New Plantar Fasciitis, Bunions, Severe Pain and Swelling. Are my doctors full of it?

by Chantilly
(Shenandoah, PA, USA)

For four years I have had right foot & ankle swelling. Bad enough that in the evenings I couldn't get a shoe on that foot, but went away with rest. Recently I got a new job that requires me to be on my feet on concrete for ten hours during the night. Before this I had a desk job that required me to be on my feet almost not at all.


With this new job, came all this new pain and weird sensations.

About three months after starting this job, I started experiencing what I could describe as hot spots in my right foot and leg.

It literally felt like someone had poured warm water on certain spots in my skin, but it did not feel warm to the touch. I started to walk with a limp because of the dull ache that I began experiencing at all hours of the day and night. More recently, the pain in my foot after 2-3 hours of being on it, caused me to leave my job in tears twice and then finally caused me to get a medical leave until I can find out what the heck is wrong with me.

I went to my family doctor who said go for an x-ray. I told him that I have never injured the foot. I didn't get x-rays and then he sent me to an orthopedic doctor. He also advised x-rays. I got the x-rays and it showed that there are two bones in my right foot that never fused together.

He said I have the start of Plantar Fasciitis and my Achilles Tendon is very tight. He also said that I have bunions on the left and right side of the foot.

He told me to take naproxin and do a runner's stretch for 40 minutes everyday.

Is it possible that these things can contribute to the swelling so bad that it hurts and so bad that I can't get a shoe on that foot?

Is it possible that stretching is going to make my pain go away even when walking (which would stretch it) only made it worse?

Is this the only treatment because I haven't been to work in over a month now and am afraid to go back only to be in so much pain that I must leave again.

Walking at home is also painful but not nearly as bad as walking or standing on concrete.

Swelling seems to get worse if I drink things with caffeine and sugar such as coffee, iced tea or soda, although swelling occurs even without any.



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Joshua Answers:

Hello Chantilly.

Yikes. That sounds not very fun at all....


So, are your doctors full of it? I will keep my opinions on that to myself, but I will say the following.

That's all they did for you?!? An
x-ray and a prescription to stretch?!?

You have swelling and irregular nerve sensation/weird sensation on the skin and you can't be on your feet at all and that's the best they had to offer?!?

They didn't check your Vitamin D levels, your Vitamin B6 and B12 levels, didn't say anything about why you might have such swelling, etc??!!??

At best, if I have an accurate picture from what you said, that's pitiful. It's pitiful, and backs up my belief that we don't need health care reform, we need total health care OVERHAUL, tearing it down and starting over from a foundation of 'health' instead of 'poorly treating symptoms and not the cause of the problem'.


Having said that, let me get some more information so that I do end up with a complete and accurate picture of what's going on.



Questions:

1. How old are you?

2. History of foot pain other than the past 4 years?

3. Overall health description? Diabetes? Thyroid issues? Overweight? Historical activity level? Energy levels?

4. How bad is the swelling? Same on both sides?

5. Please describe in more detail the hotspots/weird warm feeling. Where? How often? How long does it last? Big spots, little spots, all over, top of the foot, side of the foot, up the leg? The more detailed, the better.

6. Are the bunions any different than they were 4 years ago, 10 years ago? Did you not know they were there?

7. How fast does the pain go away when you are off your feet? Does it go away?




This doesn't at all sound like Tendonitis

There obviously is some Process of Inflammation going on, though I'm not confident that that is from Plantar Fasciitis etc.

A lot of this sounds nutritional. It could be the case that structures are now so tight and the foot is structurally fragile due to the unfused bones (that potentially caused the formation of the bunions) and is now counting as a trigger for some serious inflammation.

Still, I don't know enough yet. Answer the questions above, do the advised stretching (that's a smart thing to do), and we'll go from there.





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Joshua Tucker, B.A., C.M.T.
The Tendonitis Expert
www.TendonitisExpert.com
















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Comments for New Plantar Fasciitis, Bunions, Severe Pain and Swelling. Are my doctors full of it?

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Oct 19, 2009
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starstarstarstarstar 		PART 2 - Questions answered - New Plantar Fasciitis, Bunions, Severe Pain and Swelling. Are my doctors full of it?
by: Chantilly

1. How old are you?

I am 29 years old.


