I am in SO much pain. Surely this can't just be because I am fat?

[herewegoroundthebastardbush]

This is really a question either for the medical or for my fellow fatties - I'm 5'6, about 14 stone (😬) and 39. I used to be around 10 stone. put on a lot of weight very rapidly about 5 years ago when my mum died, and ever since then have struggled with binge eating and the weight has continued to creep up.

So the past 6 months or so, I'm in horrible physical pain much of the time. It started with my knees, which have never been great since I went through a phase of running to work on concrete in my 20s (idiot). But now it's not just the odd twinge, I'll be literally limping and whimpering and climbing the stairs is murder. I've also developed a horrible permanent pain in my right foot which the internet tells me is plantar fasciitis. And I can't ever seem to get comfortable in bed as whichever way I lie seems to pull the base of my spine out of alignment and it feels strained.

I have a busy life, two small kids and one is at nursery and the other at school, so every day after work I have to do a very brisk march march up the road to nursery and then turn and walk very fast back to school to get the eldest (about 40mins fast walking - or jogging if im late!) all told. I've started to dread it with a mortal fear as I am in SO much pain - some days I'm literally limping and gasping with it, but I can't stop because obvs then no-one would pick up my kids (partner has the car as works in a different city). That's the low point of my day, but just getting out of bed and standing up in the morning is horrendous too, it hurts so much and I literally limp like a comedy pirate for the first 20 mins of the day my foots so bad.

The one time I went to the GP about my knees, she did the head tilt and talked to me about my weight (didn't even examine my knees), and that aches and pains are more frequent as we age so its important to take care of our weight to reduce that. I agree I am too fat and need to lose weight. I am trying. But I see people far fatter and older than me who don't seem to be in total agony as they walk around!? So is this normal and fixable by losing some weight? Or is there something I should be worried about?

Hi @herewegoroundthebastardbush I am not in UK so not sure what NHS covers. Could you ask your GP to refer you to a podiatrist? They could then assess your gait, look at your PF and knees. If they believe you have RA/OA they would write back to your GP suggesting further scans/xrays, whatever.
I thought I would suggest this as I have both a soft tissue disorder and RA. As well as that I have a deformed leg and hip. The podiatrist was amazing and helped with orthotics that have taken SO much pressure off and provided arch support (they take a bit of getting used to, but I wear them in my DM’s). The podiatrist was the one who wrote to my GP explaining just how f-ed up my leg is and my hip, explaining that he was surprised I could walk at all, let alone relatively normally. (X-rays showed that the neck of my right femur isn’t even in the socket and that leg is nearly three inches shorter than the other. As a result, my left hip is carrying the can and has terrible degradation from O/A)

OP, about 5 years ago I was unable to walk properly for the first 30 mins after waking or for sitting/lying down for more than 20 mins. The pain started after I gave birth to my first child. I was about 3.5 stone heavier than my pre-pregnancy weight. Scoured the Internet and decided I had plantar fasciitis and potentially some autoimmune affecting my joints (ankles and knees). I did the following:

1. special socks 2)changed all my shoes to fit flop or similar supportive shoes including slippers. Slippers when getting out of bed did help but good quality with proper soles (vinted is a good one if this sounds expensive)
2. kept going back to the GP despite being initially dismissed as 'you've just had a baby)
3. began to lose weight. Hard when caring for small baby and unable to exercise due to joint and foot pain.

I did eventually get a referral but by that time (a year later) the pain had improved significantly coinciding with losing most of the baby weight and stopping breastfeeding.

I still don't have answers but my guess is that it was either weight related after all (didn't feel like it) or it was an autoimmune condition that had a flare up triggered by hormonal changes postpartum. I have since had another baby and this happened again but much milder than the first time. I didn't gain as much weight the second time and lost it more quickly.

I sympathise. I felt desperate from the pain at times and although it lasted for several months, it did resolve.

Can you self refer for CBT through your doctor? It would also be very helpful in reframing your thoughts and tackling the reasons for your depression and binge eating.

You might want to look at what shoes and boots you’re wearing ?
Also slippers too , I have hard flooring all downstairs and I wear Haflinger clogs otherwise I’d have really achy legs and very sore feet .
FWIW my BMI is 22 so weight not necessarily anything to do with it ..you sound young since your children are primary age .
i on the other hand am old 😆

You can get shoe inserts for Plantar Fasciitis. But I'd recommend you see a podiatrist (not a foot care practitioner) My husband pays £20 per session.
Also a tip from a friend who has bad knees and a three storey house. Walk up and down stairs backwards. He said the orthopaedic surgeon told him to do it.

