of a 12-hour shift I couldn’t even walk normal, not without limping.

Finally I went to see a doctor and that’s when the treatment began. Now it’s five years later and I finally decided to have surgery. My life completely changed because of plantar fasciitis – no more hiking, sight seeing or even shopping sprees. Now I hope to get my active life back!