Next steps

Remember the issues I’ve been having with numbness in my big toe? I’ve gotten all the test results back and they don’t show a reason for that numbness. To recap, here’s what's happened:

Late February, the top of my foot hurt. Being my mother’s daughter and knowing that the tincture of time often cures aches and pains, I waited a couple of weeks, and also retied my running shoelaces so they didn’t cross that spot on my foot.

But over the next two weeks, I got pins and needles down into my toe and then a bit of numbness plus the pain on the top of my foot. I got it checked out by an NP who ordered an X-ray. Nothing showed so I shrugged and moved on.

Two months later, the numbness, pins and needles worsened, and then my foot broke while on a training run.

Obviously, I didn’t run for a while and I figured if this numbness etc. was caused by running, then the time off should give my foot time to recover. Nope, that didn’t happen. 

I went to the podiatrist both for the break, which I will say took ages to heal, and this numbness and pins and needles. She had me go back to the orthopedist; several x-rays and an MRI later, everyone agreed that my bone was very slowly healing, and no one had any clue on why I had this numbness and pins and needles in my big toe.

In December, the orthopedist referred me to a neurology consult on the off chance that the numbness etc. was caused by a nerve impingement. I saw the neurologist in April, and he ordered two tests (nerve conduction test and an EMG, both of which were very, very unpleasant). Neither test identified any issues, so he ordered an MRI of my spine to rule out any issues there. As expected, that also came back absolutely fine.

So here I am with this numbness and pins and needles and no idea what’s causing it or how to get it to stop. But I’m tired of waiting, I have fitness goals I want to work on. Today I booked my first session with a personal trainer—he and his wife are experts in fitness for people who’ve had cancer, and I'd checked out their gym right before COVID shut everything down last year.

I have two goals:

• Prep for and run the Grandma’s Marathon next June. This is the marathon I’d registered for last year only of course, it shifted to virtual (ugh) and I broke my foot. I have a discount code for it that has to be used no later than next summer’s race. I’m bound and determined to be there.
• Prep for staying as physically healthy and strong as I can during my older years. After watching how fast my mother-in-law lost all her strength, I’m committed to doing everything I can to avoid that kind of frailty. Sure, it’s not always avoidable but often it is.

More to come after my first session (which is next Wednesday).

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.