Three bouts of plantar fasciitis over about 15 years, this third bout was putting me at my wits end. After almost of year of pain in my right heel, it was not getting better, it was getting worse. So this time I got myself a referral to Dr. Bocian.
The plan was to start with inserts and a shot of cortisone. I had some relief for a few weeks but found myself in pain again. I had another shot of cortisone and bought the expensive custom inserts. That did not work. I tried one and final shot of cortisone with a follow up appointment scheduled for approximately 4 weeks later. After two weeks without any improvement after about one day of relief from the shot, I called Dr. Bocian’s office and explained that I wanted to get on the calendar for surgery.
Dr. Bocian had discussed the laser treatment initially and recommended that I do some research, check out his web site and give him some feedback on what I thought as a possible alternative should that final shot of cortisone not work.
I did do some research and from what I read the results of the laser were kind of mixed by those reviews I read. So when it finally came time to discuss I told Dr. Bocian I was not that interested. I wanted to take care of this very quickly at this time because I only had a certain amount of time in my calendar to recover from the surgery and I did not want to take the time and try something else, like the laser, without any results.
It was then that Dr. Bocian explained to me the rehab for the surgery and then he compared that with the side effects and rehab of the laser, which there is none. He also told me about some of his patients, one of them was an orthopedic surgeon that had plantar fasciitis. That physician came to Dr. Bocian because they did not want surgery and then tried the laser and had great results. Dr. Bocian also said that the surgery and the laser had just about the same success rate in his practice.
That just made sense to me at that point and so I agreed to start the laser treatments.
With the first treatment I started to get relief. However shortly after that things stalled and I went several weeks there with no relief at all. But yet every week when I went in for treatment the treatment area was getting smaller and smaller as the laser was working but the pain was not going away.
It was then that we determined I had a pinched nerve in my heel. I also noticed pain in my big toes. I had two ingrown toenails.
So before the final treatment I got another shot of cortisone to treat the pinched the nerve. Within 24 hours, the pain started subsiding. Three days later when I got out of bed I could actually put weight on my foot with that first step. Normally if I tried that I would have been to my knees because the pain would have been so bad with that first step.
I have been treated for one ingrown toenail and in another few weeks I will be treated for the other one, but the toe pain is nothing compared to the heel pain I have had the last year.
While I was suffering with that heel pain, I had to stop walking my dogs and taking them on hikes. When I got home in the evening I had to force myself to sit because a day of being on my feet was just agony and I knew I had to rest so that I could get up and do it again the next day. I had to be careful when doing any exercise because I had to manage my pain for what I wanted to do that day. My life just revolved around my heel. I found myself at times pretty depressed about it.
Today, though, I feel the pain less and less and I am able to do more and more and so I can only say it’s worth it. For the first time in a year I can actually say my heel is getting better! The time, the money, is worth it. Surgery would have been the same if not more as far as costs and the rehab would have been so much worse. When I had a laser treatment I put my shoe back on and I walked out of there and resumed my life.
Thank you Dr. Bocian. I really appreciate it.
Megen W.
Tucson, AZ
8/18/15