Walking through the pain.

Feets. Still battling them. Yes. They are still attached to my legs, still have five toes each, and still hurt like a motherfucker if I stand/walk for more than about 5 minutes at a stretch.

I have been battling plantars fasciitis (inflammation of my heel & arch muscles) for almost a year. I've been on "no walking, no standing, ice and stretching all the time, wear rent-a-cop shoes" restrictions since March. That's SIX MONTHS. Six months of not being able to stand long enough to do housework. Six months of not being able to go dancing. Six months of not walking to work. Six months of not really participating in many social gatherings because it turns out they are mostly predicated on, you know, having feet.

Something snapped in my mind this week and I'm fed up with all this stretching and fancy shoes bullshit. I have decided that resting isn't helping, so fuck it, I'm going to try walking and standing and see if I can just abuse myself back into health. Many runners work through PF by pushing through the pain. There's also (so you don't think I'm just being stubborn) quite a bit of evidence that PF is due to "crinkling" of your plantar fascia, and that one of the best ways to "smooth it out" is to actually put more weight and force on your feet. In an even, well-supported way of course.

So today I went for a 15 minute walk in my fancy supportive sneakers. It hurt. But you know what? My feet feel just a tiny bit stronger. Maybe there's some truth to this whole pushing through the pain approach.