Monday, September 1, 2008

And now, the feet!

Ok, so it has been a LONG time since I posted here.  I have had so much more bad news that I basically forgot this blog and kind of gave up.  If anyone is actually reading this that has chronic pain, you understand those times where you just want someone to make it all better and yet you despair because you know they cannot.

So, the news.  I now have arthritis in my feet.  Which doesn't sound so bad except that my feet are used for walking, but here's the really great part...drumroll please...I have tarsal tunnel syndrome!  This is just like carpal tunnel, except in your feet.  YAY!  So, I already had nerve damage that causes the left side of both of my feet to go numb.  I went to the neurologist for yet another nerve test, which I do not recommend if you can avoid it, and after stabbing me with a bunch of needles he told me what I already knew:  there is no signal whatsoever in my left foot from my ankle to my pinkie toe and a very small signal in my right foot in the same place.  Yet again, there was no explanation given.  He just looked at me and sighed.  

The surprising part was that he did a different kind of test where he inserted needles into my muscles (ouch) and listened for electrical activity, and there was no sound at all in the arch of my foot.  This is where the tarsal tunnel diagnosis came in.   Fun, fun, fun.

All I have left for exercise is walking, but then my left foot really started to hurt when I walked.  Since I have no feeling in that part of my foot, I was worried.  I went to my orthopedic surgeon and found out I have a stress fracture in my left foot.  Since I can't feel anything, I have no idea what I did.  And, of course, there's nothing to be done.  I just have to live with it.

Everything that is wrong with me, and I'm up to TEN diagnoses now, has no cure and must simply be tolerated.  It's extraordinarily frustrating and, frankly, makes me want to scream.  Basically, once my hands started to feel better after upping the Humira, my feet started to go.  As ridiculous as it sounds, I feel like there is a little god of pain somewhere who is focusing on just me.

ARGH!!!