chronic foot pain
by matt
(sullivan,il)
I suffer from chronic foot pain in both my feet. The pain is excruciating and is not limited to just one part of the foot. Pretty much, any part of my foot that makes contact with the ground or is subjected to pressure from standing, hurts. It hurts in the ball of my foot, all along the outer edge, and the heel. The pain never really goes away, even at rest. I've had a number of tests done including nerve conductivity (I think that's what it was called) and x-rays. The doctor originally told me it was tarsel tunnel syndrome. I had the release surgery and it didn't help. In fact, I think it made it worse. I also suffer from fybromyalgia, and was told it could be related. I'm only 35 years old, a male. I'm not overweight. Is there any hope for recovery? I'm unable to work right now and I need to in the worst way!! As it is, there are times when I can't stand in the shower long enough to finish. PLEASE help me. Thank you, Matt.
RESPONSEHi Matt,
This is a tough one to diagnosis without actually being able to examine you. Your type of complaints are not "normal" in an otherwise healthy 35 year old. Most people in your age range who have any type of foot pain, will tend to have a specific area of the foot that may hurt. Sometimes it may be the same spot on each foot.
In your case you state you have
generalized foot pain in both feet. Now assuming this is not from one pair of shoes, in other words it occurs no matter what shoes you wear, you have to start looking beyond the foot itself as the source of pain.
I would be curious to know if you are having joint pain anywhere else in your body or is your pain isolated just to your feet?
Have you had blood tests to rule out some of the collagen diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, or psoriatic arthritis as examples. These kind of conditions could cause generalized foot pain.
At age 35 you are too young to have feet which have "worn out" from years of use, so my thought would be that there must be a condition going on which is prematurely inflaming the joints of your feet, again such as rheumatoid arthritis.
You do not mention how long you have suffered from this problem. Is this a recent problem or have you always had sensitive feet? You see there are some types of foot structures that would be prone to be painful.
For example if you are very flat footed and happen to have very little fat on the bottom of your feet, that would make you prone to generalized foot pain, so that is another area that should be explored.
I wish I could be more helpful, but your symptoms are not consistent with your age range and because I am unable to examine you, it is difficult to be more specific.
Marc Mitnick DPM
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