CES and foot pain
Apr 25, 2019 11:42:25 GMT -8
Post by mark1225 on Apr 25, 2019 11:42:25 GMT -8
I know foot spasticity and pain issues with CES have been taken up in other threads, but the other threads are a few years old and my symptoms are different enough that I thought I would start a new thread.
In August 2017 I had emergency surgery for a herniated disc (L3?) that impinged on my spinal cord, resulting in CES that left me with some paralysis on my lower body. Move ahead to November 2018. My right side had almost entirely recovered, but I still had numbness and some weakness on my lower left side. I could walk without supports and felt like I was getting stronger with each passing month.
I was dealing with a lot of stress back in November from stuff not directly related to CES and was getting bad insomnia, so I started walking a lot more to try to relax. By the end of November I started getting pain in my left foot at the front of the ankle where the foot meets the leg. I'd felt this kind of pain before over the years (long before I had CES) and seems connected to the fact that I have had flat feet all my life. In the past, the pain went away within a week or two with rest and new custom orthotics and a new pair of supportive shoes. It has been five months now with the new custom orthotics, new shoes, and the pain in my left foot is still there. I have seen three different physiotherapists, each with their own diagnosis and treatment plan, though calf stretching is the common theme. I stretch every day and four days a week I spend two hours doing strengthening and more stretching exercises. I have also had two XRays that showed mild osteoarthritis in the big toe (I'm 57, so no big surprise there), but no fractures or bone spurs. And a recent visit to a foot and ankle specialist who told me to keep going to physio for another three months and "see how it goes".
Its frustrating. The health professionals all take a body mechanics approach to my foot pain, mostly because they have no clue about neurological causes. But my intuition says this pain, for this long in the left foot that was affected most by my spinal injury has to be connected to my CES. Along with the pain I described above, I also feel strange "full" sensations on the top of my left foot, as if a bone or tendon is pushing up on the skin. Sometimes I also get a weird feeling of tendons or muscles pulling back between my left toes. And sometimes a feeling like a tight grip around my left ankle. As well, I get burning pain on the outer and front of my left shin and sometimes tenderness under my left foot.
I wouldn't call the pain spasticity, at least not in the sense that it causes a cramping sensation or causes my foot to twist. But it does feel at times that the muscles and tendons in my left foot are really tight, like they are "on" and I can't turn them off.
My own self-diagnosis is that the weakness in my left foot has left me with some drop foot and the effort to raise the front of my left foot when I walk has put too much stress on my extensor tendons. Also, the CES may have caused the muscles to deteriorate in my left foot enough that what remained of my arch has completely collapsed. Though I find it strange that my feet were pain free for 15 months after my surgery.
I'd be interested in hearing anyone else who has had similar foot pain and muscle/tendon tightness issues with CES and what treatment, if any, seemed to help. I'd rather not try muscle relaxant drugs. It just seems too addictive.
