Trapped in the house by pain and builders

Post Reply New Topic

I've been off work for most of July with severe plantar fasciitis- the nature of my job means I work on my feet, and I can't very well work if every step I take makes it feel like the soles of both feet are being flayed. I am afraid of being seen as a malingerer, but I'm also afraid I won't recover enough to work and will have to quit. I have only recieved two job offers in my entire life- the job hunt odds don't look great. Had this condition years before and my feet haven't been right since. I'm nearly ten years older now, which I doubt will help with the healing process. I couldn't get an appointment with my usual podiatrist, so I'm going to see a different one in a couple of weeks.

For added entertainment, in June I nearly got into a fight with a scaffolder over his ridiculously loud radio, which was blasting directly into my bedroom 12 hours a day at nightclub-for-the-deaf volumes. Turns out there's a lot more roofing work being done on our street, and guess whose company is doing all the scaffolding? So on the rare occasions I leave the flat, I'm constantly keeping an eye out to avoid another confrontation. It's got so I can't open the door without first peering through the curtains to make sure I can't see their truck. (The one plus is that they've clearly had enough noise complaints to make them leave the ****ing radio at home this time.) I am not making good use of the time. There are plenty of creative projects I could be getting on with, but they've all ground to a halt in favour of watching crap on YouTube 'til the small hours of the morning.

In a word, "trapped."

heh.
Trapped in the house by pain and builders
Trapped in the house by pain and builders
Trapped in the house by pain and builderrrrrrrrs-
Ear-lie in the mooorning.

My sympathies. PF is really, really painful! I wish you could see your doctor sooner. Do you have any orthotics at all in the meantime?

Also - I'd go insane about the music.

You have my permission to freak out.

^Thank you!

Ironically, this time it may have been partly caused by arch-support insoles that were over-correcting and beating my feet to death in the process... I can not seem to get this kind of stuff right.

Though I'm not exactly a brawler, I look like a big, burly bloke. This means if I'm not careful my meltdowns can seriously scare some people or lead to others wanting to fight me. I really, really hate this fact, and would happily become a foot shorter if it was possible. That day with the scaffolder, I was not as careful as I should have been.

Last edited by PhosphorusDecree on 31 Jul 2021, 8:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Were they custom? I had a custom pair that was like concrete and they hurt after an hour or so, every time.

My only salvation has been my Birkenstock sandals. Do you have Birks?

Not tried Birkenstocks- that might be a good tip. Lat time round, I wasn't impressed with the custom insoles on offer, which resembled some of the worst off-the-peg ones. They were half-length (which risks sliding down in the shoe at exactly the wrong moment), had a deep groove for the ligament to sit in (which twangs the thing like a guitar string when your foot shifts) and, like you say, were hard as a rock! Hoping things have moved on a bit since then.

You can order a few pair online and send them back if they don't fit. I wear them around the house if I have any pain starting up. They take a few weeks to break in and shape to your foot but then they'll be perfect forever. Picture burying your foot in warm wet sand at the beach and making a perfect mould with just enough pressure everywhere. They're that good.

My orthotics were also half-length. Absolute rubbish. They sat so high in my shoes I could barely ever find shoes for them to fit, and if I did I ended up with blisters.

I’ve had PF so I get it about the pain. I did try orthotics and for parts of the day they were okay and then I would take them off and walk without them. My SIL who is a PT gave me a tip; to roll a golf ball around with each foot for 10 minutes or so. You can sit down to do this to better control the pressure so it is best for you.

I get it about the noise too. That level of noise is physically painful.

Hope it gets better for you.

Yet more fun: when I first went off, the information I was given about sick leave proceedure was wrong. So now I'm having to chase up my doctor about making alterations to the sick note. My supervisor didn't seem clear about what the problem was herself, so I had to do some research.

They've finished the scaffolding, which is good as it now feels safe for me to leave the flat to collect my antidepressants....