Foot Pain: A+E?

[NotQuiteCockney]

Last night, the ball of my left foot hurt a bit, when I was walking.

This morning, if I put my weight on my left foot normally I scream. Very sharp pain.

There's no pain if I don't put my weight on it. In fact, I can lie on my back, and raise my hips off the bed, and go on my toes, and it only hurts a little bit.

I didn't have any falls or anything yesterday.

My inclination is to think this is a soft tissue injury, and to take lots of iboprofen and leave it be, but I can't walk!

Is this likely to be something else, that A+E can help me with?

Hmm, no, haven't done any decently long runs lately, always about 3-4 km I think. I had a week off, then ran every other day for a few days, but not long runs.

The ground has been harder than usual lately (v dry) which might be a factor?

But really, I think that walking quite a bit yesterday (a few km at least) with DS2 in a backpack or on my shoulders, is the most likely cause. That's quite a bit of extra weight. Oh, and I was wearing quite thin shoes for a lot of it. Should have worn thicker ones, I think.

Did you find footwear made a difference for how soon you could walk? Or could you always walk, but not run?

I am really not motivated about this holiday. First holiday with mom not there, I have less than nothing in common with dad, my sister annoys me and has bed bugs. We're staying in a different part of town, although it's a nice bit, and we are planning to see my highschool best friend's mom, which will be nice, she's having a crappy year too.

DH is completely exhausted and kinda unpleasant lately (working waaaay too much) although I hope he'll be better on holiday. He goes away in the middle and I end up in a holiday camp in the middle of nowhere (near where dad now lives) for a week. With no car. Although there is a kid's club for DS1 there's nothing official for DS2. (How will I go running?)

Fanjo - ypur explanation of yesterday , bakcpakc , thin shoes sounds fesible for a footinjury.

Shoes made no difference to me when I hurt my foot. When I intally had it I swapped running shoes for a bit , no difference. I couldn't even walk when it was at its worst. I at times had to take the boys to school in the car !! whcih I hated doing.

I couldn't wear my normal day shoes becuase my foot was swollen so ended up wearing trainers for about three weeks as I could losen the laces.

Don't do any running or excessive walking until you see someone . The secret is RICE, Rest, Ice,Compression and Elevation .

Ok, now it's gotten weirder.

My foot seems to be ok. At least, I can put weight on it alright, right now. I did take a voltrol, but not that long ago.

Is planar fascitis the thing where there's a trapped nerve? That's what the nurse was talking about.

I will still go to the GP, or maybe the physio, about this. I will wear thicker shoes, especially while carrying the baby.

But I am tempted to go to this festival this morning ...

I dont think its spelt kapex, it is very nice though

Look sorry to keep harping on about these bed bugs

How big are they? Can you disinfect the house before we come to stay please?

They're very small.

I will keep a very strong eye out for them while we're away, and will let you know if we show any signs of infestation at any time. (They bite people, and the bites leave marks.)

I'm going to be taking every possible step to avoid getting infested while we're away, and to avoid bringing them back, don't worry. And if I fail, I will be letting any potential guests here know.

(I think the only real risk would be if we slept at my sister's house. But we won't even go in. I'm 99.9% sure my fairy godmother didn't have them anyway.)

(I'm not going to get into the steps you need to get rid of them, because it sounds like they don't work anyway. So I'm working on not catching them in the first place at the moment.)

Yes I was not really being terribly serious about you catching them.

But fucking hell, if you do I am coming nowhere near you. Can you catch them over the WWW?

(Oh, and I'd be freaking out about catching them, too, in your shoes. Hey, I'm freaking out about catching them anyway!)

Power of suggestion does something with them, as my fairy godmother became convinced she'd caught them. But really, particularly back home, there are bazillions of bugs in the summer, so you're always covered in little bumps. (Oh god every mosquito bite will freak me out.)

oh you poor thing. Can you just wear some of those protective suits, you know, like they have for radio activity?

I'm just going to have to stay mellow about it.

At least Montreal will be nice, we have just over a week there at the end. And possibly my best friend will be there. Or maybe he'll be off on holiday with his (probably-soon-to-be-ex-)girlfriend. Grrr.

