Understanding and Alleviating Pain from Muscle Inflammation: A Investigative Study into Plantar Fasciitis
Advisor: Ms. Alexis Parker
When walking daily, we often discount the strain we place on our muscles, specifically in the soles of our feet. Especially in sports that heavily rely on the lower half of one's body, muscles can develop irritation and eventually become inflamed. Inflammation is a natural response that the body activates in response to injury, infection, or any harmful stimuli; but in cases of overuse of injury, inflammation can lead to chronic pain like plantar fasciitis, which is the inflammation of the plantar fascia: a thick band of tissue that runs along the bottom of your foot, connecting your heel bone to your toes. My research project specifically examines inflammation in the soles due to irritation and injury, examining plantar fasciitis in the lens of everyday patients and athletes. Learning more about inflammation and its influence on the anatomy around it, specifically nerve compression, can give us more insight into viable solutions as plantar fasciitis is found in 1 in 10 people. My project will analyze the differences between the diagnosis and treatment from doctors and individual patient solutions, shedding light on the struggles and solutions in dealing with chronic pain associated with inflammation in the soles. To analyze these differences, I aim to dive into patient case studies found in online journals and, with the help of my offsite mentor, consult with doctors on patient treatments and what they prescribe patients specifically for plantar fasciitis and other chronic pain involving inflammation in the soles. Furthermore, I will interview at least ten individuals who are dealing with plantar fasciitis, allowing me to see similarities and differences between their personal solutions and treatments prescribed by doctors. This project allows us to test the viability of solutions to plantar fasciitis and may provide insight into better methods for relieving chronic pain.
Project Blog
Week 0: Background and Introduction
Hello everyone : )! My name is Rahul Janga, and welcome to the first blog post for my senior project. In this post, I'll delve into the background of my research, the purpose of my project, and the initial steps I've taken and will take in my exciting research journey.
As an active participant in short-track speed skating, I've experienced firsthand the toll that high-intensity sports can take on the body. Since the beginning of 2023, I began to notice sharp pain developing in the soles of my feet, affecting my performance and overall well-being. After trying to resolve the pain myself by trying on different boot-blade combinations, and experimenting with different weight distributions for my boot, I decided to look into my problem medically. An MRI scan showed muscle strain in the soles of the feet and visible inflammation prompting the doctor to prescribe five weeks of rest, which later proved to be inadequate.
*Image Sourced from Adobe stock images
Inspired by my own experiences with inflammation and currently taking the neuroscience capstone, I wanted to gain a deeper understanding of muscle inflammation in correlation to nerve compression. Understanding the anatomy of nerves and neural cells in Neuroscience will serve as a base knowledge. The content learned in relevant AP classes will also assist me in understanding further core concepts in this Senior Project. My expertise as a skater and an understanding from a skating point of view, alongside my academic rigor, will allow me to tackle this project from multiple angles. As I gain more in-depth knowledge on nerve compression and muscle inflammation, I will also be able to have more insight into solutions targeted for this specific problem for people with chronic pain.
My project aims to unravel the intricate relationship between muscle inflammation and nerve compression, particularly in athletes engaged in high-intensity sports. By gaining insights into the factors contributing to chronic pain associated with sole inflammation, I aim to identify effective strategies for managing and mitigating the symptoms.
To achieve my project goals, I've adopted a comprehensive research methodology encompassing both literature review and practical investigation. The initial phase involves an in-depth literature review on muscle inflammation, nerve compression, and related anatomical structures. Through this process, I aim to establish a solid foundation of knowledge to guide my subsequent research endeavors which will involve diving into case studies found in public journals alongside consulting with medical professionals through my external advisor and interviewing patients on their personal mitigation of symptoms. This independent research is crucial and will take place during the first three weeks of my allocated project time.
I am extremely passionate about this project because of its potential significance in finding better solutions and mitigating symptoms but also for the project’s significance in my struggle with chronic inflammation.
Week 1: Exploring the mystery that is plantar fasciitis: A week of literature review
Hello everyone!!!!
