I'm retired, living in Mexico, for the past 18 years. When I first came here, I had some numbness near the tips of my toes. It was bothersome, no more. Today, it has spread to encompass my feet, and is starting up the leg.
I know a neighbor lady who has no feet - diabetes was the problem for her. I don't think I have diabetes, even though it runs on the maternal side of my family.
My doc has checked, and there's no significant temperature difference. Nor are they turning blue. The most highly affected areas, on the soles of my feet, are actually a deadly-looking white, but usually the foot has to be wet to see it clearly. The areas above are much more pink. I'm sure I have some circulatory problems (I have mild high blood pressure for one, and am faithful taking my meds), but my feet don't seem to be starved for blood. So it isn't likely to be phlebitis.
There is also pain. It comes and goes, and affects first one area and then another, but most often on the tops of my feet. There is no swelling or inflammation that I can detect. At times, there is a burning sensation involved in the pain.
Sometimes my numb and painful feet keep me awake, and sometimes wake me up at night. Massaging the foot helps, at least some.
When I walk, it feels as though I had a thick padding of fat on my soles. This makes it hard to sense textures, although I can sense pressure - but it isn't doing it normally. There are times when I can't tell if my slippers are on or not. The skin is very dry, but that's my age - and to a certain degree, this climate. Still, when I flex my feet, the skin feels as though it had turned into cardboard - a kind of crinkly feeling. This is so even when they are wet or I apply a cream to them, although a moisturizer minimizes it a little.
I am a smoker, and my doc blames everything wrong on smoking, and he's probably right most of the time. It could have a big hand in this, too, but I'm not convinced it's the ONLY factor involved. Besides, it doesn't tell me WHAT is happening in my feet, specifically. I want to know what is going on that makes them this way. Knowing the cause would surely help, but isn't enough.
I'm taking Caudaline. It is a medication I was given when I had trouble using my right hand. I couldn't even hold a full mug of coffee! I had to get my cleaning lady to cut up food for me, because I couldn't. And it hurt. The pad of the palm beneath the pinky finger and close to the wrist, was red and hurt. I still have much of the redness, but no more pain (except a bit of tingle/numbness) and I can use my hand normally. Could Caudaline be helping that, but exaggerating the foot problem?
I have nerve damage from a C6-C7 surgery in 1990. I've been a pain patient ever since. It has progressed, very slowly, over the years, but inexorably. I can hardly walk more than a minute. I get unbearable pain very quickly and have to sit down - fast. So I have to do all my cooking in a high stool with a backrest. My condition makes me a hermit, entirely against my will. I hardly ever can leave home except to see the doc or do my banking. Other people help me with other chores and errands, because I can't.
I have had some numbness/tingling in the last 3 fingers of both hands - which upset me terribly, because it makes it hard to play my piano. It doesn't interfere with much else, though, and doesn't seem to be getting worse in the last ten years since it started. I had a nerve test done at that time, which located the problem at C6-C7. I'm not sure my foot numbness is from the same source, but it certainly might be. But this gets worse; my fingers don't, although my back pain does, and the source is the same for my fingers and back.
Is it possible the nerve damage is causing my numb feet? Like my back pain, it has been worsening, very slowly, over the years. But that wouldn't explain the deadly-white color on the soles. Or would it?
Other than smoking, I take vitamins daily and try to eat a very well-balanced diet. I can't exercise, though. But my feet have no bearing on my inability to walk much. They can take whatever I dish out in that regard. The back (and hip) pain is the problem there.