Any suggestions? I don't know what to do anymore...
I am getting a little desperate by now. I have been wearing custom-made insoles for 20 years that have always worked well to avoid the pain of flexible flat feet and plantar fasciitis I was having at the time. Since a couple of years, they seem to work less and less well. So that is one thing I find very strange, how come they stop working? At first I would buy new ones and they would work for about 6 months in stead of a few years, now that doesn't help anymore.
The podotherapist has now made an echo and says I have a thinkened tendon plate on my left foot (which hurts the most) and not enough fat padding on both feet at the forefoot. I have two types of pain. One I can feel in both feet at the whole sole, which is the tired sometimes burning sensation you normally get after many hours of walking. This is present most of the time but gets worse with walking, dancing and stuff. Especially dances with a lot of steps like zumba or where you stomp the floor.
And then I also have the pain on the inside of the left foot arch, that I mostly feel when I have rested for a bit and start walking again. It is not in my heel, just the arch and it doesn't feel worse when getting up in the morning than whenever I have only rested shortly.
I have tried a night splint for some months, this does not seem to do much, though the pain in the morning isn't severe so maybe this would only help if that would be...I have tried all kinds of orthotics, and different shoes, a lot of different exercises, massage gun, barefoot shoes, stretching the tendon and calves, foot collective site....I do somehow think that doming/short feet exercise is good, but I can only do that when standing and being conscious about it. And feet still hurt after standing for a while. Podotherapist says calf raises would not be very helpful in my case because that would be targeting the wrong muscles. Also when adding weight this seems to aggravate the pain, especially sitting calf raises...Her advice is rolling over a ball, scrunching a towel and stretching calves.
I can hardly imagine any muscles being underdeveloped....I train a lot, can easily pick up stuff with my feet, my hamstrings are very flexible, I have good dorsiflexion, can do deep squats, I do deadlifts 80 kg, can easily do calf raises with a lot of weight (which makes me feel like doing more calf raises would not be helpful?). I am not overweight but very fit.
I think I will soon be referred to an orthopedic but the GP says it will probably not help, only for 'peace of mind' so I know that nothing will help anymore :(. When googling I see completely different statistics and experiences with the more invasive treatments.
The things I have not tried yet are ACP/PRP, shockwave, corticosteroid injections (which I think do not make sense since they weaken the tendon?), or operations...
Also I have not tried sitting on my ass all day and quit all the sport activities...But that does not seem like a solution to me because even if it helps, I still want to resume those...since the dancing and kickboxing and strength training are very important for me for the rest of my body and my mind. So if I stop and feel better, and start again I presume the problems will just come back. And the soles already stopped working well before I was so active. I have stopped running and hiking, walking with friends and family. Which is already a loss....I think if this will continue...I will probably have to stop dancing within a month or 2 because of the pain.
I am scared for where this will lead. Will I end up walking with crutches? Will I end in a wheelchair? I mean if the pain just keeps getting worse and worse... I remember when I was 20 and diagnosed I couldn't walk at all anymore with the left foot but then the insoles saved me...and now they just don't work at all anymore...
Can anyone help me understand why this is happening and what can I do?