Neural flossing or what’s next with my foot

 Yes! Another update about my foot!

I saw the fourth doctor yesterday—this is the one who’s a foot/ankle specialist. He reviewed my MRI and examined my foot. He said he thinks the bone is healing based on what he sees in the MRI. The pain/discomfort where the bone broke is almost certainly due to how it’s healed. Because it’s the third metatarsal, and because of the way people walk, the bone has a tiny upward curve now. That’s not a malunion. He said the pain that I feel on both sides of the healed broken bone are the second and fourth metatarsals experiencing a bit of stress. It’s nothing to worry about. So that was good.

But I’ve had nerve pain radiating from the top of my foot down through the big toe since mid-March. I’d gotten seen for that right before lock-down and nothing showed on the x-ray. I re-laced my shoes, so the laces didn’t cross that top boney part and tied them quite loosely as sometimes runners have pain from overly tight laces. 

That didn’t help, unfortunately. Fast forward to today and I have the shooting burning pain through my big toe, up toward my ankle now also and pins and needles across the ball of my foot. That nerve pain caught his attention. He’s referred me to get a nerve conduction test and an EMG. He warned me those are not pleasant tests but said they’ll help identify any issues with how my nerves are working.  He also asked if I were using Voltaren (which I am) and, he said, some people have found relief with CBD oil. Well I don’t have CBD oil, but I do have a lotion and some ointments. 

He also recommended I do neural or nerve flossing for my foot, which may help with the pain. I’ve done something similar with my piriformis when I was in PT for that a few years ago, and found some tutorials on foot neural flossing on Youtube.

So the referral has been placed. Now that I’ve had a hot minute to think things through, I’m going to ask for those tests to be scheduled in January. As Kent says, we are in the stage of life where we’re probably going to hit our deductibles every year so no worries there. Plus I’d like to see if the neural flossing and various gels and ointments help. I won’t lie, the idea of that EMG test horrifies me, needles in my foot? Plus electric currents? YOUCH.

Bonus kitten picture collage of Annie. Both kittens are growing and doing well, no signs of parasites any more and they're still snuggly purr machines. Annie tends to flop around like this a lot and is proof that cats are liquid.