Foot pain question

So it’s been over a year since I’ve found out about TMS. I consider myself practically cured of my main problem at this point (pelvic pain). However, after my pelvic pain waned, I started experience some foot pain, kind of like tendonitis, that would pop up in response to rather mild exertion.

That was last year and eventually went away, but a few days ago, I got this strange pain in the back of my foot from wearing boots when I went to go do my morning chores. These were the same boots I’ve worn for three years and the intensity of the pain seemed out of proportion to what I was experiencing.


I’m not panicking and I’m about 90% sure this is TMS.

The difficult with foot pain is that residual fear that it might be real and that I’d be making it worse by walking on it. I could go to the doctor, but the last time I went there with foot pain, they just referred me to a podiatrist who said he thought he saw some ‘slight swelling’, which led to weeks of expensive physical therapy. I’m afraid that the TMS advice to absolutely rule out medical problems would just lead to that.


Here’s my evidence list:

-Pain at first only occurred with boots, and was completely absent with other shoes. Now other shoes have hurt it quite a lot, and then not at all. If something had been inflamed initially, wouldn't those shoes have hurt it from the start? Effect of different shoes, as well as taping up my foot, seem inconsistent.

-I can’t seem to create the pain barefoot. While pushing down on the back of my foot while barefoot, the pain has either been completely absence or has been intense. As of today, it does seem to be occurring slightly while I'm barefoot. Yesterday, this was completely absent.

-The pain has subsided when I’ve told myself, “I’m perfectly healthy.” and shifted my attention.

-The pain has subsided during time on the treadmill. After 20 minutes of walking on my foot, it’s gotten better. That doesn’t happen with real tendonitis, right? But the near the end, it’s gotten worse, but perhaps that’s my fear that I’m inflaming it.

-Pain seems to shift around the back side of my foot. I’ve got some slight pain near the front of my foot as well.


I’ve also had a slight spike in other previous TMS symptoms. So this is TMS, right? I kind of feel like I should be better at picking this out by now. Still, I have that nagging worry.

 

I think its tms. Your symptoms are all over the place and inconsistant. Physical stuff gets worse, but not abruptly better and then back again.

Read back over your post and try to think of it as someone else asking you if you think its tms. Also, this gremlin is good at sneaking up on the experts, so its going to do its best to fool you into thinking its the real deal.

Good luck,
Lizzy

 

Thanks for the reply! It helped and last night, I had enough confidence it was TMS that I was able to practice outcome indifference and experience a significant period of time in my shoes pain-free.

Then this morning, the pain moved up into my calf from my foot (of course, just the TMS being sneaky!), which gave me even more confidence. Tonight, when I was walking around the store, I noticed the pain was gone entirely. Tried walking on my foot in a way to actually bring the pain on, all while daring the pain to come back, and it didn't! Was 100% sure it was TMS at that point. And sure enough, tonight I put on the pair of boots that I was wearing when the pain first started (and which have been particular painful to wear these past few days), and I had no pain at all.

Think it's been so long since I last had TMS symptoms, I almost began to trust my everyday aches and pains a bit too much!

 

Thats fantastic!

 

So I've been doing great since then. Managed to walk around pain-free for the first time in about a week. And as of 20 minutes ago, I was 100% sure it was TMS, but now I'm down to 99%.

Right near my achilles tendon, there's now a detectable creak. I can feel the vibration from it, so it's physical. I haven't felt that the past week though, so this is a new development.

This happened the last time I had 'tendonitis' and I remember asking the food doctor if that was a sign of tendonitis, but he didn't seem to think that's the case. So maybe this is just a coincidence that has nothing to do with my foot pain.

I don't want to panic, and I have a high certainty this is a mind-body deal. Why else would a foot feel better the more you walk on it? And if it was my achilles tendon, why does it only hurt when I have my shoes on? I can do heel lifts pain-free (except for as of 20 minutes ago and a few days ago when I was worried it was real and was becoming something I'd experience while barefoot).

Anyone else have experience with this? I have great evidence that this is a mind-body deal. Can TMS cause creaking too? Or maybe this is all just a coincidence?

 

Thanks to the folks in chat, I'm a lot calmer now And looks like there's a name for the creakiness: crepitus. Haven't had it any other time while this pain is going on this past week or so, so I think it's just a harmful coincidence (or something TMS is throwing my way to freak me out).

From what I was able to look up (I know googling leads to scary places, but it helped here), crepitus where I was having it (in the tissue) is simply caused by bubbles of gas.

Now that I think about it, one of my first incidences of foot pain (before I knew it was TMS - I've had another episode that I successfully tackled as TMS and moved past), I was very worried about the tendon being 'creaky'. The podiatrist I was seeing said that wasn't an indicator of anything. Think I had this remaining subconscious worry that "creaking = bad!" and that's what got me worked out over the past 30 minutes.

Certainty that this is TMS is back to 100%. I'm back on track.

 

Good!! Just keep remembering that pain will move around in order to keep you worried and interested. I recall once that the wrong foot was hurting! And for a moment I was believing it! It is a primitive, but tenacious activity, TMS. Our awareness/inquiry/knowledge is also tenacious! As your post demonstrates...

 

And now the pain is pretty much gone. TMS episode over (for now). It tried to come back again yesterday while I was wearing the boots that I had on when the pain first began, but I started pushing my heels into the back of the boots and telling my brain, "Nice try." And it went away! No pain this morning. Just wanted to share the good news

 

I had foot pain for 18 months. No-one (experts, podiatrists, doctors) knew what it was. I then went to see another podiatrist, on the desperate off-chance, and she diagnosed me with -

tarsal tunnel syndrome
sinus tarsi syndrome
2 x types tendonitis
metatarsalgia
plantar fasciitis

She gave me exercises and orthotics and I was happy and galvanised to have a diagnosis - but, both exercises and orthotics did nothing. I then had an MRI which showed that there was absolutely nothing wrong with my foot. And now, I have back pain! Coincidence? <dry laugh>

 

Not a coincidence!!