Hi. I started having foot pain on 8/21, six days ago now. After several days of this I called my GP’s office and was told my doc was on vacation, so the earliest she can see me would be September 6, more than a week away.
There was no injury incident I can point to.
What I’m experiencing:
Really incredible pain. I’ve had an abscessed tooth and this isn’t as bad as that, but it approaches that scale. The pain wakes me from sleep and I can’t rest more than a few hours.
I can’t walk on my right foot without pain, if I use it at all there are pain consequences that continue for a long time. I have a downstairs office that I’ve now abandoned - I can no longer climb stairs. As I write this I’m in a chair that I haven’t left in 6 hours and it hurts like a son of a bitch.
What I’m doing about it:
I went to Urgent Care nearby 2 days ago. They took an x-ray, and the radiologist’s comments added up to “I see fuckall”, though the UC doctor opined that maybe I’d chipped a bone. https://i.imgur.com/QOchpMX.jpg
A friend brought some borrowed crutches yesterday, I’m trying to use them but it’s tricky - how do you carry anything at all while using crutches? In any case, I’m trying very hard not to use that foot.
I’ve gotten a selection of braces, none of them really help.
The urgent care doctor recommended Voltaren, a topical analgesic which I’ve used for two days and seems to do nothing.
It seems like my options are
Go back to Urgent Care and bitch that it hurts a lot
Go the the ER and do the same (and probably wait 10 hours and pay $30,000 dollars for nothing)
Nothing I guess?
Anyway, I wish I was under the care of a doctor for this issue, but I don’t see a path to that. Ideas?
I don’t want pain meds, I want someone to figure out what happened and a path to things getting better.
IANA Dr., but that level of pain in a foot is often gout. Which is bad, because it hurts like hell, but is good too, because it is not lethal or contagious. But perhaps it is not, as Urgent Care should diagnose gout accurately. Do you do much sport? Plantar fascitiis is also a bitch and takes forever to heal. But it is also neither lethal nor contagious. Not much consolation, I guess.
Look up home treatments for the fasciitis and try them for a few days while trying to get into a podiatrist Monday. Things like freezing a pop bottle 3/4ths full of water and rolling it with the arch of that foot first thing when you wake up in the morning and throughout the day. Doing some fasciitis self-treatment can’t hurt and might help. It sure did for me. Ice was great pain relief, as was taking OTC NSAIDs, like at least 500mgs of naproxen twice a day. Anti-inflammatories can make a difference if taken on schedule to stay ahead of the pain instead of trying to knock back established pain.
Try to get some relief over the weekend then get into a podiatrist for diagnosis and targeted treatment. If a podiatrist is hard to find on short notice, look for a PT, they can do lots more than they are given credit for. It was a casual conversation with a PT that led to resolving my plantar fasciitis and you’re right, the pain can be eye-watering.
This is a pretty good presentation of home treatments for plantar fasciitis:
I vote for busted. Seeing a podiatrist would probably get you the diagnosis. But on some insurance plans, you need a referral from your PCP, and it would be better for you to make sure you are referred to an in-network provider.
Re: crutches. Unfortunately, you CANNOT carry anything when using crutches. Get a decently-sized, heavy-duty plastic grocery bag, and you can carry that while “crutching.” Use a sport bottle with a tight fitting lid to carry drinkables to where you want to sit down. Pack all your meals like you were putting the food in a lunch box, then carry it in your plastic grocery bag.
Always sit with your foot elevated, and put ice on the hurting part every twenty minutes or so. Take Motrin or Aleve if your body can tolerate them.
OK, the deep icing helped quite a bunch, I can nearly (nearly!) walk!
Agree!
Disagree, to my great surprise. I’ve long been a NSAID evangelist and told folk to take them on a schedule or they do fuckall if you don’t… and this time they did jack for me. So apparently this isn’t an inflammation issue I guess?
Yours and others suggestion to seek a podiatry doc are well taken and thanks!
The frozen pop bottle to roll on my arch was lots more tolerable for me~I’m a wuss when it comes to submerging a body part in ice water. I used to grab it out of the freezer and roll my afflicted arch on it in the morning before I tried to do anything else. IIRC I had two pop bottles going so one would refreeze while I used the other.
Bags of frozen veggies (peas or corn) on the ankle might work if the ice bottles don’t bring relief.
The exact location of the most painful point is important to figuring out the cause of foot pain. This might help distinguish between metatarsalgia, neuroma, gout, pseudo gout, fasciitis, ligament and tendon concerns, nail problems, muscle and nerve concerns, blood flow problems and other things.
I don’t think I’ve ever used crutches. Is carrying things in a backpack a bad idea when you are on crutches? do they throw you off balance so you could tip backwards? A backpack seems more convenient than a grocery bag for carrying things around.
Let’s say you go to the kitchen for a sandwich and a glass of milk. Putting those items in a grocery bag is quick, easy, and accessible once you get to your destination. You plop the bag on the footstool, park your butt, and feast on your food.
A backpack for carrying a lot of heavy items, like books, would work better if you were on campus. But you need room to maneuver to get the thing on your back, and room to take it off once you reach your destination.
A grocery bag is best when doing chores at home or working in an office, when you need to carry small items. If you carry heavy items over longer distances, the backpack is a better choice.
But always, always put liquids in a container that can be tightly closed. Plus avoid carbonated beverages!
That’s an interesting question. There seems to be several loci. The “god it hurts so much” achy bits are in my calf, but the hurtiest part is at the bottom of the foot near (but not quite under) the heel. Plantar?
Hmm. I’ve had a neuroma, and plantar fasciitis. The first was very localized. The second was all over. I took a marker and drew on my foot all the places that felt like they were on fire.
I did all sorts of stuff for plantar fasciitis, but the two most effective things i did were to get a Strasbourg sock
And to stretch my toes towards my head every morning before i step out of bed.
is basically a sock with a grabby thing attached to the toe? Not sure that would help me (I’d prefer a masseuse that could punch me repeatedly in the calf wearing boxing gloves) but I’m interested. The idea is to stretch the achilles tendon?
Good advice as long as the person being advised can’t tolerate the ice for a crazy long period. There was a case in the news a few years ago where some woman had a sprained ankle or some such thing, was told to put it in ice water, and kept it there for so long she permanently damaged her foot. Better to find out from a trustworthy source how long is recommended, and stick to that limit.