This week kicked off my senior project and marked the first phase: literature review! Every day, I thoroughly reviewed an article from PUBMED and took notes, allowing me to bridge conceptual gaps and enhance my knowledge of feet-sole anatomy and Plantar Fasciitis.
While analyzing different articles, I noticed there was a scarcity of research done on nerve compression in correlation to muscle inflammation/plantar fasciitis. Although there has been no confirmation, this project might potentially shift gears, becoming Understanding and alleviating pain from muscle inflammation: A investigative study into Plantar Fasciitis. This slight change in project focus is the best decision for this project because of the lack of literature on nerve compression in correlation to Plantar Fasciitis. This decision will not affect my future interviews with medical professionals and people struggling with Plantar Fasciitis.
Day One:
On Monday, 2/26/24, I began my literature review began with my analysis of the paper Plantar Fasciitis: An Updated Review . This article was the perfect start for me because it thoroughly talked about techniques that help in diagnosing Plantar Fasciitis like ultrasound imaging, sonoelastography, genetic factors, windlass tests, magnetic resonance imaging, and x-rays. After going through different diagnostic methods, the article started to dive deeper into the pathophysiology of Plantar Fasciitis and the causes of the fragmentation and degeneration of the plantar fascia. Learning more about the pathophysiology will help me establish trends across the different research articles I come across and my future interviews. The final and crucial part of this article went into solutions and treatments like physical therapy, night splints, low-level laser therapy, different injection techniques, extracorporeal shock wave therapy, and surgery. The order of this list starts from noninvasive treatments and makes its way to invasive treatments. The article makes it clear that 90 percent of patients will never need invasive treatment, but the question arises: “How does chronic Plantar Fasciitis form and why are some patients not treatable through noninvasive treatment?” In further articles and through future interviews, I hope to address this question and understand the nature of chronic inflammation.
Day Two:
On Tuesday, 2/27/24, I read Evaluation and Treatment of Chronic Plantar Fasciitis. Although this article could have taken a very similar approach to the previous one, this paper dived deep into the anatomy and the structure/function of the plantar fascia. Learning about the anatomy of the foot and the different mechanisms involved like the gait and the windlass mechanism gives more context and understanding with the effects of the degradation of the plantar fascia. The article provided more information when it came to evaluation and diagnosis with more emphasis on physical examinations. This article also provided more information on noninvasive treatments, focusing on medication, stretching, splints, and physical therapy. The invasive treatments were however very similar to the previous article.
Day Three:
The next three articles are in order: Plantar Fasciitis: A Concise Review; Incidence, prevalence, and management of plantar heel pain: a retrospective cohort study in Dutch primary care; and Plantar Fasciitis and the Windlass Mechanism: A Biomechanical Link to Clinical Practice.
The concise review article was analyzed on Wednesday, 2/28/24, and was short but unique in the fact that it had a case study about a 48-year-old patient! This article also outlines the process of treatment and how doctors diagnose and treat Plantar Fasciitis step by step. It outlined several risk factors and other information extremely similar to the two previous articles.
Day Four and Five:
Due to traveling to Australia, I was not able to thoroughly analyze the last two articles. The Dutch primary care article is extremely important because it outlines the incidence statistics of Plantar Fasciitis using search algorithms and goes into the percentages of different techniques used to diagnose and treat Plantar Fasciitis. This article can provide more insight into my earlier question about the nature of chronic inflammation and how it develops and evades traditional noninvasive treatment.
The windlass mechanism article will give me more conceptual information on the process of gait, which is the sequence of steps used in movement and walking. This article will add to the previous article I analyzed about the anatomy of the foot and connect this knowledge to a more clinical practice standpoint.
Detailed analysis will be done on these two articles during the weekend so that no interruption will occur for the work outlined for next week. That being said, the work done this week has been nothing but fruitful, and I'm excited to continue learning about this extremely fascinating topic.