Things to look forward to, in Canada:

• DH will be around for most of the trip. And he generally leaves work entirely alone while away.
• there are quite a few people I'm looking forward to seeing, although they're often pretty busy
• the resort holiday will be interesting, I've never been anywhere like that. I think the kids will enjoy the outdoor stuff.
• the food will be (generally) good, and excellent in Montreal. Sweetcorn, actual bagels, good pizza, proper fries.
• we can go to the Ex, and Ontario Place, both of which are great fun and quite nostalgic for me.

It's not good that I have to work myself up to make a list, but I should keep the positive bits in mind.

Hi NQC - I'm OT, deal with plantar facsiitis a fair bit, have to say does occasionally happen on areas other than the heel. Def go and see doc when you can though as it may not be. Apart from that take anti-inflammatories, sounds like you're doing everything right already.

Just a tip to make walking a bit more comfy in the meantime - if you can get hold of some of those cheap foam insoles get 2 pairs and put in some shoes that are big enough/loose enough to still get on comfortably. On the foot that it hurts cut a small hole out of the top layer where your pain is - that should relieve some of the pressure while you walk. Don 't do this for tto long without seeing OT/physio though as it can affect your gait and cause other probs - temporary relief only. Hope that helps.

liquidclocks, it seems to be mostly better now.

Am I right in thinking thicker shoes are a good idea to prevent/reduce this?

And in thinking a physio is a better bet than a GP for diagnosis/fixing? (I go to a really good physio practice.)

(The pain was really really really sharp. And the nurse, on the phone, was talking about something with inflammation catching a nerve ... is that planar fasciitis? Or something else?)

I'm glad the pain is better now. I think you will have fun in Canada. Are you like me - tend to get hung up on one or two worries about what might happen, before you go somewhere or do something? I am terrible for getting stressed out about things that never come to pass

For me, it's reasonably likely things that I get stressed about, but they're never as bad as I fear. Well, almost never.

So for this trip, I'm not worried (that much) about the bed bugs, and I'm not worried about the fact we've never been to any of the places we're staying at. But I am worried about being bored with the kids, about jet lag sucking, and about my family annoying me.

My foot is still bugging me some of the time, so I'm putting on big socks and big shoes, and seeing if that helps.

Don't really know what the nurse was on about. There's loads of theories about the plantar fasciitis and how it works but nothing's really been proven tbh. If this has happened once though then I'd take steps over the next few weeks to be nice to your feet. The biggest cause imo is bad footwear - I mostly see it in women who wear cheap high heels or those hard soled flip flop type shoes that are so trendy right now, (being overweight doesn't seem to help either).

Best prevention imo is to buy decent shoes and loads now have that squishy gel actually built into the soles so go fo those if you can. (might get shot on MN for this but clarks are good - for grow ups)

Agree physio probably better than doc on this especially if you already know she's good.

Enjoy hols!

Whats up with Clarks?

I only wear trainers, never flip-flops, never heels. But the trainers I wore yesterday were quite soft and not really good for walking long distances.

(Ironically, I have dropped maybe 10kg from pre-pregnancy weight.)

Is running definately a bad idea now, or can I carry on? Guess I'll ask physio tomorrow if I can get a slot.

If the pain's completely gone after your anti inflammatories wear off (reserve judgement until tomorrow with voltarol) then I wouldn't worry too much - these things can sort themselves out and you might never know why it happens. If it did happen again though I'd get advice from your physio.

Qootie - some mums hate clarks - queues, ticket machines, never having the right size in etc! Personally love 'em but I live near the k villlage outlet so there's always loads of choice, no queues and 50% off!

It seems to be coming and going. It's not as bad as it was this morning.

I'm wearing my comedy-thick Japanese-style trainers now, anyway. Definately more comfortable with shoes. And I won't be doing any unnecessary walking, I think. And probably no running either .

Ok, and now the pain is entirely gone (I took one voltrol yesterday morning. And four iboprofen over the course of the day. None since yesterday evening). So I don't think I'll go to the physio. I want to go running today, but think I promised DH I wouldn't .

I think I should run, and if the pain comes back, go to the physio. Maybe I should just go to the physio anyway, as if I don't go this week, I can't go for a month (away on hols).