painful spasms in big toe and ankle--white hot pain
by Barb
I am an otherwise healthy 41 year old. For the past 4 1/2 years I have suffered from severe spasms (white hot pain) in my feet including my toe sticking up. This usually happens at night, but can happen if I put my feet up, or while swimming laps. The spasms can occur once every 2-3 days or 20 times a night. The pain can last from 15 seconds to 30 min-- at which point I am nearly passing out from the severity of the pain. The top of my foot by my toes has caved in a bit, the veins are more pronounced and my big toe is now permanenly bent. This transformation happened during a short period of time between March -June 2006 I had a nerve conduction test in my left leg, and an MRI of my L4 L5 vertabrae with no abnormalities found. In July 2008 I had my achilles tendon lengthened. (I had no spasms when the cast was on) By November when I could walk longer distances the spasms returned. In June 2009 I went back to the surgeon, and in consultation with the neurologist--he prescibed Baclofen. I currently take 50 mg of baclofen a day. The muscle in my left calf is markedly smaller than the other leg. In the past year I have found that if I stand on a pillow it can make the spasm subside better, since while my toe is pointing up I CAN NOT fully stand on the ball of my foot. When I can't make the toe stop sticking up I need to lie down on the floor(because I feel like fainting) and push my foot against the wall, but I can't get it to go back to normal unless I stand up. While my toe is sticking up- the tendon is very hard and it feels like the tendon or nerve is wedged between two bones. Eventually I hear a snap and it goes back into place. Any ideas as to what this is or what I should do? www.youtube.com/user/MidnightFootTheatre Please visit You Tube. Access a video of this happening by typing Big Toe sticking up and search under videos. Thank you! Hi Barb, I do not really have any idea what is causing this problem, but I will tell you this. In neurological cases where there is no pathology from the spine down to the foot, the next move is for a neurologist to look for other causes such as Parkinson's disease or other neurological disease that stems from the brain. Discuss this option with your neurologist and see what he or she thinks. Marc Mitnick DPM
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