Week 2: A continuation of literature review and analysis
Welcome back everyone for week two as we embark into the realm of muscle inflammation and Plantar Fasciitis. This week was a continuation of literature review and I started the week off by further analyzing the last papers from last week: Incidence, prevalence, and management of plantar heel pain: a retrospective cohort study in Dutch primary care; and Plantar Fasciitis and the Windlass Mechanism: A Biomechanical Link to Clinical Practice.
While I originally aimed to completely analyze and take notes on one paper everyday, I have now come to see how unfeasible that goal is. The content in these papers are extremely dense and oftentimes require more independent research to understand the concepts mentioned. I do hope to continue my goal of analyzing a paper a day; but as of right now, I'm being mindful of the workload and adjusting my expectations accordingly.
The first paper I thoroughly analyzed this week was the study done in the Dutch primary care which proved to be extremely informative. The paper talked about the overall incidence rate, the frequency or rate at which new cases of a particular condition occur within a specified population over a defined period of time, of Plantar Fasciitis and looked at the occurrence/treatment patterns among general practitioners. All the anonymous data was gathered using the Primary Care Information database. They were able to determine the newly diagnosed cases of Plantar Fasciitis and find the total number of person-year follow ups which proved to be instrumental in getting the incidence rate of this condition. To me, finding these statistics gave a lot of insight into how many people undergo chronic Plantar Fasciitis and more into how many people undergo different types of treatment. This study tracked how many people underwent which kind of treatment and also tracked the success rate and if a follow up was required.
The second paper I analyzed went deep into the anatomy of the foot which required knowledge of the gait cycle and different joints and bones. To thoroughly analyze this paper, future research had to be done in these topics which prolonged the time for analysis. The gait cycle, consisting of alternating phases of stance and swing, encompasses the sequence of movements involved in walking and running, including initial contact, weight acceptance, midstance, propulsion, and toe-off. The paper aimed to describe and explain the causes and appropriate treatment of plantar fasciitis from a biomechanical perspective, relating normal foot biomechanics to the gait cycle and biomechanical dysfunction to plantar fascia abnormalities. Most treatment methods discussed in this paper were quite outdated, but learning and understanding how different everyday processes can lead to stress and tears in the plantar fascia was rewarding.
By the time this blog post is uploaded, a third research paper titled THE MANAGEMENT OF PLANTAR FASCIITIS WITH A MUSCULOSKELETAL ULTRASOUND IMAGING GUIDED APPROACH FOR INSTRUMENT ASSISTED SOFT TISSUE MOBILIZATION IN A RUNNER: A CASE REPORT will be fully analyzed. This paper was unique because it fully dives into the 46 year old patient who is dealing with plantar heel pain. The paper first starts by explaining how examination was done and what assessments were used to reach the diagnosis of Plantar Fasciitis. Understanding how doctors rule out other heel pain was informative because Plantar Fasciitis shares many similar symptoms to other foot pain like Tarsal Tunnel syndrome and Baxter Neuroma. This paper dives deep into patient scans and the thought process that went into diagnosis and treatment. As the weeks progress in my project, I hope to analyze more case studies to see trends in data and symptoms.
Now that the first two weeks of my project are coming to a close, I want to quickly outline what the future weeks will be looking like. The next two weeks will be a continuation of the literature review but will primarily focus on case studies and analyzing the reference tool utilized by many healthcare professionals called UpToDate. I will take the help of my external advisor (physician) to gain access to this evidence-based information and comprehensive content. The beauty of this application is how regularly updated it is and how all information is clearly sourced which will prove useful to me if I wish to lean deeper into a certain aspect of Plantar Fasciitis. Another thing I wish to briefly introduce is my future interviews which will be conducted after week 5. Before conducting these interviews, I hope to send out a quick google form with a few questions concerning symptoms, previous medical history, and medication history etc. I have started this google form and will start to finalize collecting all my potential interviewers by the end of next week.
I'm excited for the upcoming weeks of the project and will see you all next week : )
Week 3: Updates & more literature review??!
