Failed Plantar Fasciitis Release Surgery

by Marie
(Vermont)

6 years ago I agreed to Plantar Fasciitis Release surgery on my right foot because a Podiatrist insisted that I had no other choice.

I had already had this same procedure on my left foot a few weeks earlier.

I was originally referred to this podiatrist by my orthopedist, who later told me that this surgery is almost never recommended or successful. (So we had this problem with the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing.)

I had no pain after the surgery (nor did I after the left foot surgery) so I continued to walk on it. 2 days after the surgery I tripped. I had caught the tip of my right shoe on something just 2 inches high. As I brought my right foot forward to recover my balance something tore.

I have never experienced such blinding pain in my life.

It was like a knife had sliced my foot from the bottom of my arch across the top of my foot and up around my ankle. Now the podiatrist and orthopedist both say that there is nothing that I can do about the resulting ankle instability and continued pain.

My right foot is beyond being flatfooted it is severly pronated and causes pain not only in the medial ankle and the arch but also in several medial leg muscles.

I am so frustrated with the instability of that ankle that I have had an orthotic cast made for new shoe inserts once a year for the last 5 years, always in hope that the next one would help (I now have quit a useless collection of shoe orthotics).

The podiatrist offered ankle fusion surgery and the orthopedist emphatically said no. So I continue to live with severe pain and ankle instability.

I apparently torn more of the plantar facsia band as well as having strained or ruptured several tendons when I tripped. Due to the unstable ankle created by the surgery no other orthopedist will touch me (because doctors don't oppose each other).

I am sorry for being long winded, my question is; might any of your tendon therapy applications possibly offer pain relief for me or should I just live with it (as my doctors advise)?

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Joshua Answers:

Hi Marie. Wow. That sounds....horrible.

And I have to say, there's few things that aggravate me as much as "You'll just have to live with it."

Here's the thing with Plantar Fasciitis surgery, and specifically a plantar fasciotomy which is what I'm assuming that you had...

If you pull out the pillars of a bridge, that bridge is much more likely to fall down.

If you sever the support structure of your foot, you're going to have problems.

Whether you had Plantar Fascia Tendonitis, or just a Pain Causing Dynamic in your foot, in my world, surgery is overkill.

And while I'm sure your surgeon had the best of intentions.....

No pain after surgery was definitely a bad thing for you, as you couldn't feel what was happening in your foot, and then had a big rip/tear incident, which likely ripped/tore what the doctor had already cut apart.

So I'm going to come at you from an intention of decreasing your pain.

At this point, your bridge is missing a pillar or three, and let's focus on decreasing your pain, keeping the pain gone, and working with the structure that is there.

While you will 'heal', you won't regrow the severed tendon and connective tissue attachments (ala the flat foot).

Our primary focus is getting the Inflammation and pain enhancing chemical out. It may be that you can be pain free, once the injury heals up and we keep the Process of Inflammation out.

Then you'll be walking around on a structurally weak foot, and we'll have to see whether or not that irritates things.

Regardless, right now you're stuck in an acute Inflammatory response, which equals acute (and chronic) pain.

In response to your question, I definitely suggest that you get 'The Plantar Fasciitis Treatment That Works'.

It has concept and activities you can use to decrease you pain levels at significantly. Whether a person has new Plantar Faciitis or severe post surgery foot pain, the same concepts and activities apply.

And I'm available here to work with you and fine tune what you're doing for your specific situation.

Again, it is probably impossible to restore your foot structure to where it was, but I see no reason we can't get you out of pain, or at least close to it.

It will take some work and diligence, and a certain amount of time. (Follow the Healthy Foot Protocol for a full 7 days, and then we'll be able to more accurately gauge and make some predictions.)

And then we can take a look to see how much ongoing maintenance you'll need to stay out of pain/close to it.

Make sense?

Ask more questions, get more answers.



Joshua Tucker, B.A., C.M.T.
The Tendonitis Expert
www.TendonitisExpert.com