is it the shoes?

[arguchik]

i think i may have isolated the real cause of my foot pain: my earth shoes. my feet had basically stopped hurting over the last few days. yesterday i wore my earth shoes and walked downtown a little bit, and this morning my feet are sore again.

well that's a bummer. i really liked these shoes.

Comments

[boutell.livejournal.com]

Bummer. Maybe they just need breaking in?

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

oh, they're broken in. i've worn them a lot--bought them in late september, but have been on my feet in them a *lot* more extensively, for the last 3-4 weeks or so.

[jennaxide.livejournal.com]

oh, damn. that's too bad. have you checked out consumer reports to see what other people are saying about them?

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

i haven't, but i think i will. earth shoes have been around for a really long time. however, a salesperson at the comfort shoe store in wallingford *did* say to me, a few weeks ago, that she knows of other people who have trouble with the earth shoes.

i think the "negative heel" puts extra stress on the plantar fascia. i can see why a podiatrist might think this is *good* for the foot--it elongates the achilles tendon (along with the plantar fascia)--but i think it's too much stress when one is on one's feet as much as i am.

i also know that i have trouble with shoes that are *too* controlling of my feet--too much support. too little is bad, but too much is just as bad because it prevents my feet from flexing like they want to.

[marina-82.livejournal.com]

ugh one thing I cannot stand are uncomfortable shoes! They bug me so much. At least it a nice excuse to go shoe shopping ;)

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

that's the bummer--these shoes are *very* comfortable. my feet don't hurt while i'm wearing them (unless i've been standing for a long time), it's the morning after that they hurt. (this is a classic symptom of plantar fasciitis.)

[c-bee.livejournal.com]

if you ever find out that it's plantar fasciitis, come see me. i got rid of a case in 3 15min sessions.

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

i'm pretty sure that's what it is. it's in both feet, which kinda rules out a heel bruise, and the pain is very localized to the point where the PF meets my heel bone under my arches. also, it hurts for the first few minutes after i get out of bed in the morning, and again late in the day if i've been on my feet a lot that day.

i've had PFitis before--only that time it hurt behind the balls of my feet under the arches. a doc diagnosed that, told me to ice and stop running for a couple of weeks. this feels the same, just in a different place.

[c-bee.livejournal.com]

the massage i'd do for plantar fasciitis is pretty painful because I would dig in there to break up those adhesions and the hypertonicities around the bone spurs that are probably present. Let me know if you want to try it out.
Ice and not running will make it feel better, but PF isn't the kind of thing that will heal just with rest. If you take a tennis ball and roll it around under your foot, that'll help, along with any arch stretches that you know.

[c-bee.livejournal.com]

just to clarify...the tennis ball should be between the floor and the foot with your weight over it.

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

yeah, i've been doing that with a tennis ball. i don't think i have any bone spurs--the pain came on very recently, and it acts like it's just inflammation at this point. i'm not quite sure what adhesions are...

i'd be willing to give massage a go. therapeutic pain doesn't worry me. the question is...where? i don't have a car, so i'm not sure how i'd get over the water to where you are.

[c-bee.livejournal.com]

adhesions are 'knots' in the tissue.
i have a car & can come to you. i don't even need a table if all i'd be working on is your feet & lower legs. all there needs to be is a comfy place for you to easily flip sides. treatments would have to be pretty consistent to be effective, not just one here and there.
PS-my email is Cherbeartherapy @ yahoo . com :)
PPS-sorry if this posted twice...LJ is being rude to me.

[jangwas.livejournal.com]

Hey, sis.

I've suffered from on-and-off PF since I was preggers with the Sweet Pickle. During the pregnancy, I used to leave a pair of berkie sandals by the bed for when I had to get up at night to pee, cuz my heels would hurt so bad. I got a pair of berkie blue insoles to put inside all my other shoes, so I had the arch support whenever I was upright.

This past sprint, it started again but this time as pain just behind my middle toe. PF again, says the podiatrist. I went ahead and splurged on custom orthotics this time.

[arguchik.livejournal.com]

again, it's very ironic...but the times in my life when i've had any sort of arch pain, it was from too *much* support--i.e. when i wear a motion control running shoe vs. a stability shoe. also when i used to wear birkenstocks a lot. naots seem to work better for me--they have a layer of latex over the cork footbed.

but mainly i've had this problem (not just PF but other kinds of tendinitis) whenever i start up running again after a hiatus--particularly if i've put on 5-10 lbs during that hiatus. once i get back into a running groove, everything becomes, not surprisingly, groovy. :-)

love to the sweet pickle. both of them, actually.