It has been a long week but I hope you're ready for the next blog in my journey exploring Plantar Fasciitis! As I mentioned in my previous blogs, the first month of work is dedicated to literature review. This week was dedicated to another week of analyzing papers in PubMed:Prevalence and pharmaceutical treatment of plantar fasciitis in United States adults; Impact of routine footwear on foot health: A study on plantar fasciitis; Comparative efficacy of corticosteroid injection and non-invasive treatments for plantar fasciitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Before I talk about the analysis of these three papers, I want to talk about my future interviewing process. As of right now, I have around 3-5 people set up for an interview and am hoping to eventually have a total of ten people. My google form is almost complete and will contain questions like one’s previous medical history, height, weight, and age. This form is also a way of finding what mode of contact is most preferable and if and when a potential interviewee would like to be interviewed. I hope to have ten interviewees and to have sent out the google form by the end of the fourth week!
The first paper I analyzed this week was Prevalence and pharmaceutical treatment of plantar fasciitis in United States adults. This paper was very reminiscent of the paper I analyzed last week (Dutch primary care) in that it had the same goal of looking at the occurrence/treatment patterns among general practitioners by analyzing multiple health surveys. It analyzed incidence rates of Plantar Fasciitis (PF) and looked at this rate in specific populations and demographics. They wanted to see if there was a disparity in how this disorder affected different types of groups. The main overarching facts they found in this study was that age appears associated with PF, females are more likely to have PF than males, higher BMI is associated with PF, PF is associated with reduced health-related quality of life, PF is associated with limitations in physical activities involving the lower extremities, and primary care physicians are more likely to diagnose PF than other providers. The statistics provided in this paper regarding incidence rates and the amount of people prescribed with each medication helped me get closer to the answer of mitigating chronic PF.
The second paper I analyzed was Impact of routine footwear on foot health: A study on plantar fasciitis. When I was first diagnosed with PF, the first solution I was given was stretching (rolling one’s foot over a tennis ball). This was quite ineffective and started to pursue different solutions. One pathway I ventured upon was better footwear. This paper added a lot value in that it gave crucial details on the criteria of footwear that has a lasting impact on PF. They found that about 83% of participants wore inappropriate footwear lacking adequate heel height, thin soles, and hard insoles without arch support. They further analyzed various other studies that gave conclusive evidence that flat (<0.05 cm) and high (>4 cm) heeled shoes impact foot health. Wearing shoes that support foot arches and reduce plantar heel pressure is crucial in preventing and mitigating PF.
The third paper and final paper I analyzed was Comparative efficacy of corticosteroid injection and non-invasive treatments for plantar fasciitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis. With further research being done toward Plantar Fasciitis, more and more evidence rises stating that corticosteroid injections (CSI) are only effective in the short term. This study compared CSI with 4 non-invasive treatment types: Physical therapy (PT), Shockwave therapy (SW), Orthosis (insole), and Oral NSAIDs. CSI is associated with short-term pain reduction compared to non-invasive treatments but this solution pathway does not actually deal with the issue at hand. This paper will be further analyzed because by the time this blog is published!
As I mentioned before, the second month of this project is dedicated to interviews and compiling of my data. My google doc notes are already reaching 70 pages and with the next week UpToDate analysis, I anticipate my notes reaching over a hundred pages. Compiling all of this data and writing my research paper in a structured and outlined format will take time and possibly will involve using qualitative analysis tools. I will update you all when the time comes!
But for now thank you for reading and will c u all next week!!!!!! : )
Week 4: Phase 1 complete!
GUESS WHO IS BACK FROM AUSTRALIA!?!?!?!
Let me tell you, attending meetings and collecting interviewees is so much easier when you are working in person. Most of the week looked like reaching out to people to participate in my study and sending them my quick google form!
By meeting my external advisor during the week, I was able to make a quick and simple google form to send to potential interviewees. As of right now, I have six confirmed interviewees, and I have scouted out an additional six people. At first, I was worried I would not be able to reach my goal of interviewing ten people, but I am quite proud of my sample size.
