Plantar Fasciotomy

Good morning!

I was just asked a couple of really good questions about this whole thing.

I thought you might have the same questions so I thought I’d post the questions and answers here.

Do these surgeries project complete recovery?

There is a 50% chance of success. Some places I saw there was a 50-70% success rate. Due to the nature of the procedure there’s no guarantee that it will work.

My condition could stay the same, get worse or get better. That’s why I asked for lots of prayer. That makes my odds 100% better!

My doctor says that I will not be pain free. With successful surgeries I’ll be able to do more. One activity I really want to do again is hiking. Even if I can’t do day long hikes anymore – if I can at least do a few hours that’ll be awesome!

What my dream would be is to go to Mexico and see the temples (I love to explore) or travel to Italy and enjoy walking around and seeing the beautiful architecture in Pisa, take a relaxing ride in a gondola, visit the Colosseum, Pantheon and Vatican City.

I’ll just say that I won’t be running any marathons, but I sure am looking forward to being able to walk and stand a lot longer.

Will you be able to be a police officer again – do you want to?

I don’t have a definitive answer on that as far as my ability to do so would go. It depends on the amount of success of the surgery. I don’t believe that running is really an option or at least I would be a bit paranoid about it because the plantar fascia will only be half attached.

Do I want to? The short answer to that is, “No”. As an entrepreneur helping women in business I can have a greater positive impact in the lives of people around the world than I could as a police officer. I want to help others and I want to make a difference.

So whichever allows me to do that in the biggest way and in the most rewarding fulfilling way possible, that’s what I want to do.

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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!

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Hey there! Thanks for stopping by.

I just finished installing the blog. I’ll post more as I approach the surgery date – July 29th – and let you know how I’m getting along and preparing for my first surgery – plantar fasciotomy.

I’m a little nervous about the foot surgery, but an awesome thing happened. When I set up the first web page about having this surgery and how the need for it came about, a women contacted me who had gone through the same surgery – for both feet as well!

That was really encouraging – to chat with someone who also had bilateral plantar fasciitis! What has also helped me feel better about this is the support and love I have received from everyone.

It just makes going through something like this easier. I’ve never had any kind of surgery before. I’ve never even had a broken bone.

I’ll post separately about how someone can get plantar fasciitis. I hope you’ll pay close attention to the signs of this awful foot pain. If you think you may have it, please don’t wait years to get help like I did. It’s a serious medical condition that only gets worse if neglected.

Okay, I’ll post again soon!

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