Great idea, I've done this when I couldn't get an appointment. GP phoned me after a few days and organised blood tests.

You could say you understand you're overweight and this may be contributing to your knee and foot pain but as your mother had RA you would like a blood test to rule this out.

Letters from patients are filed in their records so it'll be there in writing for all to see so GP more likely to take notice.

I have this every morning it’s hard to walk feet hurt ! I have psoriatic arthritis!! X

I don't know why you think I haven't taken it on board!!!

I just wanted to say that BMI is not a great way of calculating how overweight you are. It sounds like you are fit and active, previously a runner and now doing lots of long walks. You could well have muscles which make your BMI sound worse than it is. BMI can’t tell the difference between fat and muscle. Not saying you don’t need to lose weight and tackle the root cause of your pain but maybe it’s not as bad as the BMI calculator is suggesting (from a fellow overweight but muscular fit person who also enjoys her food!).

So sorry you are in so much pain . I’ve had PF, it’s agony. It’s gone now as I changed my shoes , did the exercises and lost weight. It hung around for about a year. I am so careful now not to wear flat shoes , flip-flops or sandals.

Cute as they are Converse are terrible as they are so flat. Any walking , I wear my ASICS trainers , there are sometimes good ones on Vinted. You would want a gel sole ideally.

I also suffer from binge eating. It’s a comfort thing , to stuff down your emotions. I follow for free, a lot of binge eating specialists & coaches on Tiktok. Have just completed a free weeks group session with Rachel Foy. It was very helpful. I am taking steps she suggested to stop binging and get the excess weight off for good.

As others have said , it sounds like you should go and get assessed by another medical professional to rule out any autoimmune factors.

Hope you start to feel better soon. Good luck with it all.

i haven't read all the thread (still going through here and there)

But advice on PF.

Don't walk around bare foot, wear insoles.
Your shoes should have a fairly solid sole, if you can fold your shoes in half, they're not going to support your foot. Good trainers or boots are the way to go.

Every time you stop/sit, make sure you massage your the underside of your foot and arch, and do foot stretches carefully before you stand/walk on it.

PF is caused by the ligament that attaches to the heel at the arch tearing, its more likely to do it when cold or retracted (like in bed) and you standing/walking on it without warming it up. so massage is a MUST before you put your foot down and stretch the ligament.

You can do this with fingers (my preference) by massaging the length of your arch and concentrating on heel attachment (it'll hurt like a sore muscle pull if you have the right spot) With a cold bottle of water, or a tennis ball.

I fixed mine doing this in about 6-8 months, but you HAVE to be strict about the massage, no bare foot walking, and good shoes, that ligament takes a lot of healing time and is easily redamaged.

Get a spiky massage ball for your feet. Makes a massive difference and it’s dirt cheap. Do it every morning before you get out of bed or when your feet are sore. Using a bottle (maybe a little water bottle full of water that you keep in the freezer) can be good. Concentrate on the arch of your foot not the heel.

Avoid flat shoes like Converse like the devil. I have found Crocs quite comfy actually for wearing round the house.

You have a lot on your plate. Sounds like you need a big hug. I hope your partner is supportive?

@herewegoroundthebastardbush I am heavier than you and have a few thoughts...

plantar facitis is agonising. My XH suffered from it and had insoles made that were moulded to his feet and they stopped it.

an old physio told me when I first injured my knee to never wear anything flat on my feet, always wear something with a small incline

my chiropractor said that when you are overweight it puts something like 3 times the pressure on the knee joint

our local GP, you can self refer to physio, so can you do that? or if not then ask the doctor to refer you?

My physio has suggested possible fybromialgia. The GP thinks it could be menopause.

The physio referred me for a hip xray and to another physio for knee treatment.

If the knee treatment fails, I can have cortizone injections in it

we all agree that I am fat and it puts more pressure on the joints, but it also doesn't cause the underlying condition, such as fybro, meno etc

Whilst losing weight will help the first thing you need to do is find a way of getting your GP to do bloods to check for autoimmune disease given your family history. They will need to check inflammatory markers, rheumatoid factor, thyroid, vitamin D and B12 etc.

Absolutely get that you don’t want it to be Rheumatoid Arthritis after what your Mum went through but it is quite common for RA to come on after pregnancy. Part of autoimmune disease is excessive fatigue and it is easy to get into a cycle of binge eating to compensate for being so knackered all the time and then the extra weight is part of the circle.

