"When they told me that I had fractured my heal spur and that I couldn't put weight on it for 4 weeks, I cried my eyes out like a baby right there in the office."
I have been battling planter fasciitis on and off for years. I am no expert on this topic, but from what I understand, there's a muscle tissue on the bottom of your foot that stretches from the toe to heal. If that band of muscle is stretched to much and too often you will start to hurt in the morning when you wake up and sometimes this pain can go on all day.
You can also develop a heal spur from the planter fasciitis. This is when you actually grow more bone on your foot and it looks like a little pointy hook. Doctors used to remove these spurs, but many doctors now claim that you should just leave these spurs alone. That many people have spurs and don't even know it.
Hairstylists are at risk for planter fasciitis and bone spurs, because they stand and walk on their feet for long periods of time. We like to wear fashionable (not so sensible) shoes, which doesn't help either. I figure since I've been doing hair for 20+ years with my high arches that is probably why I have these problems.
Over the last few months my feet issues have been bothering me to no end. Annoying the crap out of me actually! Mostly my right heal was bugging me. I started seeing a Podiatrist (Foot specialist) and she has given me 3 cortisone shots over the last month. These shots hurt terribly! It is like sticking a knife into your foot and then twisting. These shots do numb the pain for a few days, but it would always return. She also told me I should get these really expensive orthotics and/or wear my gym shoes all the time. I really don't like to wear my gym shoes all the time, so I was planning on just getting the orthotics.
She also had me going to physical therapy 2 times a week. Who the heck has time to do that? I did go for a few weeks and it helped a little. Maybe it would have helped after many weeks, but I had a hard time getting there, so I just started doing what they do at home. Which was basically massaging and stretching my feet.
All this came to a halt when I took a nasty spill down my stairs a couple of days ago. I seriously fall all the time, but this was a doozy. My foot hurt so bad. I couldn't walk on it at all. I knew it was either badly sprained or maybe broken. I have never broken anything before, so I really didn't know what to expect.
I got in with an Orthopedic surgeon the next morning. I couldn't believe that I had actually fractured the heal spur. I asked why don't you just remove the darn thing and they said that I should just let it heal. When they told me that I had fractured my heal spur and that I couldn't put weight on it for 4 weeks, I cried my eyes out like a baby right there in the office. I couldn't help to wonder, "How am I going to get through this. How can I work as a hairstylist and take care of my 7 and 9 year kids?"
Once I got my shit together, I realized that this isn't the end of the world. I'll learn to use these crutches. My kids are just going to have to learn to do a little bit more for themselves and help Mommy out. I'll get one of those barber stools for doing hair. I work from home, so this can work out ok! Worse things can happen and I'll get through this.
So that's it for now. I will surely keep you all posted!
XO