The google form consists of multiple questions that ask for one’s age, weight, height, past medical history, a 1-10 pain scale, and interview availability. With this data, I can quickly see if there are any trends between various patients that have been diagnosed with Plantar Fasciitis. By the time this blog is published, I will have completed my first interview! I am excited to start with the second half of my project.
The second half of this project will look like interviews, analysis of data, and potentially more literature review. My literature review is yet to be fully completed and a few articles need more analysis.
This week was a time where I got the opportunity to analyze UpToDate. This amazing platform has all of the latest Plantar Fasciitis (PF) updates and has tons information related to PF on one web page. Everything is on the website is sourced and verified making things easy to trace! This web page consists of information related to common clinical features, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. I still need to continue my analysis, but I am excited to continue adding to my literature review.
The articles I am reading this week:
Comparative efficacy of corticosteroid injection and non-invasive treatments for plantar fasciitis: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Physiotherapeutic Interventions for Individuals Suffering From Plantar Fasciitis: A Systematic Review
Plantar fasciitis in physicians and nurses: a nationwide population-based study.
This next phase of my project consists of working on my end products. This includes a final presentation to the Basis faculty, a presentation to teachers and students prone to PF, and a meta-analysis paper that also includes the data from my interviews.
The last thing I want to mention is my future interview with a foot medical specialist (podiatrist). I potentially have one interview and will update you guys as soon as possible!
But that is it for this week guys, thanks for reading this far and cya all next week : )
Week 5: Interviews!!!!
Ahhh finally spring break is here! Welcome back to another blog post. This blog post will be a quick one, covering my interviews and future plans : )
First Interview
I had my first interview! It was interesting to learn from someone who has experienced Plantar Fasciitis (PF) and was able to get through it. Learning from their experience and journey was illuminating in more ways to count and reaffirmed my position that stretching and proper footwear go a long way for dealing with PF. One thing that I did learn was rolling one’s foot over a frozen plastic water bottle. Over this past week, I have also implemented this in my stretching for post-workout and I will update you guys on any signs of improvement in symptoms.
Second Interview
I learned that the causes of Plantar Fasciitis does not always have to be activity based. A runner can develop PF independently without any correlation to their running which in turn can have disastrous effects on their physical health. One common trend I began to see is that PF often develops in people that wear poor supported shoes. Based on my own research, I have found that the perfect shoe measurements go as such: heel height between 0.5-4 cm, and thick with arched or cushioned insoles. Frequent use of shoes with improper measurements more often than not can lead to foot pain.
Future Plans
As the week progressed on, I was able to gather more participants and have almost 11 possible interviewees in total. I'm extremely excited for my future interviews and hope to find more trends among my participants.
In the coming weeks, I hope to conduct these future interviews and an interview with a podiatrist. Towards the end of spring break, I will start constructing the outline of my paper and will focus on compiling all of my findings into an organized format. My notes are a lot T_T but I hope to get my paper done by the end of April!
I will keep you all updated but until week six, stay safe : )
Week 6: Interviews & writing!
Hello all and welcome back to another blog post! I hope everyone's spring break went well, and I am excited to share my progress with you guys.
Interviews
I interviewed a total of seven people (two of which will be completed after the submission of this post) to gain insight into their experience with the foot condition known as Plantar Fasciitis (PF). Most of these patients had been dealing with PF for over 5 years and speaking with people who have gone through similar experiences as me is a huge comfort.
Possible Drawbacks
Originally, I was worried my sample size was too narrow. All of my interviewees are in the education system (mostly teachers) which could prove to be a slight drawback in my study.
Another drawback in my study involves data saturation. With 8 out of 11 interviews done, I was able to observe trends in data and am confident that eventually data saturation will be reached. Saturation refers to a point in a research process where enough data has been collected to draw necessary conclusions.
