Have you had surgery for Platar Fasciitis?

Back in 2010 I started to develop some heel pain. At the time I was training and running shorter distances but completed a couple of half marathons. I remember doing a 10K and having horrible pain throughout that entire race that I felt like I might have been suffering a stress fracture. I went to a podiatrist who sent me off for an MRI. I didn't have a stress fracture (thank goodness) but had a lot of inflammation which indicated PF. He prescribed orthotics, a night splint, and physical therapy.

Although the orthotics and PT did help some, the pain never really went away. I had trouble wearing the night splint so I was only able to wear it for a couple of hours at night. After about 9 months we decided to try cortisone shots. After two rounds of that, the pain was still there. It was after that when we started to talk about surgery.

He referred me to a surgeon and he recommended the endoscopic surgery. He was great at explaining the entire procedure and the risk factors, one of which being that it could come back. I mean basically the surgery just involves clipping your fascia to release it and then tissue grows there to lengthen in so in theory there was a chance that the new tissue wouldn't let the fascia lengthen enough. I read online about it and was a little nervous as it seemed like there were more negative reviews than positive. Despite the negative reviews I decided to go through it. I wanted to keep running and I knew that I wouldn't be able to with my current condition.

I had the procedure done in January 2011. It was a simple outpatient surgery and I was home within 4 hours. I was in a walking boot for 3 weeks but was able to ride a stationary bike right away. One thing I noticed right after surgery was that although I was in a little bit of pain, I didn't feel the tightness in my foot that I felt for so long. I think I had a total of three stitches. After 3 weeks I was able to wear a regular shoe and begin running/walking. Six weeks later I went to Florida and ran a half marathon. That spring I ran my first full marathon.

After surgery and to this day I have not had any issues with my foot. I do continue to wear orthotics, but only when I run and mainly for injury prevention and I really don't walk around barefoot. I do make sure to stretch my foot and calf on a daily basis. I do believe a lot of the success had to do with my surgeon. He had done a lot of these procedures and had extensive training in EPF.

I don't regret having the surgery. The surgery was virtually painless and the recovery was super quick. Best of all, I was able to get back into running almost immediately and continue with my training.

Since that surgery I've gone on to run 19 marathons, 10 ultra marathons, and 1 full ironman. I've had absolutely no issues with my foot and honestly the only time I think about it is when someone brings it up. My surgery was a little over 5 years ago so I'm not sure if that would be considered long term success.

Thank-you. This is very helpful!