Puzzling Foot Pain

Those who know me know that I suffer from chronic foot pain and have for years. My mother has a picture of me from high school, asleep at my bedroom desk, with my feet soaking in a tub of water from the pain.

Yes, I mistreated my feet--shoes the wrong size, too high of heels and so on--but I can remember as a child running and pulling the muscle along the arch of my foot on a regular basis.

I take hours each day doing the silly treatments my doctor recommends: TENS Unit on each foot two hours a day, stretching, icing, creams, wraps, pads... the list is endless. He now wants me to have surgery. I'm not so sure. Not that I have anything against surgery, I'm just not sure this is the right surgery. This is the common plantar fasciitis surgery.

But something puzzling has happened.

Two nights ago (Thursday night) and last night (Friday night), my husband Erich spent more than an hour each night massaging my feet. I know, the greatest husband in the WORLD! But when he first started on Thursday night, the muscles in my foot were so tight, so cramped that he could not spread my toes at all. He said my toes were curled tight like when you tickle a baby's foot. The funny thing was I had almost no pain all day yesterday.

Last night, he again spent almost an hour massaging my feet. I have to say that this morning, sadly, I have some pretty significant pain in my left foot, but none in my right foot.

It just doesn't seem to me that this kind of cramping is just plantar fasciitis. The problem with all of the other treatments the doctor recommends are so very temporary. Each one is just a "band-aid" for the moment. I'm afraid this surgery will be also.

I know the regular causes of cramps, potassium, dehydration, etc. If I am having constant foot cramps, these are not like regular muscle spasms. Whatever is wrong with my feet, this isn't just a "charlie horse." I've had muscle spasms and muscle cramps. This is definitely not the same thing. My feet feel more like they've been injured, like someone has beaten my feet (all over, top and bottom) with a baseball bat.

All I know is that this pain, whether caused by my weight, my age, the humidity, just "lemons" for feet, whatever -- I just don't know how much more constant pain I can take. I don't know how much more of my life I can just miss.