There has been some very great advice in these replies to your issue. The key to successfully treating PF is to allow your foot to completely heal from the injury before putting stress on the ligament again. Then you have to correct what behavior/trauma caused the problem. All too often, my patients rest their injured foot for a month and when it "feels" better they go right back out and re-injure it again wearing the same old shoes or doing the same old activities the same way that got them in trouble in the first place. It really takes about 6-10 weeks of completely isolating the injured foot, using anti-inflammatory meds, wearing proper shoes, and possibly splints at night, etc, for the injury to heal. I highly recommend buying a new pair of comfortable walking shoes and an insert/arch support to prevent your foot from ever striking the ground flat. Those Dr. Sholl's foot stations in the drug stores really do work, and will help you find the proper arch support for your shoes. It only takes one re-injury to the foot to start the healing process over or to add scarring into the mix which will really aggravate you, so remember to stretch your foot if you have to stand on it for extended periods of time and then remember to ice it when you get home. Consider trying some sort of medication to keep the inflammation down, either a topical cream or an oral medication like Advil or Aleve if your stomach can handle it. It will help speed up the process. Stretch it in the morning before you use it, and ice/elevate the foot at night with a frozen water bottle as mentioned above. If the pain is not improving with those steps, I'd consider wearing a splint. In rare situations, I'll refer people out to possibly have a steroid injection done or to get an air-cast to immobilize the foot, but it usually doesn't come to that.
The key thing to remember is that any time your foot hits the ground completely flat with weight on it, you are putting stress on that ligament. Let the thing rest for 2 months, wear proper footwear, ice/elevate it at night, use an anti-inflammatory... and you should be back to normal soon enough. Don't sweat the more serious options until the 6th week or unless it isn't showing signs of improvement, then we'll talk about plan B. Good luck!
-House