Results of Interviews this week
Trends
My first interview of the week was with an individual that had previous foot conditions and had tried just about every treatment possible for PF. It was interesting to see how they mitigated the pain and the tactics used to survive on a day-to-day basis. Some trends I noticed that aligned with my own data was stretching, icing, and use of insoles or specialized shoes. Almost all of my interviewees showed this trend.
Many of my interviewees first notice the pain and ignore it until it becomes unmanageable. After this, a doctor diagnosed them and are gave them stretching regiments. Most are unable to relieve their pain with simple stretching and icing and look into specialized footwear. Many of the patients reported that specialized footwear had a drastic effect in pain reduction. This reduction in pain prompted them to go back to old habits which caused them to enter a cycle of relieving and accumulating PF pain. The remaining interviews showed this trend.
Differences
What came next was looking at the differences in how my participants dealt with their pain. Now that they were in this cycle of relieving and accumulating PF pain, many patients would look to other methods of relief. The fifth interviewee had undergone rounds of corticosteroid injections and specialized shoes. Only after 20 years were they able to find the right regiment that provided relief.
Coming soon....
This week was the I started my research paper. I am beginning my outline and starting the compiling process. In my next week post, I will update you guys on any further developments. I also hope to interview a specialist soon, and I am currently still working on securing the appointment.
Until next week : )
Week 7: Things are getting real
We in the last phase guys : )
Hello all and thanks for coming back to my blog this week...
This week was very special in the sense that I finished all my interviews and was even able to also interview a specialist. Lot of things to dive into so lets get right into it!
Lets start with the interviews. Last week, I said that I finished 8 out of 11 interviews. With one interviewer not able to make it, I am ten for 10. With the two last interviews with the total at ten, I can now start the analysis process and finding trends in my interviewers. Some trends that I noticed so far was that people with flat foot feel Plantar Fasciitis pain more in the heel. While Plantar Fasciitis is primarily heel pain, the fascia runs across the entirety of the foot meaning pain can be felt all throughout! Once I start analyzing my interviews for the purpose of data analysis, I will update you guys with more information.
Later in the week, I had my interview with a foot specialist which proved to be extremely helpful. If you check my blog last week, I had no idea when this interview would come but somehow me and my advisor made it work!
Two main points came from my interview with the podiatrist (foot specialist): knowing your foot type, and understanding that Plantar Fasciitis and other foot conditions share many symptoms.
Plantar refers to the sole of the foot and itis refers to inflammation. Activities (like running, walking, or standing for long periods) that place a lot of stress on the heel and attached tissue (fascia) can lead to overstretching of the plantar fascia. Repeated strain can cause micro tears in the tissue which can occur both from acute incidents or gradual chronic overload. Initially. the pain was thought to arise from inflammation due to overuse and stress; but now, ongoing research suggests that chronic plantar fasciitis may sometimes be more about the degeneration of the fascia rather than just inflammation.
While talking to the specialist, it was emphasized that knowing ones foot type is crucial to reliving the pain caused by Plantar Fasciitis (PF). This makes PF pain somewhat subjective. The three foot types that were mentioned are the high arched foot, normal pronating foot, flat foot. The high arched foot does not pronate, meaning it stays arched while walking. The fascia is more tight in high arched people and any sudden movements that put stress and stretch the fascia can prove to be very painful. PF is more hard to deal with in high arched people and arch support is somewhat ineffective because these devices are designed to support already flattened arches. The normal foot has a moderate arch and pronates while walking allowing for less strain on the fascia. Although this foot type develops PF the least, pronating results in the stretching of the fascia and overuse or sudden movements can result if PF. Risk factors like weight, increased activity level, and inadequate footwear can all play a role in the development of PF for this foot type. The last type is the flat foot that over pronates and the fascia is constantly strained. The continuous stretching and straining can lead to microtears and inflammation in the plantar fascia and one effective solution is the use of orthotics that help to correct over-pronation and support the arch in flat-footed individuals.