Since your Mum had been diagnosed there is a new family of drugs that can help slow the disease down and things have moved on and it is very sad what your Mum went through. You really shouldn’t assume it is your weight even though it may be as the inflammation can do damage to your heart and it isn’t one to bury your head in the sand about. Hopefully it isn’t but you do need to know because of your family history.

So what's going to happen next?

If you have RA the likelihood is that with no treatment you will end up disabled in 5-10 years and not walk at all.

Yes, it might be hard but you're going to have to phone up and keep phoning until you get an appt.

Meanwhile, instead of saying what is 'impossible' maybe have a look at BEAT and other online support for eating disorders, free online CBT, and other sources of help.

I should add to my post that I was diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis a year ago and it was difficult to get diagnosed and I had to go privately initially. I worked in a Rheumatology department some years ago so knew what was going on and kept pushing and have just started a disease modifying drug 3 weeks ago but am already starting to see a difference.

Thank you for giving me a chuckle with the 'carton witch' bit - that is exactly me!!! Thank you for the good advice also x

my weight also caused me a lot of pain and aches, losing weight has really helped me. I think also being more active and strengthening my core helps my bad back. I still feel a dodgy knee here and there but it’s not as bad as it was. I was heavier than you and slightly shorter. But yes it helped me to lose weight

I have. I paid for counselling when I was in the thick of the bereavement that initiated the bingeing, but she practised some sort of 'be kind to yourself' sort of approach on the overeating and said it wasn't really the problem. I had that counselling through a work scheme and then a year or so later paid for some more sessions myself - but I can't afford it now. And anyhow while it helped me get a grip on my grief and depression, the bingeing is by now a beast of its own and I think I need targeted help for that. Which again costs money I don't have sadly.

I was four stone overweight for several years in my late 30s and early 40s. During those years I developed similar agonising knee and foot pain tgat made it hard for me to walk anywhere or go upstairs. The pain was constant, even while I was sitting down. Eventually I lost three stone. The pain went away.
My weight has fluctuated since then, and every time it goes up beyond a certain point the pain returns.

Everyone is different. You may be more susceptible to joint pain because of factors other than your weight, but losing weight will make a huge difference. My physio told me that for every pound we weigh it’s the equivalent of five pounds of force going through our knees.

You are still young and by losing weight now you could avoid a lot of the joint problems associated with being too heavy when you’re older. Losing weight WILL help enormously.

Aw, I'm sorry you're in so much pain.

Weight and knees take time to sort out but in the meantime I'd try to at least sort out the painful foot! Can you self-refer to podiatry services at your GP practice?

I hope your physio self-referral is successful - physios are also good with feet but a podiatrist would be better.

OP, i do get it, i'm disabled and a size 26, i spent YEARS being in chronic pain and being told to lose weight.

Took 20 years to finally get put through an MRI scanner, i have degenerative disk disease and arthritis, neither of which are caused by my weight and my specialist spent a while waxing lyrical on how if it had been discovered/dealt with when i was in my late teens/early 20s when i first reported back spasms and spinal pain, i wouldn't be as disabled NOW at 42.

Please don't leave it, i know its hard, i get your dr is a dickhead, but keep pushing.

I'm 42, i use a walking stick and have a blue badge, my spine is crumbling, i'm in severe pain daily that causes fatigue, take so many meds i rattle, my weight is down to being miserable, comfort eating, and being unable to exercise without pain.

Don't let yourself get here because the drs were being dicks. be a bigger one.

I've listened to everything. I don't think i've ruled out anything (except riding a bike for the nursery/school run, which I don't want to do as worried about the safety aspect0. Why do you think I'm 'can't do'?

I don't do any bingeing in the house. It's all at work, in secret. The only way I've found to stop myself is to leave any and all money/bank cards at home, and then I spend the whole day highly anxious and ruminating on food. Still better than stuffing my face obviously but it is miserable. I do it when I can. I've done it today. But my productivity is way down as a consequence. It is a problem.

It’s unlikely to be just your weight causing this but if you have plantar fasciitis then it needs treating. I would see a podiatrist and/or a physio, you should be able to self refer on the nhs to both. You might also have flat feet that need support. If I don’t wear my orthotics, or even wear them in shoes that don’t have enough support my knees really hurt because my feet roll inwards and that has a knock on effect on knees, hips, lower back.