A real(?) pain in the foot

[Cara]

Hi all,

I'm back. On the bright side, the pain in my back has left me alone for over a year! (This is an amazing miracle-level thing! The other day a colleague asked, "Won't [situation x] really hurt your back?" I smiled and promised it wouldn't.)

And now my foot hurts. I thought it was plantar fasciitis (with my strong back I resumed my running hobby,) and I'm being treated for plantar fasciitis, but it's not going away as the doctor predicted. AND it doesn't hurt when it should--for example, the pain isn't worse first thing in the morning and it doesn't start a run and then ease up but develops over the course of a run or several hours after the run is over. Plus, over the last six months, my father-in-law's health has been a sadness and a stress upon my family.

I know the key to unlearning my back pain was knowing that I wasn't actually causing injury by living my life. How does one proceed with such a strategy when it MIGHT be a structural injury, but you're starting to suspect it might be TMS? I don't live very near a TMS doctor, so seeing the closest option involves a day off work for the travel and logistics.

Any advice would be welcome!

 

[MindBodyPT]

Hi Cara,

Remember that plantar fasciitis can absolutely be TMS, and is generally considered to be so in chronic form. If you treated it structurally and it persisted, you can conclude that it is TMS. You have some good evidence to suggest so, that you mentioned above. Why would an injury be hurting several hours after a run? You see it doesn't add up. Work on understanding that your foot pain is the same thing as your back at this point and that you won't be injuring yourself by running since there is nothing wrong with your foot. Some people feel they just can't be confident without a TMS doc opinion, but you have some pretty good evidence to work with. See where that takes you first.