Severe Breakout Pain in second toe

I am a 70 year old man and I have suffered with intermittent chronic pain of my second toe every other day. While toe pain sounds trivial I can assure you that it is not, for it has robbed me of any quality of life. The pain feels I am being stabbed in the toe with a ice pick or stung by hornets over and over every few seconds and the pain lasts for 24 hours. Since the pain is so severe I can’t sleep therefore I only sleep every other day which makes life unbearable. My pain usually starts between 2:00am to 3:30am and will last until that time the next night and then stops and I am totally pain free until it starts back up again 24 hours latter. I have seen over 20 doctors and specialists and none of them has been able to diagnose the source of the pain and all of them are baffled as why the pain starts or stops like clockwork. The regularity of this pain has gone on for over 5 years! My wife told me today that she was looking over her prayer list of people that she had prayed for over time and her journal was dated 2008 and it listed her praying for my suffering of toe pain clear back then. I always thought my toe pain started over 15 years ago and that proved it and as I remember it flared up only once or twice a week back then. Over time it has only increased in the frequency of pain to where it is now. Things that I have tried, NSAIDS, Vicodin, Norco, morphine, gabapentin, Lyrica and Cymbalta. I have had Cortizone shots in my foot as well as directly in the joint of the toe. Earlier this year a pain specialist did a RFA ( burned the nerves) at the base of my toe and when that did not help he burned the nerves again without any relief. My family physician wondered if possibly my brain was sending pain signals when there wasn’t any physical reason to do so. He assured me that he didn’t think I was crazy, but he told me that he wanted to try a psychotic drug to see if that might help, but all that did was send me to the emergency room. I am at my wits end not only of pain, but sleep deprivation as well and while my condition may not be life threatening it surely is life robbing! I must conclude be saying this, since I mentioned my wife’s prayer journal of nearly 15 years ago I did so as a point of reference of the length of my suffering. Since I am still suffering with pain I in no way trying to doubt the power of prayer. I hope that my post will be seen and hopefully someone might have some insight as to my condition and a form of treatment.
God Bless

My Dad has been dealing with toe pain for over a decade! It is his left foot 2nd toe & the pain is on the top. His pain is intermittent, but happens constantly. The only way my dad can find any relief is by walking or pushing his foot hard against something. He hardly sleeps anymore due to the pain constantly waking him & having to get up and walk around. It’s absolutely horrible to hear your Father constantly screaming in pain. He has had every test as mentioned above & all the doctors can come up with is it must be nerves & send him on his way to continue suffering! My Dad has even mentioned that he wants to have his toe amputated, but fearfully the pain may move elsewhere. Docs put him on Gabapentin which has messed him up drastically to the point that he almost acts like he has dementia, but as soon as the Gabapentin wears off he’s bk to himself. The only thing that seems to help my Dad is Xanax which he discovered himself, but doesn’t like to take often as he’s fearful of becoming addicted.
I recently found out from my hairdresser that her father in law was going through the same thing & on his deathbed they finally figured out it was his cholesterol medication causing the pain! I immediately told my dad to have his cholesterol meds & his blood pressure meds switched to something different, but his doctor basically laughed saying that wouldn’t cause it. My dads in amazing health, his mind is sharp as long as he doesn’t have Gabapent in him. If anyone figures this out or has suggestions plz inform me. I want more than anything to help my dad.

Pgross 530, I had the same type of stabbing pain so I know your pain. The drug nortriptyline solved the problem for me. 75mg once a day and if I miss a dose the stabbing pain comes back right away. Joe

My Dad has been dealing with toe pain for over a decade! It is his left foot 2nd toe & the pain is on the top. His pain is intermittent, but happens constantly. The only way my dad can find any relief is by walking or pushing his foot hard against something. He hardly sleeps anymore due to the pain constantly waking him & having to get up and walk around. It’s absolutely horrible to hear your Father constantly screaming in pain. He has had every test as mentioned above & all the doctors can come up with is it must be nerves & send him on his way to continue suffering! My Dad has even mentioned that he wants to have his toe amputated, but fearfully the pain may move elsewhere. Docs put him on Gabapentin which has messed him up drastically to the point that he almost acts like he has dementia, but as soon as the Gabapentin wears off he’s bk to himself. The only thing that seems to help my Dad is Xanax which he discovered himself, but doesn’t like to take often as he’s fearful of becoming addicted.
I recently found out from my hairdresser that her father in law was going through the same thing & on his deathbed they finally figured out it was his cholesterol medication causing the pain! I immediately told my dad to have his cholesterol meds & his blood pressure meds switched to something different, but his doctor basically laughed saying that wouldn’t cause it. My dads in amazing health, his mind is sharp as long as he doesn’t have Gabapent in him. If anyone figures this out or has suggestions plz inform me. I want more than anything to help my dad.

My Dad has been dealing with toe pain for over a decade! It is his left foot 2nd toe & the pain is on the top. His pain is intermittent, but happens constantly. The only way my dad can find any relief is by walking or pushing his foot hard against something. He hardly sleeps anymore due to the pain constantly waking him & having to get up and walk around. It’s absolutely horrible to hear your Father constantly screaming in pain. He has had every test as mentioned above & all the doctors can come up with is it must be nerves & send him on his way to continue suffering! My Dad has even mentioned that he wants to have his toe amputated, but fearfully the pain may move elsewhere. Docs put him on Gabapentin which has messed him up drastically to the point that he almost acts like he has dementia, but as soon as the Gabapentin wears off he’s bk to himself. The only thing that seems to help my Dad is Xanax which he discovered himself, but doesn’t like to take often as he’s fearful of becoming addicted.
I recently found out from my hairdresser that her father in law was going through the same thing & on his deathbed they finally figured out it was his cholesterol medication causing the pain! I immediately told my dad to have his cholesterol meds & his blood pressure meds switched to something different, but his doctor basically laughed saying that wouldn’t cause it. My dads in amazing health, his mind is sharp as long as he doesn’t have Gabapent in him. If anyone figures this out or has suggestions plz inform me. I want more than anything to help my dad.

Hi
It is terrible to endure such pain from my disturbing experience on .
During worst of my symptoms I decided that in addition to depending on medication, therapy and nutritional intakes etc I shall help myself all alone to get mental rest and thereby physical rest to help the cause. Sounds crazy but I managed though not mitigated fully. I was told that the recovery will be at best 70-80 percent in proportion to age. I was sleepless for days and nights due to disturbances in feet .
I realised I must do something to divert or distract my thoughts away from the symptoms. I felt that if some one can help me it must be the supreme soul . I used to simply close my eyes and focus on some divine and holy chantings believe me non stop . That made me to just ignore the symptoms and get in to sleep. Even during midnight wake-up phase ( due to symptoms) I used to resume the self remedy. Now the severity has reduced though not fully , my sleep is at my will. You can try. You must make it a way of life with out any time frame. Like modifying life style . God bless you .