2. History of foot pain other than the past 4 years?

Twisted ankles fairly frequently as a teenager, I was in the National Guard and through basic training(that was painful for my feet but I was younger and dealt with it much better)


3. Overall health description? Diabetes? Thyroid issues? Overweight? Historical activity level? Energy levels?

I am 5'2 1/2" tall and 170lbs. I am built fairly porportionally, but I have had four children, so a little overweight. Big boned. I have never been diagnosed with diabetes, thyroid issues but I have also never been checked.

I used to be very active, now not so much. The foot pain has only added to my inactivity. I am always tired. I never used to be this way. Now I could nap at any time.

After going in to the doc with the foot pain, I started getting chest pains. He told me to go the ER, I did, they said I was fine & sent me home. When I followed up with my family doc, he sent me for stress test, & echo. That showed that I have a slight leak in the mitral valve.

There is no treatment and he also said that I am having anxiety attacks. Put me on Celexa and I stopped this on my own because of extreme mood changes. Other than that I had a pilinital cyst in 1996. That's about it for me.


4. How bad is the swelling? Same on both sides?

Swelling is the same on both sides of the foot and ankle.


5. Please describe in more detail the hotspots/weird warm feeling. Where? How often? How long does it last? Big spots, little spots, all over, top of the foot, side of the foot, up the leg? The more detailed, the better.

In the top of my right foot, shin & right side calf on right leg. Usually the warm feeling starts after I have been on feet a lot during the day, when I am sitting down, ie., car seats, hard dining room chair.

Has happened only two or three times while standing. Since I have been out of work, I have not felt this sensation at all.


6. Are the bunions any different than they were 4 years ago, 10 years ago? Did you not know they were there?

I didn't even know I had them until the Ortho told me I did. My feet have always looked this way, they are just bigger now, lol.


7. How fast does the pain go away when you are off your feet? Does it go away?

It takes a long time to go away, usually through the night. When I wake up the swelling is down and they feel alright, but while sitting or laying the pain is the same. Sometimes while sitting the right foot throbs.
Oct 19, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		PART 3 - New Plantar Fasciitis, Bunions, Severe Pain and Swelling. Are my doctors full of it?
by: The Tendonitis Expert

Joshua Comments:

Hey Chantilly. Thanks for the good answers.

Ok, so.

1. You've had foot pain for a good long while. Possibly the twisted ankles happened because of instability and weird messages being sent to the nervous system from the unfused bones.

So you may just be built for foot problems.

We can deal with that to a good degree, I believe.


2. But first I think we need to deal with some underlying nutritional aspects. You are tired, and that swelling and warm on the skin symptoms aren't Plantar Fasciitis related (maybe the swelling).

I'm thinking magnesium, Vitamin B6 and B12, and Vitamin D3.

Deficiencies in these can lead to the bulk of your symptoms. How long have you been tired?

How's your digestion? Food allergies? It's also possible that you are gluten intolerant, which leads to 'leaky gut', which sets a person up for nutrient deficiencies and food allergies because food/protein fibers are literally leaking through the walls of the digestive tract.

This can lead to you not getting the nutrients from your food and being undernourished and tired.

See my Kerri's pages on Gluten Intolerance at www.Easy-Immune-Health.com


Here are my first two suggestions.

1. Learn How To Reduce Inflammation. Start Ice Dipping your feet. 30+ times per day. That will start to help right off the bat.

2. If we don't deal with the nutritional deficiencies, it can prevent you from 'healing', from getting out of pain, and will keep your health on a downward spiral.


A. Get the Organix Profile as described on Kerri's Organix Profile page

This will tell you exactly where your body is at on a large spread of nutritional and chemical markers.

Then you will know exactly what you need to supplement and how much, and will save you money in the long run because you will be targeting your treatment instead of throwing money at different guesses.

(Continued on PART 4)
Oct 19, 2009
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		PART 4 - New Plantar Fasciitis, Bunions, Severe Pain and Swelling. Are my doctors full of it?
by: The Tendonitis Expert

(Continued from Part 3)

B. Along the lines of guesses, here are some general suggestions for what and how much.

I'm not a nutritionist, so I AM NOT TELLING YOU WHAT OR HOW MUCH TO TAKE.


B1. Read about Magnesium and go to the Magnesium Dosage page that is linked at the bottom of that page.

It describes what and how to find a dosage and why.


B2. Vitamin D. Get a level from your doctor or I can point you to a $40 blood spot test you do at home and send to the lab. Then you'll know.

And, it's safe to take a bunch. It's cheap, and incredibly vital to all levels of health. Including heart health.

