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 I DO have a structural problem in my foot
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positivevibes

204 Posts

Posted - 06/24/2008 :  13:24:47  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
In past posts I had mentioned that a couple of toes on my left foot sometimes begin to hurt and ache -- and it usually takes a week or more to resolve itself.

I got an MRI of my foot at the same time I got an MRI of my back last week. Today I saw my podiatrist and found out that indeed I DO have a structural problem in my foot. According to the MRI, there is a plantar plate tear at the third MTP joint, and a developing tear at the second MTP joint.

In layman's terms, it means that a structure in my foot is tearing and if it tears too much I will be in a lot of pain. Why did it happen? My doc thinks this injury has been happening for years but something recent made it worse. And I know exactly what that would be: wearing high heels. Not very high, mind you; only about 2 inches at the most (I've never been able to wear really high heels because of my back). A few years ago, I was wearing 2-inch high sandals when the pain first began. And I've noticed that when I switch from shoes to sandals in the spring/summer the pain presents itself (because I'm probably putting more pressure on the top of my foot when I walk in sandals than regular shoes).

The podiatrist told me that I had three or four options:

1. Get a new orthotic that helps to protect the area better
2. Try wearing an immobilization boot for two months to see if it would help heal the area
3. Get surgery, which can be risky because of scar tissue that is already present
4. Do nothing; be careful and live with it and hope nothing makes it worse to need surgery.

What this means for me is: No high heels -- no shoes that put all the pressure at the ball of my foot and toes. And no postures or positions that put all the weight on my toes (like bending down with my toes beneath me) -- because that would stretch the area and possibly cause it to tear worse.

While I'm a bit shocked and not happy about this finding, at least now I know why my foot has been hurting sporadically, and that THIS problem in my body is not TMS (although I could see how TMS might "kick up the pain" for no reason at times).

I think I'm going to be very conservative and have new orthotics made. I MAY opt for the immobization boot this winter. The only downside is that I'm not sure how I will be able to do any aerobic exercise wearing one of those, or how it would affect my body mechanics (would walking strangely in it cause my back to hurt)? I think at the very least I could do an exercise bike (that's the only machine I can think of that doesn't involve standing on/using the foot).

Surgery, IMO, is for WAY down the road if the problem gets chronic. But since I'm going to be careful, I don't think it will get worse any time soon. There goes my second career as a ballet dancer! ;-)

**********
You are not your mind; you are not your thoughts. The incessant mental noise [of your thoughts] creates a false mind-made self that causes fear and suffering and prevents you from connecting with your true self and living in the Now. - Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

Edited by - positivevibes on 06/24/2008 13:30:21

Dave

USA
1864 Posts

Posted - 06/25/2008 :  10:12:16  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I do not want to dispute the findings of a doctor.

However, bear in mind that MRIs are miraculous machines that reveal every tiny detail. Who is to say that what appears as a tear on an MRI is not really scar tissue built up as a result of normal wear and tear.

MRIs will also show herniated discs and doctors will jump to the conclusion that the herniation is the cause of pain, when in reality, it might not be.

If the foot pain is indeed TMS then following these treatment methods are sure to focus your attention on the physical.

Again, I am not suggesting the diagnosis is incorrect or that you do not indeed have structural problems in your foot. However, I bet if you take 10 people with no foot pain at all, and give them MRIs, some of them will have similar findings.

If you are a patient of Dr. Sarno or another TMS physician I would suggest that you discuss this diagnosis with him.

BTW -- my wife has had foot pain in her arch recently. Her doctor suggested to her that she should wear shoes with a 2" heel rather than flats.
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mizlorinj

USA
490 Posts

Posted - 06/25/2008 :  11:56:19  Show Profile  Reply with Quote

Because of my own experience with seeing my MRI with a herniated disc on it, I no longer assume that what an MRI shows is absolutely the physical cause of pain. I have no pain from this.

But each of us has to find what works for us. I hope you find your means of healing.

-Lori

Edited by - mizlorinj on 06/25/2008 12:27:03
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swmr1

USA
118 Posts

Posted - 06/25/2008 :  12:28:08  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I'd be careful with podiatrists. In my experience (and I've now gone to a few over the years) they often don't really know what's wrong. They are often doing guesswork and want to sell you expensive orthotics. I had one podiatrist diagnose me with a chronic condition (plantar fibromatosis) he said would never go away. It went away. Another diagnosed my heel pain as achilles tendonitis and I spent time in PT and bought a custom boot to stretch my plantar fascia. After that didn't work, I went to another podiatrist that wanted me to get new orthotics. I had been wearing my custom orthotics full time after being diagnosed with the chronic condition I mentioned above. After reading Sarno I decided to try not wearing/doing anything special at all.

