Health Organization for Pudendal Education

Hi

Does anyone else experience unexplained foot pain?

I have pain in my feet, especially when I first get up in a morning and I can't seem to make my feet work untill I have taken a good few steps and 'got going' so to speak. my ankles and feet are just painful if I put my weight on them. Sometime I can also get pain in the big toe joints, I think I do have mild bunions, but also swelling on the upper part of my foot, especially on the right where my PN is worst?

Cheers
Peaches

I have neuropathy in my feet. Actually I feel it in my toes although I have reduced ankle reflexes as well.
I am told it is related to sciatic nerve involvement - many pudendal patients have sciatica, as in pain radiating down the leg from the buttock; but the sciatic nerve has different components / branches just like the pudendal, and it is possible to have manifestations in the foot only. Both the sciatic and pudendal run through the pelvis and can get caught up in some of the same areas - Dr. Filler believes that both nerves in my case are caught in the piriformis muscle although I am not sure if he is correct. However I do have a bipatrite (split) piriformis muscle, as does approximately 20% of the population, which makes it more likely to catch both nerves, and my piriformis is tight and spastic blaterally, so I do aim to find out.
The other issue is that for me, my Pelvic pain ORIGINATED with my feet. I had a gait problem with led me to injure my pelvis while hiking. My gait problem was painless, it's just that I had morton's toe (also very common), but was compensating for it badly by supinating, that is walking with all my weight on the outside of my feet. Most people with morton's toe compensate by overpronating, which is turning your feet too far inwards when you walk. That tends to cause bunions, hammer toes, and leg cramps by middle age but in my observation, is less likely to cause injuries up the kinetic chain. People with Morton's toe cannot actually walk normally, with no over-pronation or supination, unless they rig up their shoes, which I now do. If you have morton's toe, you probably don't know it, here is a link that describes how to examine your own feet to find out (read carefully, your 2nd toe being longer that your 1st, while a dead giveaway, is NOT necessarily the case) : http://whyyoureallyhurt.com/mortons-toe ... rtons-toe/
Any other gait issue, such as plantar faciitis, etc, can also be a cause of pelvic injury so it is important to note whether you had foot problems before, after, or simultaneous to the PN. You can look into PT / gait training for your feet if necessary; it is probably easier to find competent help there than with pelvic floor PT, and it might have a positive impact on your pudendal symptoms; although pelvic injury that has already happened must be treated directly, it cannot be cured by correcting your gait. Correcting gait can however prevent further damage and stop exacerbating the situation.

Its very common to have foot problems with PN....the perfect place to put pads for use of a tens machine is on either side of the ankle bone.
Recently I have been experiencing serious aching in my big toe on the right side and also more recently ankle ache. I did have an injury and had a fracture to the second metatarsal which gave me terrible pain in my big toe....my physio gave me ultrasound treatment for many weeks which helped however now Ive noticed my ankle is more swolen and aching at night. Ive tried icing the area which helps a lot along with aromatherapy oils to soothe the joint.
Wearing more supportive shoes helps a lot too....I prefer to wear more fashionable sandals in the Summer though!!!!

I have severe foot/heel pain but it's not unexplained. It's from standing all of the freakin' time. The bottoms of my heels feel like there's glass embedded in them and they burn constantly.
The backs & sides of my heels are very sore and sensative to touch. Mine is really a stress related injury.

Amanda wrote:Wearing more supportive shoes helps a lot too....I prefer to wear more fashionable sandals in the Summer though!!!!

Me, too! Although I've given up on the strappy sandals for now, I glued Dr. Scholl's heel gels onto my flip flops and they do help quite a bit.

Karyn wrote:I have severe foot/heel pain but it's not unexplained. It's from standing all of the freakin' time

I know it's not funny. . . .but I you did make me laugh

Karyn wrote: I glued Dr. Scholl's heel gels onto my flip flops and they do help quite a bit.

Any and everyone who has foot problems should try a pair of FITFLOPS www.fitflop.com . I can not recommend them highly enough. They go straight on as soon as I get out of bed in the morning and are the only shoe brand that I can wear as I have such problems with my feet (especially soles and heels)
I have tried everything including all sorts of insoles, MBT's, trainers and 'comfy' shoes but for me anyway they are the best.
They need to get a pair of smarter shoes sorted and then I could be able to be 'well heeled' for all occasions. I have fitflop boots, flip flops (obv) and even slippers.

I did used to get swelling and pain in my ankles and back of heel Peaches, and I am still adamant that it is PS and PN related as it was always worse on my worse PS/PN side. It was always worse in the mornings too, quite painful until I had walked a few steps and as you described 'got going'.
I put it down to fluid retention/protection which dissipates with movement once up and around. I knew mine wasn't arthritis as not on a joint, but check that out too? ? The pain was always in the same exact place but I only get (less) ankle swelling now probably because of my FITFLOPS (ok I'm obsessed!)

Oh, I looove FitFlops. So comfy, I forget I am wearing them. I have several pairs of the sandals already, and I plan to get a pair of their boots before the autumn. I didn't know they did slippers though - that sounds like an excellent idea! Where did you get them from, Helen? I don't see them on their website.

Other shoes that are good are Vivo Barefoot - I could live in these if they did a nice sandal, but they don't. But they are excellent for smart-ish shoes, I find. Obviously they are only good if you are comfortable barefoot in the first place!

calluna wrote:Oh, I looove FitFlops. So comfy, I forget I am wearing them. I have several pairs of the sandals already, and I plan to get a pair of their boots before the autumn. I didn't know they did slippers though - that sounds like an excellent idea! Where did you get them from, Helen? I don't see them on their website.

Other shoes that are good are Vivo Barefoot - I could live in these if they did a nice sandal, but they don't. But they are excellent for smart-ish shoes, I find. Obviously they are only good if you are comfortable barefoot in the first place!

Don't think they do the slippers anymore although the gogh (??) suede clogs are a good substitute. I have worn my sandals so much this summer that when I take them off my you can still see the shape of them where my tan stops! I will check those others out too Calluna thanks. How did your daughters graduation go yesterday btw. Doctor Calluna jnr . . . . fabulous!

Yes, I too have 'fitflop' tanned feet! They are brilliant shoes, excellent for my arthritic ankle, and so so comfortable.

I didn't go to the graduation in the end. Talking to my daughter, we realised that I would have had to sit for about 4 hours solid, it is a long ceremony, plus the journey which is 2 hours on the train each way, and I decided it was too much. But the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day - I haven't heard from my daughter yet, she does understand the difficulties, probably more than most people would of course.

Also another very big factor - well, I am carer for one of my sons, he was brain injured in his gap year and now has severe mental health problems. He has been in crisis for a couple of weeks now, things have been getting worse and worse and yesterday was a very difficult day. So it was a good thing I was here. I haven't seen him yet this morning, he wouldn't stay here overnight. I just hope he is still alive.

/end threadjack, sorry to go off topic.

Hugs, Calluna. I do hope you hear from your son today.

Thankyou Lernica. Yes, he's still with us. I got a text asking if he can have a lift to an appointment tomorrow. So I know he'll still be here tomorrow as well. A bit stressful here - sorry, people, I should not have mentioned this whole issue.