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Hi Ray,
I have a high arch, and have been overloading my gait onto the metatarsals and toes. The shape of my foot did change with a hollowness in the middle if that makes any sense. My sesamoid bone is large and inflamed, and when I compare both feet, the right (bad) one is thinner (less stability) and skin is tighter than the left one.
Feet are the key balance, and if there's something wrong gait-wise, it CAN affect your knees, hips, and arms. Also muscle atrophy sets in from lack of motion. Exercise with easy weights - gentle squats. arms, etc. For balance, I try standing on one leg (usually with hand on wall) Do this daily, and your balance may improve. What I don't understand is the so-called specialists never look at both feet, and exclaim - I know what you mean, I can see the difference. Here's to all the pain-free specialists who absorb lengthy knowledge, have even written books, but have no idea ABOUT your acute pain struggles. Wishing you all the luck in your endeavors, and hope you also find peace from pain.
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Hi, Louise (louise@lou)
I have just the opposite: low arch, or more correctly: no arch, and that's in both feet. If memory serves, I was in grade school when I was first told I had flat-ish feet (no longer -ish, however). When I was in my 30s, I took up running, at first participating in the more modest 5K and 10K events, but, before long, running half-, full-, and once-in-a-while even longer marathons. Ninety percent of today's joint woes are my own doing. LOL You say your one foot is thinner. Oddly enough, my feet – both of them tend to be swollen. My primary has suggested a number of different possible causes and hoped-for solutions (e.g., compression stockings), but nothing those far has helped to reduce the swelling. Is the swelling in any way related to my neuropathy? I wonder.
I've been very concerned about muscle atrophy. Because distance walking (and by "distance," I'm talking only the length of a city block) is no longer fun, I try to be diligent about daily rides on my stationary bicycle, adding distance weekly. I find it puzzling – pleasing, but puzzling – that my neuropathy appears to have no negative bearing on my cycling; in fact, my balance seems to improve as a result – never great, but better, and these days that's something to be grateful for.
For balance, I have a slew of balance-improvement exercises in the form of a gazillion handouts from years of doing PT. Today, I'm no longer going to PT but doing balance PT here at home as a student of an online course. I've been doing the online course since last fall. One positive result of the course, I'm almost certain, is that I've not fallen; my "recovery" skills (fall avoidance) have improved measurably.
As is the case for many of us, after dealing with neuropathy for several years, we've created relationships with what seems like a battalion of specialists. I sure had. A few months ago, I decided I had the cull the herd. I chose the specialist who seemed both the most knowledgeable and the most interested in me, not as a nameless patient but as an individual. He is a neurologist, of course, but has further refined his practice to physiatric medicine. I found him as a result of asking my primary for the name of a neurologist who makes an added effort to consider a patient's whole being, not only their neurological presentation. I regard this doctor as my "lead" doctor. That alone has simplified my life – and opened up whole days (no medical appointments!) on my calendar.
All the best to you, Louise! Let's keep working away at this.
Cheers!
Ray (@ray666)