I take 75,000-150,000 iu's a month. It is common to give the elderly a shot of 600,000 iu's to get them through the winter.

Especially with the winter (swine) flue season coming up, get you Vitamin D levels up!

See Kerri's Vitamin D pages on www.Easy-Immune-Health.com

I can't stress Vitamin D enough.


B3.

Vitamin B6. I don't want to give you specific numbers because, again because I'm not a nutritionist.

I will say that 100-300mgs is documented as safe as effective.

B12 is good too, 1,000-3,000 micrograms is a commonly recommended dose.

B deficiency plays a role in various symptoms including nerve pain which I think is what's going on with that 'warm wet' feeling. That's a weird symptom.



Again, I suggest the last three supplements and getting your levels up, if you are deficient you should notice swift results. We'll see what happens with that.

And the test will keep any guesswork out of it.

Pausing now for you to digest.

Feb 20, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		swollen calf after bunion surgery
by: Joyce

i just had bunion surgery 9 days ago. i have no pain but noticed my calf is very swollen, almost twice the size of my other leg.

is this normal.

thank you for responding

joyce


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Joshua Comments:

Hi Joyce.

From just what you've said, no, it's not normal.

There are a lot of variables, of course, I'd need to know about your overall health and situation and the specifics of the surgery.

Having said that, surgery causes injury. Injury causes a Process of Inflammation.

Inflammation traps fluid in the area, and causes fluid build up.

So it makes a certain amount of sense that surgery has caused fluid build up in your leg. If it's -just- your calf that's swollen, then that's NOT normal at all.
May 21, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		calf pain after surgery is dangerous
by: Dr G DPM

I am a foot surgeon. if you are reading this because this sounds like you, know this: calf pain after surgery is unlikley to be due to inflammation. The most likely and unfortunately most dangerous possibilty, is a blood clot. You should not even wait until morning to check out sudden onset swelling in the calf or thigh. It may be just post surgical edema or it may kill you in your sleep or just hurt severely and unnecessarily.


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Joshua Comments:

I'll not argue with the doctor on the 'pain is not from inflammation' topic, but I will say that swelling after surgery is entirely common, and a blood clot is certainly a possibility and a danger.

Thus one needs to look at how much swelling, and other factors like coloration, pain or not, etc.

Swelling/edema/inflammation is common after the injury caused by surgery. But as in all things, there's 'some' swelling and then there's 'uh...that's not right' swelling.

So Joyce and anyone else, you need to make a decision re: any swelling and consider a trip to the doc to rule out blood clot.

Thanks for the comment Doc. I've said it on the site in various places, but the topic of blood clot is certainly a necessary topic to keep in mind for this specific conversation/situation.
Sep 10, 2018
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		plantar fasciitis with extreme pain and swelling
by: Aya M

I have plantar fasciitis with extreme pain and swelling.

I also get tight calves and knee swelling. As of late it feels like the bones in both feet (underneath) have dropped upon stepping as I walk and hurt extremely bad when they land on pavement,floor, etc.

I am exhausted from this pain, has anyone ever explained this type of feeling of dropped bone/ pain upon stepping with their PF?


Can you kindly take the time to explain why this may be happening along with knee swelling...not sure if they all align, but you know better? Thanks in advance for your time.😭😥😢Please help.


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Joshua Comments:

Hi Aya.

I grabbed your comment/question from the comments on my youtube video and moved it here, as this is a better place for a larger response.

So. It sounds like your arches are falling. Which means, as you put weight on them, the structure A. can no longer hold it's proper form and B. the muscles etc that help it hold it's proper form aren't working correctly.

Another way of saying this is: Falling arches are caused by a poorly functioning lower leg ecology, meaning, muscles that connect to the foot aren't aboe to work correctly.

And it's all more downhill from there.

So. What causes this poor function? The Tendonitis dynamic.

What is the tendonitis dynamic? A combo of too tight muscle and connective tissue, inflammation process, and lack of nutrition.

Why doesn't it get better all by itself? Because it can't.

Why can't it? Because those three factors work together to make each other worse, which makes the others worse, which makes the others worse.

If you want it to get better, you have to do the right things to make it better. It takes time and effort.


Plantar Fasciitis, which is basically what you have, is a form of Tendonitis.

See: What Is Tendonitis?

Tendonitis, no matter where it shows up, is a Pain Causing Dynamic.


Aya, I suggest you follow those links and read those pages. Do the same for the other links/pages you'll find on this page.

Then come back with any questions you may have.

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