foot pain

[hotrod32]

for a year now i have been having  foot pain  that goes into my calfs somtimes and  in the fromt of my leeft lower leg   with a bit of burning pain in my feet  i was told it was planter muscle  but  my god its been over a year and i have tried everything is there anybody else like this ??

[LazyMoose]

I have been there and tried everything but accupunture.

I am 80% better now. After 7 years, this is what I found:

Foot doctors, unfortunately dont look beyond the feet to often. That is their first mistake. Obviously the foot in connected to the lower leg, muscles are connected too. But they fail to look there and just prescribe foot orthodics - which don't always help.

A Physical pain Doctor (Physiocist? bad spelling) can help you. They are MD's but look at overall body pain and prescribe certain physical therapy or supports to help you naturally heal.  You most likely have very tight muscle knotting in the calve muscles, and this can affect tendons that go from the calves to the feet as well. And you will have very tight pain full knotting on the bottoms of you feet too, not just the Plantar area.

A visit to a medical massage therapist (NOT a 'feel good' massage) will find these areas, called trigger points. These trigger points , also called myfascial release points, are released by 20 seconds of extreme pressure per 1/2 inch areas. It hurts, but then feels better as lactic acid (your condition) is pushed out of the effected tissues. This must be repeated, sometimes several times per day if you learn how to do it - in between seeing a massage therapist initially 2 X per week for a few weeks to a month.
You can experiment by rolling your foot with pressure over a golf ball on the floor. And applying some type of deep pressure to you calve muscles - bet it will hurt, but feel better later on.

Magnesium (all but the oxide type) and potassium (not to much of this) will help healing. Other health issues like thyroid disease can also bring on foot, leg, and hand pain - I also have this. Custom foot Orthodics also help but not alone- the good ones start at $200 a pair. The flimsy $10 ones offer no support.

[CHELLETO6DOGS]

just wondering if you tried heat.. for over 18 years i kept going back to the doctors with the same type of pain, some of what you are describing, i was told fascitits and tendinitis and told me to ice it and take mortin, well they over did the mortin and ice was making it worse.  i even did PT the only think my doctor did for test was xray, i am smarter now and know more I should have demanded a MRI...but I didn't know better  they also told me not to put heat on it.. well heat is the only pain relief I got and it didn't make it worse...
I am sure you probably don't have what I have but I have tumors in  my nerves of my foot,
I guess my point of this is to get re eval... and if you are going to your doctor's on a reg.. basis ask for a referral to an ortho. specialist  and if xray shows nothing then ask for a ct or mri then you should get answers hopefully

good luck
Michelle

[Tuckamore]

Hello Hotrod,

Welcome to our Pain Management Forum. I am sorry to hear about your on-going pain.

It sounds like you have not seen your physician for sometime. I encourage you to return to him/her and have additional diagnostic testing. I would want to be sure that your initial diagnosis is correct. Rather it is or not, there should be additional treatments that will better control your pain and symptoms.

I am wondering if you mean plantar fasciitis instead of plantar muscle? Plantar muscle by definition means, a muscle with origin from the femur, with insertion to the tendon and the deep fascia of the ankle, with nerve supply from the tibial nerve, and whose action causes the plantar flexion of the foot. So to my knowledge it is not a diagnosis. Please correct me if I am in error....goodness knows I have been wrong in the past and am sure I will be wrong in the future. If you could help me understand it would be appreciated.

You're right. After a year you should be better if you are receiving the correct treatment or if your condition was to be self limiting. That's why I encourage you to consult your physician asap. I would think that you should be better.

Please let us know how you are doing. I will be interested in hearing from you again. Best of luck to you.

Take Care,
~Tuck