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-   -   Phantom left foot pain (https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=1183973)

masi61 09-19-19 11:57 AM

Phantom left foot pain
 
I had Morton’s Neuroma surgery 1-1/2 years ago to address terrible left foot pain. It was in the usual spot between the 3rd & 4th metacarpal heads. It was supposed to take care of this pain.

and it did, for a while. I definitely have lost some feeling in my toes since the surgery involves excising nerve tissue.

unfortunately my foot pain is back in the same spot. It is brought on my compression of my foot while riding mostly. I try to relieve it by pulling up and I take 500mg of naproxen and massage my feet & apply thick bath & body works Shea butter foot cream prior to rises. I have some Swiftwick socks that help. But nothing is helping much.

i am going to call my podiatrist back but wondered if folks have any suggestions on anything that can reduce this “hot foot” pain. Once it starts during a ride I practically need to dismount & contort and stretch my foot in different ways but this only gives short term relief.

79pmooney 09-19-19 01:29 PM

Not an answer but something I've seen; more so as I get older Pain, as registered in my brain,is not always related to what that part of my body is experiencing the injury. Case in point - I've been a platelet donor for many years. Also whole blood donor. Platelets involve needles in both arms. Now the pain from the needles often shows up in my other arm, even when giving whole blood with just one needle. (A routing issue between my brain's CPU and output?)

I wonder if this could be similar; that you are feeling "pain' because the brain associates your pedaling with the pre-surgery pain. Maybe you could focus on your foot and "tell" it to relax, that it does not need to hurt. Yes, sounds foo-foo, but I have done that with other issues and it has worked.

Ben

masi61 09-19-19 02:18 PM


Originally Posted by 79pmooney (Post 21129485)
Not an answer but something I've seen; more so as I get older Pain, as registered in my brain,is not always related to what that part of my body is experiencing the injury. Case in point - I've been a platelet donor for many years. Also whole blood donor. Platelets involve needles in both arms. Now the pain from the needles often shows up in my other arm, even when giving whole blood with just one needle. (A routing issue between my brain's CPU and output?)

I wonder if this could be similar; that you are feeling "pain' because the brain associates your pedaling with the pre-surgery pain. Maybe you could focus on your foot and "tell" it to relax, that it does not need to hurt. Yes, sounds foo-foo, but I have done that with other issues and it has worked.

Ben

Thanks for your reply - this is interesting. I actually having been trying what you suggest to some extent. Someedays it isn’t even necessary, other days I can feel the discomfort starting and can reprogram my perception of the issue to balance things out. On bad days, I really need to finish the ride and get in a hot shower where I can scrub the bottom of my foot. I notice that sometimes I will flex my toes and they will crack and I relax a little. There is also a tie-in to the muscles in the front of the lower legs (not the calves). If they are acting like they want to have a charley horse, the pain in the foot is worse.

canklecat 09-23-19 03:15 PM

I had a similar issue a couple of years ago. Couldn't do group rides on my road bikes. Anything approaching a hammerfest that demanded constant pedaling pressure would cause painful hotspots. Then my feet would tense up, with a domino effect of muscle cramps all the way up my legs.

To prevent hotspots on my metatarsals I switched to ProFoot Miracle insoles. Only $8-$10 at the pharmacy, better than anything else I've tried including custom made orthotics. I've had foot problems since childhood -- AA width feet, high arches, very bony with little natural padding over the bones -- so I've tried 'em all.

The ProFoot Miracle insoles are very lightweight and thin so they'll fit almost any shoe. Very resilient memory foam, not gel. My first set is still good after 18 months. I bought spares but they don't need to be replaced very often.

Regarding recurrent nerve pain even after an injury has healed, try Ted's Pain Cream. Costs $19 with free shipping, either from Ted's or Amazon. I'm on my second tube for my neck and shoulder injury. The injuries technically healed but I had residual pain a year later.

The first time I tried it I wasn't impressed. But the injury hadn't healed -- I still needed opiates for pain control last year. The tech literature on the website indicates it works best on healed injuries that have lingering pain because the nerves get "stuck" in pain mode. So I tried it again this summer, a year after the injury. This time it worked.

There were some odd pressure points of extreme pain along my scapula from the 2018 injury (I was hit by a car). Besides the overall aching, there were three or four spots about the size of a dime that felt like a jolt of electricity when touched. No amount of physical therapy or chiropractor treatments helped. On a scale of 10, just touching those spots felt like an 8.

So about six weeks ago I got a fresh tube of Ted's and one of those long handled percussion massagers with two heads the size and shape of golf balls. I dabbed the cream on the tips and used it to apply to my shoulder and neck. Within two weeks the pain was significantly reduced -- around a 3-4 on the 10 scale. I can still feel a bit of occsasional discomfort but it's tolerable. Varies with barometric pressure and how long I've ridden my bike.

The theory is that the resveratrol "resets" the nerves that were stuck in pain mode. Sounds like voodoo but read the website for info. The developers are neuroscientists, not hippies or new age woo purveyors. They originally planned to research CBD for topical use but found it didn't work well. And research showed resveratrol (from grapes and Japanese knotweed) was potentially more effective as a topical application rather than orally ingested, for surface level pain from old injuries -- scars, joint and tendon/ligament pain, etc.

I'd suggest getting the original Ted's Pain Cream with wintergreen. It's reportedly more effective. They later developed an odorless gel for folks who dislike the smell, or can't use salicylates -- including Ted himself. But he admits the original formula probably works better for most folks.

I recommend this stuff so often I should own pieces of the companies. But I'm just a satisfied customer.


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