Suspected Foot Tendonitis - 5 weeks of pain & doctor no help!

by Kara
(Bucks, UK)

Hi, I've had pain in my right foot for the last 5 weeks. It started spontaneously with no trip, fall or known injury. The pain varies in intensity; going from a dull nagging (ie: like toothache) when resting with feet up to intense, sharp and almost unbearable when standing or walking.

The pain almost disappears when I wear high heels - the higher the better, but its almost unbearable when I go bear foot or wear very flat shoes. My work shoes are flat with a strap across the middle top of foot, this strap really hurts/irritates and leaves a mark when the shoes are removed.

The pain runs from the big toe lengthways down my foot towards the ankle and around the outside of the ankle and up the back of the calf, with aching around the front of the ankle.

It doesnt hurt when I point my toes, even with resistance when pulling them back. However, its very painful when I flex the toes and then point them downwards. This movement also causes pain around the arch.

I can also make pain more intense by squeezing the foot from side to side nearish to the toes.

I've no redness or pain when touching the area and hardly any swelling, just a bit puffy. Had an x-ray but no breaks found.

Please help as I'm really fed up :(

Kara



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Joshua Answers:

Hi Kara. That doesn't sound fun at all.

I don't have my anatomy book on me at the moment, but right off the bat it sounds like Flexor Hallucis Longus is involved (curls the big toe down, stabilizes when walking and such), Tibialis Posterior, and something I can't thing of that could directly explain the pain around the outside of the ankle (could be referred pain, could be muscles/structures on that side).

I bet you most of the source of your pain is from the muscles in the back of the lower leg that send long tendons down to connect to the bones of the foot.

Nothing's broken, that's good.

Could be Gout, though it doesn't sound quite right.

What you said about 'pain goes away when wearing high heels' REALLY points to lower leg muscles being the problem.


I wrinkle my brow a bit when you say 'It doesn't hurt to the touch.' That's interesting.

1. So, if you poke around into the muscles and such of your feet, it doesn't hurt?

2. If you poke around into the muscle and tissue of your calves and deeper muscles, does that hurt?

3. How much do you wear high heels, historically?


So as you answer those questions, start Ice Dipping like crazy.

5 gallon bucket. Ice and/or frozen water bottles, get your foot in as high up the leg as possible. 10-20 second dips, as many as you can do in a day, for AT LEAST 4 days. If that works or doesn't will give us good clues.


Start Ice Dipping, answer the above questions, and we'll go from there.







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