Foot Pain
The human foot is a very complicated structure. It needs to be complicated because it is what serves to give us the balance we need to stand, walk, and move about.
The foot can be affected by disease inside the body, it can be affected by a disease within the foot itself, or it can be affected by trauma. These things lead to pain.
Why You Have Foot Pain
Your foot pain can come from a wide range of sources. These include inflammation or damage of:
- Nerves in Your Foot
- Ligaments
- Tendons
- Bones
- Muscle Damage
The Arches Are Extremely Susceptible
The arches of your foot are what controls the amount of force that is transmitted into your body from the ground. If your arches are healthy, the rest of your body is adequately protected from the force generated when you walk. High or low arches can generate pain that interferes with normal activities.
There are more examples of chronic foot pain than we have time to adequately discuss here
Achilles Tendinitis
This happens when you overuse your Achilles tendon. The Achilles tendon is the tissue you feel when you touch the back of your lower leg and your heel bone. This damage might have been caused playing sports, when running, or by engaging in strenuous physical activity.
Peripheral Neuropathy
This is damage to your peripheral nerves. It can lead to numbness and extreme pain. Peripheral neuropathy is most often felt in your hands or feet. Peripheral neuropathy may develop after you are in an automobile accident, if you get sick, it can be genetic, or it may come because of exposure to toxins.
Bone Spurs
These are bony projections that will grow on the edge of your foot bones. They’ll often grow at the point where your bones meet each other. With a bone spur, joint movement may become difficult. You may feel a stabbing pain every single time you take a step.
Rheumatoid Arthritis
This is a chronic inflammatory disorder that can affect the lining of the joints in your feet. It causes your feet joints to swell, become painful, and eventually can result in bone erosion.
Bursitis
This is an excruciatingly painful condition that affects the fluid-filled sacs used to cushion your musculoskeletal system around your joints. When the sacs become inflamed, the affected area becomes achy and stiff. Usually, this will affect your big toe. Every time you step on it, you feel agony. It is a sharp shooting pain that can be accompanied by fever.
Plantar Fasciitis
This is the number one reason why people have heel pain. It happens when the band of tissue called the plantar fascia that runs along the bottom of your foot, connecting your heel bone to your toe bone, becomes inflamed. If you have this, you’re going to feel like your heels are being stabbed, especially when you first wake up in the morning. In most instances, the pain will die down throughout the day. But it can be difficult getting started in the morning.
Diabetic Neuropathy
Diabetic neuropathy is a type of nerve damage that takes place because of higher than normal sugar levels in your blood. While diabetic neuropathy can present itself anywhere in your body, it is most readily seen in your legs and in your feet. The nerve damage leads to pain, numbness, and weakness in the foot.
Stress Fracture
A stress fracture is a little crack in your bone. A stress fracture can occur in your feet just from excessive use, it can occur when running a long distance, or it can occur in a bone that is weak because of osteoporosis.
What Is Fibromyalgia Related Pain?
As a fibromyalgia sufferer, you know what fibromyalgia pain feels like. Your body has multiple tender points. These tender points result in you having:
- Deep Muscle Pain
- Constant Back Pain
- Excruciating Headaches
- Relentless Neck Pain
Fibromyalgia pain is a unique form of pain that non-fibromyalgia sufferers cannot understand. You go through life feeling like you have just completed the most intense workout imaginable, even though you have not set foot in a gym.
Your muscles burn, they will twitch, and they will betray you with a deep stabbing pain. Your joints hurt, your back hurts, your hips hurt. Fibromyalgia pain makes sleeping and exercising difficult, if not impossible. So, what happens? Because of the pain, you cannot sleep, you become irritable, and you lash out at your friends, family members, and coworkers. They think it’s because you’re grumpy.
Even when your fibromyalgia pain allows you to sleep, the disease itself creates fatigue. It is not uncommon for fibromyalgia sufferers to have restless leg syndrome and sleep apnea.
Fibromyalgia pain can block your cognitive abilities. It is referred to as fibro fog. It becomes difficult to focus on menial tasks.
Living with Foot Pain
As a foot pain sufferer, you know full well how chronic foot pain can change your life. Your feet are what take you wherever you go. But they’re also full of pressure points. If you are a foot pain sufferer, every single step you take is uncomfortable. You may be able to walk, but you cannot walk right. You have an awkward gait, you limp, or you drag one of your feet.
You know that foot pain affects your entire body. If you have foot pain in just one foot, it’s likely that you favor the healthy foot. If you have this condition for a while, it starts to affect your spine, your hips, and your legs.
Foot pain is even worse if you’re the type of person who likes to play sports, and now either you cannot play or you cannot perform at a level you could perform at prior to foot pain. What makes foot pain so devastating is that you often cannot afford to stop what you are doing to deal with the foot pain, but the pain gets so intense that you have no choice. As a result, you lose out at work and on relationships.
What We Can Do
Living with long-term excruciating foot pain can leave you feeling hopeless. You feel trapped in a body that does not respond properly to your wishes, and you are no longer able to engage in your normal activities. Or you find yourself stuck taking pain pills just to live a normal life.
We have had the experience of working with many foot pain sufferers. We understand what foot pain can do to your quality of life, and we want to help you get back to doing the activities that you love. For us to do this, we stop and listen to you.
We have had many clients. But no two clients have the exact same pain. Once we hear about your pain and how it is affecting your life, then we will work with you in creating a long-term and a short-term treatment plan to accurately address your pain.
After your initial consultation with us, you will know the steps we intend to take to help address your pain. You will know when you should start to experience relief and what steps you will need to take as you go through the pain management process.
We look forward to using our expertise and training to help you. You do not need to live with foot pain. It can be managed. You can go back to having the active life you enjoyed before your foot pain began.
Other causes of foot pain can include:
- Avulsion fracture
- Broken ankle/broken foot
- Broken toe
- Bunions
- Corns and calluses
- Flatfeet
- Gout
- Haglund’s deformity
- Hammertoe and mallet toe
- High heels or poorly fitting shoes
- Ingrown toenails
- Plantar warts
- Psoriatic arthritis
- Raynaud’s disease
- Reactive arthritis
- Retrocalcaneal bursitis
- Septic arthritis
- Tarsal tunnel syndrome
- Tendinitis