u/Automatic_Wrangler25

I just need to vent.

I run my own business and opened a second joint business and majority of the mental load went onto me which we talked about. It resulted in me saying that I cannot handle running 2 simultaneously so we gotta close the joint one if the partner can't pick up their half of the load. Finally it's close to closing but holy, our staff have been mostly princesses who refuse to work more than 4 hour shifts. No problem, as long as the shifts are covered it's fine.

But one complains about being stressed.

It's a goddamn cashier job at a slow pace shop.

Another asks to move her schedule and swap with others constantly to hang out with friends. Annoying but ok.

Until this staff asked to close the shop for just their shift, 3 days before it closes, because no one would take their shift. I say unfortunately this is their schedule so they should have planned accordingly. They still say can't work because they made plans and are unavailable. I say it's disrespectful and rude. They say they disagree but we can agree to disagree. What the actual f*CK.

Theres many more but this is just the most recent and honestly, quite absurd. I never asked to be a manager and can understand why they are known to be evil bitches after some time 😭

Thought to add to this subreddit as it seems like PF is different for everyone and maybe it can help someone. I've tried every treatment commonly listed here and finally am free of the pain, and I have some thoughts on what worked and why. I've had PF on both feet. This post will detail everything so it might be a long read.

How it happened: Hokas

I'm 99% sure it was when I started wearing them and only the one pair for a year or 2 consistently, then suddenly wore flipflops for a week when I went overseas.

The pain I felt was more so in my arch on my right foot as I was wearing the flip flops but I thought it was just discomfort. It wasn't until when I got back from the trip that the pain only grew worse and never went away for almost a year.

I'd massage it, go to an RMT, but the year was mostly a learning journey to just discover that what I was going through was PF. As I went to my massage therapy and physio (electromagnetic therapy and shockwave), the pain gradually lessened. I had an appointment with a different RMT just once and she massaged my foot like no other and the pain literally disappeared after that single appointment. I found it strange how one single visit made such a huge difference but what I remembered was when the session was almost done, she asked me if there was anywhere that still needed work. I told her my arch still felt very sore/tight. She worked the TOP of my foot and the area right before the toes and it hurt bad. But after that was when I noticed my arch didn't feel that chronic discomfort anymore. I gave it a few days after the appointment and quite literally the pain has subsided and never came back.

But then I started getting pain on the other foot...

As the pain on my right arch was going away, then gone, I walked a lot (still was wearing my hokas). I started noticing my left heel and along the outer ankle was hurting. Some time passed, I got more massages (not the same one who "fixed" my right foot). In the mornings, my ankle would hurt initially. After sitting down and getting up it would hurt initially too. But my heel pain was chronic and all around. Sometimes sharper, most times a dull pain.

I tried getting an appointment with a podiatrist but they always ghosted me lol

But my RMT who also went through PF had a personal take that "flat arches" are overly focused on. His reasoning was that in many other Eastern and Asian countries (he's European) there are a lot with healthy feet without the need to correct your flat arches. That those who use all their feet muscles and strengthen them are the ones with good food health. He likened it to when you injure a body part, you don't keep it forever in a cast, but that physio and strengthening it is the final part of recovery and being able to use that body part with proper functionality again. So why would you cushion your foot and overly support it, causing muscle atrophy? It made a lot of sense and matched why my hokas were my source of initial pain. They were too soft and cushioned so my foot muscles weakened over time. Then I suddenly loaded it with full force when I wore flipflops for a week. I got recommendations to try: calf exercises, zero drop shoes (Altras), calf sleeves, stretching etc

Everything worked a little bit and all together I think the improvement was slow. Very slow.

Calf sleeves: I'd feel an immediate relief in my heel when worn. I learned that PF is mostly due to the lack of blood flow. It was strange but when I went on flights, I noticed my PF would also feel better and perhaps it was all the blood flow and foot swelling (thus causing blood to flow there) so that supported it.

Calf raises: I'd notice after a while that it made some difference but I can't pinpoint it being a huge difference on its own as I was doing everything else too.

Altras: they made some of my foot muscles SORE. But not in the PF way, the soreness gradually got better and I alternated through various shoes (wearing hokas only seldomly or when I need to stand for long periods). I think this along with calf raises for the progress moving to no pain in the mornings, but my heel would still have a dull ache. Due to them being zero drop though, my heels felt a lot less painful while wearing them.

I thought I was doing everything I could but the dull ache was improving way too slowly for me to believe it was truly going to be fixed so I thought of the RMT who helped my right foot. Why I didn't continue to see her? Her massages hurt like hell. They are not a feel good type so I continued seeing my usual guy, but I wished I just continued seeing her.

No hate though because my usual RMT is very knowledgeable with all his suggestions and his massages felt great. But the lady I saw proved to me that she had a different knowledge base or skill that impacted me more.

So I went to see her again, but for the left heel pain. Same as before, I tell her where it hurts and she massaged everywhere she thought would help, and focused more on the area that connected into the heel: on the base of the foot, around my ankle, and my Achilles. Near the end I told her my heel still hurt. She checked my ankle flexing and saw something preventing my left foot to flex upward as well as my right. This is where she worked the muscle in front of my outer ankle (extensor digitorum longus). I guess that was the culprit because I felt pretty damn good after that.

Again I gave it a few days and kept up with my stretching, massages and strengthening and it's been gone. I'm forever a fan of hers. She doesn't like talking and barely even responds when I talk but I'm her number 1 fan now and rave about her lol

I feel like sometimes the main culprit might just be a really tight muscle that we wouldn't associate the pain to, that tugs and pulls on the fascia that's giving us so much pain, and we just need the right direction to pinpoint it so it can be addressed and maintained.

Hope this helps someone out there. PF sucks.