The formalities; I’m not asking for medical advice, you’re not my doctor, in fact I’ve already been to an orthopedist for x-rays and a prognosis. Problem was, he couldn’t provide me with one. So I’m asking here if anyone has heard of anything like this before. I certainly had not.
Last week I suddenly experienced an intense pain seeming to emmanate from my left metatarsal and my sense was that it came from inside the bone itself and not any muscle or tissue proximal to it. After maybe 10 seconds it went away just as instantaneously as it had arrived. This happened again maybe 5 more times that same afternoon and, shoeless, I looked at it while it was happening and there was absolutely no twitching, spasming, nothing to suggest it was outside the bone. The pain was sharp like shingles and that intense, only it wasn’t in the joint and came and went so quickly. After it was over everything felt exactly normal, nothing remained of the pain at all. I’ve had no injury there, past or present.
The next 2 days it happened 15 to 20 times each day so I scheduled an appointment with a well known sports orthopedist. The night before that appointment the pains started coming much more frequently for periods, sometimes every minute, but again it would just last 10 or 12 seconds and then completely dissipate. Because of the frequency and severity, sleep was impossible. If walking, I’d have to stop. There was no rythym or predictability as to when it would occur.
The day of the appointment it only happened twice and the Doctor could see nothing wrong with the x-ray and said he’d never heard of this before and to come back in a couple of days for an MRI if it persisted. Well, thankfully it didn’t. It only flared once after the visit and now hasn’t happened for several days. But still I’m curious. What in the world could cause intense pain seemingly from within a bone, last 10 - 12 seconds and then completely disappear? Again, no twitching, no injury, no discoloration, nothing. Has anyone heard of the like before? Nothing I Googled sounded remotely like it. Thanks in advance.
I had something similar recently, but not as frequent or as intense. All of the sudden the inside of one foot would start hurting, and then after a few minutes it would go away as suddenly as it appeared. It didn’t feel like a muscle cramp. It could happen when I was on or off my feet. It was always in the same foot and at the same spot. Unlike you, it was only happening a few times a day, and was intense enough to notice and pay attention to, but not to make me stop what I was doing. It hasn’t happened in a few months.
The best I can tell, it was happening the day after I wore a particular set of shoes. When I saw your post it reminded me, and then it occurred to me that I’d stopped wearing those shoes when the pain started, then once it was gone I forgot about it, but I wore those same shoes this weekend, and the pain didn’t return.
That’s not too helpful, and I don’t even know if I was having the same problem you are. I never investigated medically.
Thanks, I’m pretty sure this would have happened with several different pairs as I try to switch around a lot and that first evening I was shoeless on the couch watching football games. I could think of no common denominator but sure would like to have some idea why if it does return.
For a couple years prior to it being discovered that my parathyroid was doing heinous crap to my bones I was getting what I called random bone pain, which were probably microfractures because the calcium crystals were being leached out of my bones weakening them. It was discovered because I had a metatarsal randomly fracture in my foot making me go to a doctor. Yup, I was tapping and bopping along to music on my ipod while on a raid :smack:
He ran a panel on me for calcium, parathyroid hormones and some other related chemicals which determined that I was having serious problems - apparently random bone pain can indicate parathyroid issues with how your body uses calcium.
IANAD and such, but it might be something for yours to double check.
Excellent information, aruvqan. Were your pains temporary like I describe? I guess there’s some latitude there, symptoms may not necessarily be identical.
When the random bone pain happened on the long bones in my upper arms and thighs, it was like someone took a thin metal rod and whacked it against my arm or leg, a quick sharp instant pain that I couldn’t actually pinpoint exactly where it hurt, I just knew that it hurt sort of there but faded in and out for anywhere from a minute to maybe 15 or 20 minutes. When I broke my left 5th metatarsal it hurt like any other broken bone for the month or so it took to heal, and they diagnosed and dealt with my parathyroid which solved the random bone pain. [then I ended up with CPPD/pseudogout from the whole mess sigh]
Mangetout, when I mentioned the pain was similar to shingles above I misspoke and actually meant to compare it to gout. I’ve had both and said one meaning the other. The pain is intense like gout but there are two differences. One, the pain is not in a joint and, two, gout doesn’t come on this quickly and can easily last for days. The Doctor and I discussed the possibility but dismissed it. I’m up on all my medication and testing well within the limits. Good idea though.
Actually gout can strike like lightening, or so says mrAru who does have gout classic. He was at work back in his Navy days, about 1998 or so, and suddenly his right great toe felt as he reported it like someone wound up and whacked it with a sledgehammer. The boat doc got his boot off, and there it was, red and presenting with no previous indication he was going to get gouty.