I finally just quit wearing orthotics. I wear my Crocs almost all the time without any extra support and am much better than when I did any of the things the podiatrists suggested. I have spent the last month standing on a pool deck for 4-6 hours a day and have had little or no discomfort.
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positivevibes

204 Posts

Posted - 06/25/2008 :  13:29:34  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I just want to clarify....The MRI has shown a TEAR in several plantar plates (the area at the base of the toes). Not inflammation, not a bone spur, not a tendon or a ligament -- not something disputable. There is actual structural damage in my foot -- tissue that should be intact has been torn -- and there is scar tissue. It makes perfect sense to me that this is correct, because the tear is in the exact place where I feel the pain. And most of the time, the pain happens when I wear certain types of shoes.

Another thing that makes sense: I usually don't get pain in the winter because I'm wearing closed shoes and I'm wearing my orthotics most of the time. In the spring/summer I'm in other shoes which often cause me to flex the top of my foot more. And in the summer I'm not wearing my orthotics as much (they don't "work" with most sandals).

I will agree that TMS may sometimes make the area feel worse, but this pain initally happened out of the blue several years ago when I had been doing a lot of walking in 2-inch heels for many hours. Those shoes put a lot of pressure on the very area that is supposedly torn.

I'm going with the podiatrist on this one. She's an excellent doctor and surgeon and I trust her.


**********
You are not your mind; you are not your thoughts. The incessant mental noise [of your thoughts] creates a false mind-made self that causes fear and suffering and prevents you from connecting with your true self and living in the Now. - Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

Edited by - positivevibes on 06/25/2008 13:31:21
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skizzik

USA
783 Posts

Posted - 06/25/2008 :  14:09:16  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I had shoulder surgery a couple of years ago. The orhto looked at the mri and said "yep, theres the rotator cuff tear."
I said where? he pointed to some white marks.

After surgery he told me there was no rotator cuff tear. Just inflammation (whatever that means), and w/ grinding the acromian bone down a couple mm's I'd be fine. I was too groggy to say hey what about the rotator cuff tear on the mri? And I was his 9th out of 11 surgeries that day, he looked a bit worn and I was'nt gonna argue. Yeah, he did 7 knees in the morning, and 4 shoulders in the afternoon.

Often Orthos will say they don't know what their gonna find until they get in there when nothing major shows up. Mri's show things, but they're not exactly HDTV level yet. Scanning is still in it's infancy compared to 20 yrs from now. It's probably in the "color tv" stage. It can show serious stuff, so thats good.




Edited by - skizzik on 06/25/2008 14:12:29
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Dave

USA
1864 Posts

Posted - 06/25/2008 :  19:07:48  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by positivevibes

....The MRI has shown a TEAR...

The technology, as advanced as it is, is not perfect. Nor are the radiologists who look at the pictures. Just sayin...
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stanfr

USA
268 Posts

Posted - 06/25/2008 :  23:03:37  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I had a stress fractur in my foot 20 yrs ago, attributed to running (i was a competitive runner) although i dont recall an exact incident to cause it. X-rays turned up nothing when i initially was diagnosed with a sprained ankle. I continued to run, until months later when the pain became unbearable and they discovered a whole new bone had grown in my foot, due to an undetected stress-fracture. Knowing what i know now (that im a TMS poster-child) i really wonder how much the mind had an influence on what became a real physical problem that really required surgery to solve!
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penguins

39 Posts

Posted - 06/26/2008 :  05:11:40  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Uugghhh! I knew I shouldn't have read this thread. My feet have been hurting more since reading it two days ago, but of course I attribute that to the exercise I did the days prior (kickboxing and step with a ton of walking the past weekend).

The two MRI's I had done over the past year and a half never showed anything other than inflammation. Despite that, the pain has continued. I really want to believe this is all due to my emotions. I find it ironic that the pain started in my right foot about a week after I had said to myself (while doing step aerobics) "Gee, what would happen if I got injured and couldn't do step anymore?" Then poof, within a week pain in the right foot started. And to add insult to injury, one week after that it started in the left, but was never as bad as the right. All of this occurring about 3 weeks prior to my husband coming home from a deployment to the Middle East.

All the cortisone shots, orthotics, etc. never helped. My problem is that I blame the fact that I never really rested (still did elliptical after I gave up everything else I loved). Due to the success I had with my neck, I decided to challenge my feet and do things like kickboxing and step again. The pain has worsened, but never gets debilitating. So I keep doubt in my mind that the plantar fasciitis is from overuse.

