Tiny Plantar Progress?

I am almost afraid to think it, much less say it, but I think there has been some progress regarding my left foot. Not that it is healed, but the pain is not quite as much when walking my very limited walking. For example, yesterday I was in a car for nine hours returning from my sister's memorial service, and anytime I would stop to get out, it was not bad. Normally, the plantar fasciitis is quite painful for those first few dozen steps after sitting for a while, but not yesterday, and not today. No, I don't feel like taking a long walk or anything like that, but nor am I walking with bad limp for those first few steps. And the last couple of times I used my foot log, grinding my heel into it, the pain was much less.

I mentioned that to the doctor today when I went in for another round, my seventh, of ART. He was pleased by that as he drove a small railroad spike into my heel - just what it feels like, I imagine. He said that the plantar fascia still needs to lengthen but my Achilles tendon and my calf are definitely not as tight as they were. Afterwards, my heel has hurt all day, but not quite as much as it usually does after the ART session.

He added a couple of little tricks to my repetoire Friday - spelling the alphabet with my heel and picking up marbles with my left toes. The latter takes a long time, as the "marbles" are fairly flat indoor flower pot stones, and my toes don't have tremendous flexibility or strength. But here is the interesting thing - each time I do the marble pick-up, I can do it, even though it may take a number of attempts for each stone. But I can't do it at all with my right foot, which is my good foot. So all of the intensive therapy on the left foot seems to be helping with its flexibility and strength.

The other day, I visualized walking pain free - I know that I will do this sometime, and the results for the last few days make me feel like I am heading towards that milestone. Doing this walk in September in my sister's memory is so important to me, and I am going to need to find a way to make this happen.