Bilateral foot pain for a year

[trodr142]

Hi, everyone I’m a 26 year of female that recently just graduated from dental school and been experiencing some pain off and on since I began school. I guess I wanted to come on here and ask for some guidance on weather this could be tms( yes I know, anything could be Tms ) but even though I have gotten rid of some pain in the past I can’t seem to get over this foot pain over the last year. Around 2022 after a few months of school I began having knee pain, hip pain. Skin feeling sensitive my scalp feeling sensitive , pain on my TMJ and my face muscles . That lasted about a few months and a few trips to the rheumatologist in 2023 where nothing came up positive when the hip and knee pain was pretty bad the Dr recommended a steroid shot in my hip which didn’t really work. Oh I also had severe tendon pain in my hands to the point where I couldn’t really practice certain procedures at school and will have to excuse myself out and break down crying bc I was so scared what that could mean for my career . I fell into a small depression where I couldn’t still do my school work but personal life was crumbling. After a few months I found some YouTube videos regarding mind body syndrome and began to resume activity even though my knee hurt and slowly got better over a 2 months break I had from school. For two years I remained pain free for the lost part( sometimes I felt my hip) but I was pretty good. Then during the beginning of my last year I decided to walk to school more( around 45 min) and began having insertional achilis tendonitis pain) diagnosed by an orthopedic Dr that then went to both feet and some plantar fasciitis. A podiatrist said I was a bone spur and gave me a shot but that didn’t work. Then an Orthopedic dr said it wasn’t a spur and gave me PT. Off and on for the last year I tried pt and dry needling but the pain persisted and I began having heel pain when ever Iam standing and my whole body has become very sensitive to pressure and pain ( if someone grabs me by the arm it hurts) sometimes I get random pains somewhere else that I know are Tms but foot issues persist and are not wavering. I’m in pain every day and I began work so it’s made it difficult to stay off my feet. It feels very structural because it gets worse after a lowdown to long walk or if I play any sports.
Sorry for the long post.
I just need some recommendations bc I have read the books. Looked at success stories of people getting better but I can’t seem to get rid of all this foot issues. I felt like it’s one tendonitis after another.
Thank you in advance for reading all of that.

 

[Adam Coloretti (coach)]

Hi! If it's both feet then that automatically makes the likelihood of it being TMS very high (less likely to be structural on both sides) - have you gone through the FIT criteria by Dr Schubiner? You can find it on Google. Even just off the top of my head the fact that you clearly have other TMS symptoms and this all started at a time of stress with no clear injury, you're ticking a lot of boxes (not to mention that you've tried a lot of structural modalities and nothing has worked).

I'm keen to hear if you feel more confident after going through the criteria

 

[Ellen]

You don't mention what you're doing to work on your TMS other than watching some videos. Aside from reading some books on TMS, the most valuable thing you can do is to start a structured daily TMS program. We have some for free here on the Forum and there are others as well. Give us more information on what you're doing to increase your TMS knowledge and work on it, and we can make specific recommendations.

 

[Bonnard]

Hi there,

I took the liberty of really highlighting every time a new symptom was mentioned--see below.
I hope that this doesn't come across in any negative way.

The thing is I really relate because I had symptoms jump around my body over time, and I've had some of these very symptoms, along with repeats of the doctor/treatment experiences. It became absurd for me after I pulled back and looked at the variety of symptoms and how they presented--as well as the all-over-the-place responses by the medical community.
In your post, insertional achilles tendonitis turned into plantar fascitis and a podiatrist said bone spur, then an orthopedic ruled out bone spur. Then heel pain showed up.

Journaling helped me a lot. It helped to write out what was going on with my symptoms and what was happening with my constant chase for an answer with doctors/specialists/PT and on and on.... This first part was very short though--me staying on and just focusing on the physical is what the TMS distraction is aiming for. I had to see the absurdity of what was really going on day-to-day and week-to-week. And, you mentioned it, that your "personal life was crumbling." I had exactly that and had to admit what all of this was doing to me.

The second and important part was Raw journaling--where it's slamming words on the page--no filter and I knew up front that the pages were going to be tossed or shredded.
That got me to the rage, to some of the feelings that were being pushed down.

There's so much more available--@Ellen mentioned the free programs on this site. That's such a good suggestion.


I wish you well!! And, check out the Success Stories, where I hope to and look forward to reading yours in the near future.


trodr142 said:
Hi, everyone I’m a 26 year of female that recently just graduated from dental school and been experiencing some pain off and on since I began school. I guess I wanted to come on here and ask for some guidance on weather this could be tms( yes I know, anything could be Tms ) but even though I have gotten rid of some pain in the past I can’t seem to get over this foot pain over the last year. Around 2022 after a few months of school I began having knee pain, hip pain. Skin feeling sensitive my scalp feeling sensitive , pain on my TMJ and my face muscles . That lasted about a few months and a few trips to the rheumatologist in 2023 where nothing came up positive when the hip and knee pain was pretty bad the Dr recommended a steroid shot in my hip which didn’t really work. Oh I also had severe tendon pain in my hands to the point where I couldn’t really practice certain procedures at school and will have to excuse myself out and break down crying bc I was so scared what that could mean for my career . I fell into a small depression where I couldn’t still do my school work but personal life was crumbling. After a few months I found some YouTube videos regarding mind body syndrome and began to resume activity even though my knee hurt and slowly got better over a 2 months break I had from school. For two years I remained pain free for the lost part( sometimes I felt my hip) but I was pretty good. Then during the beginning of my last year I decided to walk to school more( around 45 min) and began having insertional achilis tendonitis pain) diagnosed by an orthopedic Dr that then went to both feet and some plantar fasciitis. A podiatrist said I was a bone spur and gave me a shot but that didn’t work. Then an Orthopedic dr said it wasn’t a spur and gave me PT. Off and on for the last year I tried pt and dry needling but the pain persisted and I began having heel pain when ever Iam standing and my whole body has become very sensitive to pressure and pain ( if someone grabs me by the arm it hurts) sometimes I get random pains somewhere else that I know are Tms but foot issues persist and are not wavering. I’m in pain every day and I began work so it’s made it difficult to stay off my feet. It feels very structural because it gets worse after a lowdown to long walk or if I play any sports.
Sorry for the long post.
I just need some recommendations bc I have read the books. Looked at success stories of people getting better but I can’t seem to get rid of all this foot issues. I felt like it’s one tendonitis after another.
Thank you in advance for reading all of that.