I have been having a strange foot pain. As I wrote to my awesome health care provider this morning:
For the past several months, I’ve had episodes of acute foot pain and tenderness. The pain is localized to my left foot, dorsolateral, over or just medial to the fifth metatarsal. It comes on suddenly and can happen when I’m walking, sitting, or even sleeping. Neither rest nor walking seems to improve it overall, but change (walking if I’m resting or resting if I’m walking) seems to provide at least momentary relief. It’s dull and throbbing, and waxes and wanes. The pain can be elicited by gentle palpation over the involved area. In the past, the pain has been mild to moderate and has resolved spontaneously within a few hours.
It happened again yesterday morning while I was asleep, but continued and worsened all day. I fully expected the pain to be gone by this morning. This morning, I was in agony. I wrapped in in an elastic bandage and elevated it, and used a walking stick when I needed to be up. It now seems to be resolving and I suspect it will be all but gone tomorrow.
It did, indeed, get much better (though not actually resolved) and by afternoon I was able to tend to Lu and Vinda and the chicks.
But unlike past episodes, this one was bad enough and lasted long enough that I want to do some kind of workup. Doc got back to me right away, and by noon I had orders from my doc for x-rays and blood work (could be gout, though it would be an unusual presentation) and an appointment with her for 9am tomorrow.
I first remember having foot pain around age 3. People tend to say I have foot pain because I won’t wear shoes. The reality is I don’t wear shoes because of the foot pain. I’ve probably spent over $10,000 trying all kinds of expensive and exotic shoes. Some feel really good for the first few hours, but all ultimately end up causing pain.
I expect this workup won’t find a smoking gun. It’s always frustrating to hear “we can’t find anything to explain your pain,” but as I was fond of telling patients: we know about really bad stuff, stuff that will kill you, so while “no diagnosis” leaves you hanging, it’s often the best diagnosis you can get.
—2p