The second point is knowing that many foot conditions share symptoms and individuals are not limited to just one condition. For example, a person with flat foot feels PF pain more in the heel. PF has always categorized by heel pain, but there is also a nerve that runs through the heel. Another source of pain in these cases could always be that a nerve is being compressed leading to severe pain the heel. One trick that was mentioned is always noting the effects of anti-inflammatory medication. If anti-inflammatories lack effectiveness, then we know that inflammation is not the problem here and PF can possibly be rules out in terms of diagnosis. It was interesting to understand the thought process of doctors when it comes to understanding a patients symptoms to deducing the problem and coming up with a treatment plan.
My schedule for the next few weeks:
April 17th - 20th: compile all notes fully
April 21th- 27th: finish writing process for the literature review
April 22nd and April 26th: Workshop days!
28th- 5th: finish interview notes and complete analysis, finish the interview part of paper
APRIL 29th: practice presentation with internal advisor
May 6th - 10th: write discussion and conclusion and finalize the paper!
MAY 10th: submit end product (paper)
MAY 13th: practice presentation with internal advisor
MAY 18th: FINAL PRESENTATION!
I still have not been able to finalize the date for my presentation (2nd end product) for teachers and faculty but will update you guys on that soon.
Until next week, c u guys later : ))))
Week 8: Writing is hard T_T
We have roughly two and a half weeks left.
All I have left it to finish my two end products and prepare for my presentation on the 18th.
My presentation for teachers will be held on Tuesday the 30th! It will be a quick 15-20 minute presentation to teachers and faculty about Plantar Fasciitis (PF) and the best ways to avoid this condition. PF is most commonly found in people that are on their feet a lot and careers that get affected with PF the most are teachers and nurses. This presentation will be extremely helpful for the faculty and will cover ways to avoid and treat this condition.
My other end product is going steadily as well. The writing of the paper is going smoothly but I hope to have it done by the May 10th deadline! I am still on the Introduction and background section, but the good news is that all the compiling of information for the rest of the paper is finished. This means all I had to do is piece all the information together and make it flow!
That's it for me this week : )
Week 9: Its time for the grind.
hihihi! I hope everyone is well, and welcome back. As for me, this last week has been great. Week nine of the project was filled with research paper writing and finishing my end product 1.
Earlier this week, I was able to hold my Senior project teacher presentation. Even though only a few teachers were able to make it, the presentation remained informative and entertaining. Many teachers, due to their lack of attendance, reached out to me afterwards asking about the presentation contents and for this reason, I have decided to publish a small step by step guide for Plantar Fasciitis (PF) related foot pain. This will give teachers that did not attend my presentation more information into recognizing and alleviating their foot pain.
For the presentation itself, I made sure to keep the information more relevant to teachers. I avoided topics such as extended diagnosis and invasive treatment techniques. I wanted to keep it light and only included information on risk factors and alleviating the pain itself. I wanted the audience to be able to identify the symptoms in themselves and notice the similarities if any in their pain and PF.
For future plans, I have one full week left and it is going to fully be dedicated to writing my paper. WISHHH ME LUCK HEHEHE.
Week 10: THE END IS NEAR
Guys we are finally here!
I am almost done and on the final stretch. My paper is due on Monday and it has been rough. My paper is divided into two parts: literature review and my data. The literature review involves me analyzing 7 sources and outlining into 4 sections: Introduction and Background, Comprehensive overview of Plantar Fasciitis, The Biomechanics of Plantar Fasciitis, and Treatment Approaches, Efficacy, and Comparative Analysis. After these four sections of literature review, I will process to the Personal Solutions and Medical Recommendations section which will go into my ten interviews along with my interview with a specialist. This section will be the only section that is purely my own work and I will have to analyze the data, showing what I have found. The paper will end with a discussion and conclusion section.
Also this is my last blog T_T. As sad as that is, this project has been a blast and it was wonderful being able to work on something that truly mattered to me. I was passionate about learning more about this condition not only to get more insight into my own PF struggles but also others who are experiencing the same problem.
Thank you for reading guys and c u all later : )