What I find really interesting is that occasionally I'll read about people's symptoms on here and then find myself with those same ones (had the pain of what I thought was a neuroma for about a day after reading about someone's plight). Now I have pain right at the base of the toes because I've been thinking, "Well what if I've now torn something." I need to stop the madness!!!

Not really sure why I posted this. I guess I'm just frustrated that I knew better than to open the thread, but like a train wreck, I did. I'm not writing this to stir up anything. You have every right to post your thoughts. I guess I just need to vent some frustrations and am hoping to see more responses from those who have had success beating this thing.

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Dave

USA
1864 Posts

Posted - 06/26/2008 :  08:07:01  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by penguins

What I find really interesting is that occasionally I'll read about people's symptoms on here and then find myself with those same ones...

This is typical. Your mind will give you the symptoms most likely to convince you that the problem is physical.

If anything this should be confirmation that you are on the right track. Just laugh and "tell your mind" that you are on to its tricks and won't let it succeed.
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penguins

39 Posts

Posted - 06/26/2008 :  18:23:48  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Thanks Dave! Greatly appreciated!
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positivevibes

204 Posts

Posted - 06/27/2008 :  01:40:07  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
If it "helps" you any, I've had this pain at the base of my toes for several years on and off and could never figure out why it hurt so much. The first time I felt it, it was like someone had taken a hammer and pounded on my foot. It was excruciating. Subsequent times were painful but not as bad. Probably the first time I was in pain was the first time soemthing tore. I wish I'd gotten an MRI at that point, but back then I thought it was Raynaud's, because a few days before, I was wearing those "bad" sandals at night, and my toes had turned blue from being too cold.

Maybe being so freezing cold caused me to walk weird and I put abnormal pressure on the ball of that foot because I was walking so fast to get out of the cold. Who knows. I remember that night I was very uncomfortable and had been wearing those sandals all day.

Because my toes had turned blue, for a few years I thought that perhaps I had Raynaud's, but upon further investigation the symptoms didn't add up. Even before this diagnosis, I was sure that was going on with my foot was not Raynaud's, and now I no longer believe that I have Raynaud's.

I mainly got the pain after wearing specific types of shoes (cheap shoes, by the way, with no padding) that put pressure on that part of my foot. Who knows, maybe the way I walk (my gait) just was too much wear and tear on that specific foot -- I probably tend to favor that foot for a number of reasons. It's not something that happened to me overnight.

For the record, no inflammation was found on the MRI, no neuromas, no capsilitis, nothing other than several structural tears. When it was hurting, strong anti-inflammatories did nothing for the pain (which is the opposite of my back -- anti-inflammatories always seem to help my back, despite what Dr. Sarno says). It hurt like hell when I tried to walk on it, but the pain subsided somewhat when it had no weight on it. It makes perfect sense to me.

I'm optimistic that I can help to repair the damage by being careful, getting a new orthotic, and perhaps wearing that boot in the Fall/Winter (either that or I'll devise my own "immobilization technique" for the area). Since the diagnosis, I am very cognizant of how much I bend down on my toes. Now that I'm paying attention, I'm amazed to find that I tend to bend down on my toes a lot -- and my kneejerk reaction is (and always has been) to bend down on THAT foot. So I'm concentrating on not putting undue pressure on that part of my left foot. Anyway, it's not hurting at this time. It hasn't hurt me in about 2 months. When I got the MRI, it wasn't hurting at all, but it did feel a little "weird" -- hard to describe -- just a little tender, perhaps. Now I that I know what could cause it to hurt, I will just avoid those postures and those types of shoes. I hope I never get to the point where I need surgery for it, because surgery could be a bit iffy. The doctor said it's possible it could repair itself to a large extent if I'm really careful.

I understand what everyone here is saying about the foot and TMS, but I'm telling you emphatically that I do have a tear in the tissues at the base of my toes, and there is also scar tissue where it has tried to repair itself in the past. This particular problem is not TMS, although I'm sure that TMS can affect it at times. My back is probably a different story.

Moral of the story is this: it's probably better to wear good shoes and avoid the ones at Payless, no matter how seductive those cute shoes are for only $15.99. Go for something with padding and support, unless you are going to only wear them for a few hours here and there. We women tend to torture our feet for fashion. It's just not worth it! Good thing that shoes like Crocs are in style!

**********
You are not your mind; you are not your thoughts. The incessant mental noise [of your thoughts] creates a false mind-made self that causes fear and suffering and prevents you from connecting with your true self and living in the Now. - Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

Edited by - positivevibes on 06/27/2008 01:56:03
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