My right foot has been hurting for awhile, and so I visited a General Practitioner in NY who suspected I had a neuroma (a swelling of nerve tissue). He recommended a visit to the podiatrist, and I went today. Sure enough, I do indeed have a neuroma (the podiatrist squeezed my foot, sending a burst of white-hot agony through my body) and I received two cortisone shots into my foot: one right into the top, about an inch back from and between my third and fourth toes, and the second into the bottom of my third toe. IT BURNED LIKE FIRE and I was grabbing the headrest of my chair, twisting and screeching and yelling “FUCK” from time to time. When he stuck the needle in and hit the nerve, it sent a jolt of electricity through my body as though I’d stuck my finger in a light socket.
Thanks to the magic of codeine and other modern pharmaceuticals, I am currently okay, but still limping. If the cortisone doesn’t work, I’ll have to get an alcohol injection to kill the nerves (which creeps me out) and/or surgery to remove the neuroma, which my podiatrist really wanted me to avoid if possible, because I’m so young that if I end up with scar tissue I’ll be in bad shape for decades to come. I guess all we can do is wait and see.
Seriously y’all, take good care of your feets. They hurt like a bitch when you don’t. Wear good shoes that fit and be nice to your podiatrist so he’ll put you on plenty of painkillers for when he sticks needles into your toes.
Shots in your feet are rough. It’s weird to think that you can walk around barefoot with minimal discomfort, walk over stones and on hot sand and stuff…but a little stub of the toe or a needle in the general area is all “OMG OW!”
I just had the novicane needles when I had an ingrown toenail removed and that hurt like a bitch. I can only imagine how much it would have hurt had my foot already been hurting like a mofo, like yours.
Glad you at least got some answers and are on the road to recovery! knock on wood
When you next see your podiatrist, ask if a metatarsal pad might help. Sometimes they provide support that keeps the bones from pinching. (I am not a Dr, I am not your Dr, this is not mediical advice, etc) If it is right for your foot, it could help
Seconded. I also have a Morton’s neuroma, and wear custom orthotics for other reasons. Having a metatarsal pad added to my most recent pair fixed the pain entirely (for now, anyway). Beats the hell out of steroid injections or surgery.
For my first set of orthotics, BTW, the orthotics guy (not a podiatrist) had me stand and press my foot into something to make a mold. At the time, I thought, “Uh, isn’t this just going to replicate the way my foot deforms when bearing weight?”
For my second set of orthotics, the podiatrist made a slipper cast of my foot while it was not bearing weight. The second set of orthotics are a bazillion times better than the first.
I had the one in my left foot removed a couple of years ago. The one in my right foot isn’t giving me any trouble as long as I wear comfortable shoes. The cortisone shot worked for me for about a year and honestly I would never want to get that shot again. The surgery wasn’t bad and I was only off my feet for 3 days. The worst part was having to tape my foot into a garbage bag to take a shower for 2 weeks. I’ve lost some sensation in my 4th toe, but I won’t hesitate to have the surgery in my other foot if it starts bothering me as bad as the first one.
I had two injections when I broke and dislocated my toe (it was turned all the way around). That was horribly painful.
Funn that you don’t really think it would hurt that much, but it does. I have also heard needles around your nose hurt like the dickens too…
I had a suspected MN in both of my feet right in that spot… I have Restless Legs Syndrome, and the sensation always seems to be centered in THAT spot, so the podiatrist thought that’s what was going on.
I had those shots done too a couple of times and they do hurt like a motherfuck. One time I even had the sensation that he’d jammed a needle into the end of one of the relevant toes. He hadn’t of course, but I guess the injection got really close to the nerve. I usually get through the shots by gripping the armrests of the seat very, very hard and chanting. My mantra usually being “SHITshitshitshitshitshitSHITshitshitshitshit”.
In my case, ultimately we had MRIs done of the feet and nope, no evidence of a neuroma. at that point I already suspected RLS and I remember practically crying when I realized this wasn’t something that could be fixed by simply hacking at my feet with sharp implements. The weird thing was, the shots HELPED the RLS for a time. How strange is that?
In addition to the injections (which really should NOT be bothering you this much at this point, you might want to call them. Did the shot include a local anesthetic at least?), you can do things like ultrasound treatments to reduce inflammation somewhat (basically warms things up inside the foot), orthotics, more careful choice in shoes.
Fourth-ded. Coincidentally I had both feet ultra-sounded yesterday in preparation for surgery on the left foot MN and a rebuild of the right foot almost entirely.
I had the shots a couple of times and they ‘helped’ but wore off too soon to want to do those needles all the time. Now I’ll have the nerve removed entirely. I wonder if my orthotics could be improved as freckafree has found.
I am so sick of sensible shoes . . . I want to have girlie shoes again . . .
I had to get a callous removed once and the nurse had to sit on my leg to keep me from involuntarily pulling away during the shot. She very nearly didn’t weigh enough! Shots in the feet hurt!
I hope that you will be “grabbing the headrest of my chair, twisting and screeching and yelling “FUCK” from time to time” but it was under much better circumstances.
I’m a fellow MN sufferer. I switched to Earth Shoes and Birkenstocks which help enormously, so it’s only under unusual circumstances now that I lose all feeling in my poor, abused middle toes. And I can wear other shoes if I’m careful about mixing it up.
I was getting cortisone shots for plantar fasciitis for a while. The key for me was to tell the podiatrist I never wanted to see the needle. I’d close my eyes before he even started getting stuff ready. I think he might have used some kind of topical anesthetic first (I’m not sure since I never looked), but, in any event, the shots were not painful at all.