Plantar Tears

I feel your pain! Out of nowhere, mid kick in a 3k, I ruptured my L plantar fascia. I literally could hear it tear and I just collapsed off the side of the track. I had been dealing with plantar fasciitis in my R foot for about 6 months and had tried essentially all of the treatments you have mentioned, to no avail.

So with this new, more serious injury, I didn't want to waste any time on treatments that hadn't helped me yet. A friend of mine had success with a combo of PRP injections and graston for the same tear, so I went that route.

The PRP injection was expensive, unless it's somehow covered by your insurance. They draw a lot of your blood from your arm, spin it to separate the plasma rich platelets (PRP) from the remainder of the blood (once separated, it's a clear gold color, pretty cool), and then inject it straight into the tear. This is what your body should be doing on its own, but the blood circulation is so poor in your feet, a lot of the time the recovery process takes forever and this process barely happens naturally. Basically, the injection is just a quick version of what your body might accomplish on its own in 6 months, a year, whatever it takes.

Following that, I received maybe 10-12 graston sessions, where they basically just rub the site of your injury for about 5 minutes with a metal tool to irritate and inflame the site of the injury. This sends a signal from your body to tell itself, "hey, send blood here! We need some recovery over here!"

I had the injury in late July 2014 (couldn't put any weight on my foot at all), cross trained like crazy on my bike through much of August, got the injections and started the procedures mid September, back to 30-40 mpw end of October (quicker than recommended, I will admit), real workouts started mid December, raced a two mile (9:19) by the end of January.

All these things considered, I also switched over to the Hoka Cliftons. They seem to have really helped with the cushioning. Obviously, as I'm sure you know with this injury, things that work for some might not work for others. All I know is that it worked for me and my friend. Good luck and I really hope you find something that works for you!

I second the link for learning to use "paragraphs".

Does "tears" rhyme with "beers" or "bears"?

Not the same injury, but for my knee, I had a similar run-around with medical professionals and "runners knee". Many running book will tell you it's usually weak hip-stabilizers, but doctors don't seem to know that:

GP: "If it hurts when you run, stop running." Asked for an X-Ray.

"Sports Doctor": Asked for an MRI, but eventually had no clue regarding the cause, and didn't really want to discuss it. Prescribed 8 sessions of Ultra-sound therapy from a Physio-therapist.

"Physio": In Europe, he's a trained professional but not a doctor. My wife wanted me to go to an "osteo-path", so I chose one who was multi-purpose, both physio and osteo (and also posture). After a few sessions, he told me that when doctors prescribe ultrasound, they basically have no clue, and give up. That's his sign to augment with other remedies (he still did the ultra-sounds, as that was the prescription). In the first session, he "reset" my posture with a kind of 20-point accu-pressure technique, and for the remaining sessions worked on tight muscles in my lower back, and my ankles, with a technique that is the opposite of stretching the muscles. He said the knee was fine, but because of tightness in the hips/ankles, the knee took all the pressure.

Anyway, I was extremely disappointed with the level of service from both my general doctor, and the Sports Specialized doctor.

Hi, any update on the injury?

I have torn my plantar over 3 months ago and it doesn't seem to be improving.

Any advice would be great?

Thanks

Hi did you recover? I am just beginning my journey of recovery after tearing my Plantar plate.

-Kathleen

Hi,

Did you end up healing?

Thank you,

Kathleen