What’s wrong with my foot?
I’ve been loving most of this whole sabbatical thing. It’s really nice, and some days I have plans with friends or family, while other days I don’t, and both are really nice. Maya has started school at our local community college and is in the process of settling in. I feel like I dodged a bullet with her not moving out, because if she were in college in VT or NY right now, I’d be pretty darned sad.
Amongst the relaxation and enjoyment of having time off, however, I’m having some weird kind of health issue with my foot. Feet. Legs. What could be wrong? I don’t know. The pain started in the big toe of my right foot (if I had said My Left Foot, we could have discussed Daniel Day Lewis. I’ll leave Nance to think about him for awhile, and see if she gets back to the rest of the post or not.) It felt as though I had strained it by doing lunges that were too deep or something. I had indeed been doing lunges, as part of my exercise routine, but I thought, gosh, if I strained it, wouldn’t I remember? Maybe not. So I backed off on the lunge type workouts. It got worse. I went to a party where one of the hosts (Ted’s lovely cousin) is in the final steps of getting her degree to become a physical therapist. She looked at it and wondered if perhaps I had an especially tight calf, as sometimes a tight one thing can affect other things. She suggested I might try stretching out my calves and Achilles tendons as part of a solution. So I did. It felt good to stretch them, but then I went to a yoga class and pushed it too hard, and then my knees started hurting. Did I tell you that the other foot (My Left Foot….talk to you later Nance) had started hurting? That the entirety of my feet were now hurting, not just the toes? No? Rats. So of course, I did the only thing that a normal person would do, and I went online and looked for symptoms. Gout. I have gout. Big toe pain = gout. That’s what the internet says, and why would the internet lie? Now I don’t eat a heavily protein diet, nor do I drink red wine (alas), nor do I eat organ meats (gross). But the internet also told me that dehydration can cause a flair up of an underlying case of gout, as can a sudden spike in consumption of caffeine. A little caffeine = good for gout relief. A lot of caffeine = bad for gout. Did I forget to mention to you that I have recently fallen in love with a nice latte once or twice (ok, three times) a week? There’s a Starbucks right down the street, and it’s so easy to pop in on the way back from a morning walk. The habit started, I think, when I was on Jury Duty a few months back, and for some reason I was groggy and thought a little coffee might be a good idea. I can’t drink coffee straight, or with just a bit of cream, because my stomach doesn’t react well. But a latte has enough milk to keep the demons at bay, and ever since Jury Duty, I’ve been popping over there more and more often. Anyway, to a normal person, 3 (ok, maybe 4 sometimes) lattes a week wouldn’t seem like a lot, but one thing I’ve learned over the years is that every person is different, and every person’s body reacts differently to the world in which it lives. I mean, I had doubled over in stomach pain, go home from work pain from coffee, and I was drinking that perhaps 2 times a week. The doctor couldn’t believe that was enough to give me grief, but when I quit the coffee, the pain went away. So…here I am with an online diagnosis of a disease that I don’t want, and the medication for which I do not want.
Since then, my knees have also started hurting. Not all of the time, but bending them to their full extent is very uncomfortable. I did a workout the other morning that included, in the cool down, getting into ‘child’s pose’. If you know that yoga pose, you know that you bend your knees a lot. It hurt in a weird way, as though the knees were very tight, as if they weren’t meant to bend that way, which they most definitely are. I don’t know what that’s about.
Seeing me hobble down the stairs one morning, knees and feet giving me grief, Ted suggested that I might want to go see Dr. Backie Crackie (our chiropractor), and see what he thinks. So off I went. Dr. Crackie doen’t think it’s gout, as I don’t have enough of the symptoms in his book. He said generally the pain is much worse than I’m describing, for one thing. Though he’s only seen maybe 5 gout patients in his career, which is long and illustrious. He did say that if the Physical Therapist’s idea was right, he should be able to relieve my pain by giving me an adjustment. OK, that’s a start.
The cracking felt pretty good, and gosh, I haven’t been in awhile. I should go more often. It does loosen up my back and neck and even opens my sinuses. But it didn’t help the pain. The pain felt a little different the next day, but not much, and now it’s back where it was.
So I bit the bullet and made a doctor’s appointment for next week. I do want to know what’s wrong. I did notice a bit of edema (swelling) in my right foot last night. I’ve not paid attention to that before, so I don’t know how long it’s been that way. It certainly isn’t that way all of the time, and the pain does not correspond to the swelling. First thing in the morning is the worst time. I come downstairs, drink 3 or 4 glasses of water, a bit of cherry juice (I’ve heard sour cherry juice is good for gout), take an Alieve, and stretch my calves. I wish I knew what was wrong. I hope my doctor can diagnose something, and that it’s simple and doesn’t require medication. Don’t doctors always want medication? I hate medication. To be more accurate, I worry about the side effects of so many medications. So first is to try to get a diagnosis, and then to see if there is a natural way to deal with whatever is going on. Thus far, drinking some sour cherry juice, stretching my calves, drinking more water…all of these are easy and don’t have any bad side effects, so that’s something. I’ll let you know what the doctor says next week.
Edited after Rain and Alley’s comments to add: Maybe it will turn out to be that I’m going barefoot around the house during my sabbatical, and not drinking as much water as I do when I’m working. Maybe it will be my newish shoes pinching me in a weird place. I’m hoping it’s something like this, and not something more serious. But I guess I want to rule out something worse, because I’ve not had anything like this happen to me before, and my shoes, while new, are the same brand of summer sandals that I’ve been wearing for 8 or 9 years now. And I’m not on my feet enough to cause all of this grief…I don’t think. We shall see.
