After work on Monday I saw my chiropractor for treatment on my hip and also a second opinion on the plantar fasciitis. I’ve been seeing Dr. Casey Ericson of The Wellness Solution for a year now and she treated my first bout of plantar fasciitis last fall. I was really hoping to get in to see her before I went to the podiatrist because I really respect her opinion and much prefer her method of treatment over the conventional treatments for plantar fasciitis. However, she was fully booked until Monday.
I’m super glad that I saw Casey. She gave me a MUCH better prognosis and gave me almost instant relief from some of the pain after her adjustments and Graston work. I swear this woman has magic hands! One thing that I love about Casey is her philosophy about treating the whole person and finding the root cause of the problem. The root cause of my plantar fasciitis is my right hip. The foot doctor, even though he is one of the best in the country, didn’t care about my hip. Casey was glad that I did see the foot doctor before seeing her because I was able to tell her that I had clean x-rays. That ruled out some potential problems there.
She spent a lot of time adjusting my foot, ankle, and hip. She also spent a great deal of time doing some graston work on my calves, Achilles, and foot. I highly suggest the graston technique if you have soft tissue problems and/or major tightness in your muscles! It seriously does wonders! Micheal Phelps swears by it too! 🙂
Here is what the website says about it:
Graston Technique® is an innovative, patented form of instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization that enables clinicians to effectively break down scar tissue and fascial restrictions. The technique utilizes specially designed stainless steel instruments to specifically detect and effectively treat areas exhibiting soft tissue fibrosis or chronic inflammation.
I have chronically tight calves (like most Americans) and graston has really helped break up the scar tissue and loosen them up for me. My chronically tight calves and my right hip being out of alignment is also probably the root cause of my plantar fasciitis according to Casey. I completely agree with her. After all, the hip, leg, and foot are all connected. If my right hip is out then my gait changes and then I walk/run “funny” on my foot causing potential problems, such as plantar fasciitis. She also thinks I have a mild case of Achilles tendonitiis, which would explain why my Achilles has been so tender and weak lately and why I had almost no strength during my “pull” of my pedal stroke on my ride on Saturday.
She told me that if we loosen everything up by next week (I see her again on Wednesday) then it is not up of the realm of possibility that I could still run my half marathon at the end of the month. I’m not 100% sure that I will. If anything, depending how I feel, I might just run a couple miles of it and DNF. But we’ll see. I don’t want to do anything stupid and really hurt myself more. I’ve been wearing my super sexy night splint boot while I sleep and will wear the custom orthotics, at least for a little bit. But, as Casey pointed out, the doctor molded my feet when they were injured and thus my foot will be “cast” in the wrong position in my shoes. I understand what she is saying. I’m not 100% sure if it will make a difference, but I am certainly not a fan of wearing orthotics.
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| Don’t you wish you could wear one of these to bed too? |
So, I’m very happy that I might be able to run again soon! And hopefully ride my bike again soon too! I’m suppose to ride in the Dempsey Challenge in a few weeks with my bik shop, but I don’t think my Achilles is up to par for a very hilly 100 mile route. In the mean time, I will focus on Operation Six-Pack! 🙂
