Plantar Fasciitis - different treatments and where I am with it.

I've been struggling with plantar fasciitis since about the beginning of February. It's...frustrating. I'm used to running long distances regularly, and I've been trying to build up to longer distances for a long while.

But every obstacle is an opportunity and all that, so I'm taking the opportunity to a) do more music practice and b) correct other potential foot/leg problems now rather than have them bite me later.

The following is a list of the things I've been doing to treat the plantar fasciitis and my experiences with each:

• The frozen water bottle
  I've tended to only use this when it's been really painful. It's very effective at reducing swelling, so it provides very rapid alleviation of symptoms.
• The golf ball
  constantly, all day everyday sat at my desk. It certainly improves things. Whether it's improving things enough I doubt
• Stretching - the runners stretches
  The 'back foot flat on the floor, back leg straight, bend front knee' and the soleus stretches are the standard treatment for plantar fasciitis, and undoubtedly help. The stretching has definitely been useful for my general flexibility and my full squat, but has never had a dramatic effect on my PF symptoms (and when the PF is bad I really can't stretch that way)
• vertical toe stretch against a wall
  This, and stretching my toes back by hand, and the calf raises/step stretches have hugely improved the situation in a matter of days. I think all the other treatments were helping, but these were the missing piece in the jigsaw.
• keeping my feet stretched for long periods
  I've been standing with the balls of my feet raised about an inch (on books) while doing flute practice, and about 2" (on top of golf balls) whilst sat at my desk (with heels on the ground). I can feel the constant stretch in my calves. This also seems to be helping a lot.
• Calf raises/step stretches
  Stretching my soles off the edge of a step and strengthening them by doing calf raises has had a huge effect just in a few days.

My calves are now pretty flexible I think. The key seems to be both stretching and  strengthening, so the calf raises are really important and make a massive difference. I've certainly noticed a dramatic difference in the state of my plantar fasciitis in about 3 days of regular calf raises.