12 Comments
Rain Trueax
Good luck with it. I’ve had problems with plantar fasciitis in one foot which came the first time years ago and comes from wearing shoes with inadequate arches. I currently have been dealing with another bout of it (after I thought I was past it forever), and hence working to find the right arch supports as the ones that worked so well for me for years are no longer being made– the story of my life. I would look at the shoes if it was me, after you check this out with the doctor. I think the doctor is a smart step for you although I think foot problems, which can lead to knee and hip problems, are hard to diagnose in my experience. The big thing is rule out something systemic and then go about the feet and legs themselves. The older we get yadayadayada 😉
J
Rain, I had planter fascitis many years ago, when I was working in a hotel, wearing shoes with inadequate support. Boy that hurt. I spent the money and got the insoles, which worked well for me. I haven’t had a flair up of it, but I guess knowing what it feels like is a good step in nipping it in the bud if it does return.
Ally Bean
I’m sorry that you’re in such weird pain, but I am amused by the internet’s diagnosis. Gout, as in the disease that afflicted Henry VIII of England, you say?
Have you been wearing different shoes [or no shoes] since you went on sabbatical? Sitting at different tables? Lollygagging on the sofa with a book that is so absorbing that you’re scrunched up funny as you sit there?
Just a few non-medical thoughts that are in no way as interesting as gout.
[And now, thanks to this topic, I’ve got the “I’m Henry The Eighth I Am” song stuck in my head. 😉 ]
J
Ally, I’m glad I can amuse you, and that Henry the Eighth song is a fun one. 🙂 It’s hard to say what’s different, and the first toe pain started prior to me going out on sabbatical. Weird. I hope it’s my new shoes, because that’s an easy fix. On the other hand, I hope it’s NOT my new shoes, because they’re cute and I like them and they weren’t cheap.
Ted
This is quite the mystery. I sure hope your doctor (or maybe a specialist) can figure out why your feet and legs are in so much pain.
J
Me too! The nice foot rubs you gave me yesterday and today have helped the pain quite a bit. I can still tell there’s trouble afoot (HA!), but it does seem to alleviate the worst of it.
Joan
I have no words of wisdom other than I can empathize. I started having a pain in muscle along my hip this spring which has stopped my running & shoulder pain as well. I wake up with pain. I have been to an ortho, chiro, PT & massage therapist. No luck. I hope you get it figured out.
J
Oh Joan, that’s terrible. Stopping your running, when you love it so? I haven’t been taking long walks, and that was one thing I was looking forward to on my break from work. Long walks without having to look at the clock and be back at a certain time. Alas.
I do hope you can figure your pain out somehow. Very frustrating.
Nance
Oh, J! All that inflammation makes me think of arthritis, which can come on quite suddenly, which it did with me. I take a shot twice a day of: 1 T raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar mixed with 1t raw honey. You can dilute it with warm water (6oz), but I prefer to knock it back all at once and get it over with. I got that antidote from Ortizzle, along with epsom salt baths, which together, work wonders.
And thank you for the reverie of DD-L, who despite my best efforts, refuses to grow nice hair and return to some semblance of his Hawkeye days.
Keep us posted. I, too, detest armies of doctors/specialists who prescribe side-effect producing drugs. DETEST them. But you need to know what is going on. Then you can decide what best to do.
J
Oh Nance, I do HOPE it’s not arthritis. I’ve been wondering that myself. And gout is actually a form of arthritis, which I did not know before. Blech on side effects. I know you’ve dealt with that particular issue yourself, and sometimes it’s difficult to determine which is worse, the cure or the disease. I certainly don’t want to fix one thing and bring on another.
And of course my insurance is such that I will pay for all of this, though at slightly reduced rates negotiated by my insurance company. The insurance kicks in once you’ve spent $5,000. Ugh. I hope I don’t have to have too many tests, or any x-rays, or whatever. Really, wouldn’t it be nice if it just went away? I’ve had other medical issues simply disappear in the past. That solution gets my vote.
OmbudsBen
Have you had a diagnosis yet? As an old distance runner (or former distance runner) (well, okay, old distance runner) I had lots of problems from the knees down, at different times. Capsulitis, wonky achilles tendons, plantar fasciitis, etc.
The nice thing is that, with a little TLC, it’s all been resolvable. I walk a lot now. The only down side is that I really have to be careful with footwear now. For a while the emphasis was on cushion (impact of running on knees) now it’s both support and cushion. And barefoot around the house is a no-no, too, I’m told.
Many years ago I grew up near a pasture that had a gravel road around it. One of the rituals of summer was toughening up the soles of my feet enough that I could walk on the gravel without it hurting. That was many pounds and many years ago!
J
Ben, no, no diagnosis yet. It is looking less like a foot issue, though, as I now have an equal amount of pain in my hands and wrists. The first lab results were all inconclusive, so I’ve gone and gotten more tests done, and am seeing a rheumatologist. I have a follow up appointment tomorrow. It does seem to be some sort of arthritis. The question is, what kind? Viral? Rheumatoid? (I thought my first round of tests covered that, but I guess not.) Don’t know. I’ve been taking Nance’s suggestion of raw apple cider vinegar and raw honey. I don’t know if it helps or not, because I take it at the same time as I take my OTC pain relievers. I’m too chicken to try just the vinegar and honey, because I hate pain.
The rheumatologist offered to give me a prescription for prednisone, but from what I understand, the side effects of that can be pretty serious. I guess if I were only on it for a short time, that might be OK, but long term side effects scared me. And it doesn’t cure whatever is causing the problem, only the symptoms. So I’m waiting for a diagnosis before deciding what to do next. Hopefully tomorrow’s appt. will give me some answers.