[Kermudgeon]

Hi,

Been going to my doctor for about 5 years for a problem with foot pain, hand pain, shoulder pain, neck pain. All he can basically do is try to make me as comfortable as he can with pain medications.

So, I'm finally turning to the web in hopes of finding a real solution.

We tried many different medications over the years like Lyrica etc but none helped.

The pain in both of my feet is excruciating when I have to urinate. Let me try to explain this better... I only know that I have to urinate because both my feet get to the point of excruciating pain. If I go and relieve my bladder then within about 20 minutes or so the excruciating pain starts to subside and it turns back into just the regular pain that I've been living with for the past 5 years.

Anybody know why it is that the pain in both my feet gets so much worse when my body has to urinate?

2nd part... Anybody know what could be causing the pain in my feet to begin with? My doctor is in a pain clinic so when he could not figure out what the cause of the pain is he asked some of the other pain specialists to check me out and none of them could figure out what it is that is causing me so much pain in my feet.

I'm talking a lot of pain here folks... I asked my doctor at one point about seriously having my feet amputated as they were causing me so much pain and I didn't want to have to keep scheduling my life around the pharmacies rules of when they can refill prescriptions (i.e. if I have to go out of town for work and it falls just one day before they are allowed to refill my prescription, I have to explain the situatio to them and it's a bother since I have to travel a lot for work so it's not always convenient to get my rx refilled if I have to leave several days before refill day and won't be returning for 10 days. Etc) In any event the look on my Doctors face was priceless when I asked him about amputation but he assured me that he would continue to ask his colleagues and that we have a long way to go with regards to pain medications before there is nothing left for me to take and still be comfortable.

Anyway, any guesses on what might be causing me such pain in both of my feet all the time? When I try to walk, I feel like I'm walking on marbles all the time, the doc has felt my feet and xrayed my feet but can't figure out wh y they are hurting ,e so much.

[joypulv]

I can offer a tiny bit of possible insight. I have pain all around by lower abdomen and top of legs when my bowel is the slightest bit full. This is related to chronic pain I have had for 35+ years that starts with my sacral nerve, which wraps around from the sacro-iliac to the front of the abdomen and refers pain to the groin, bladder, bowel, and on down the inner thigh. I also feel the urge to pee constantly, and do so 20 times a day and night. It lessens with the amount of pain killers I take. But both are increasing as I age, probably from sagging organs, added arthritis, and general inflammation.
(I too went to doctors of all stripes, including neurologists, and got NOT ONE shred of ideas even remotely close to the truth. It took a chiropractor, a good one, to diagnose it, after 5 minutes of actually listening to me. Much of the problem getting diagnosed lay in the fact that my back didn't hurt at all, because I had scarring on the sacro-iliac.)

So my first idea is that you have one stupid little nerve causing all this pain! It is irritated more when your bladder is full. I see no need to look at the structure of your leg and feet bones, because the pain is worse when your bladder is full - the pain can't be starting in your feet. Have you ever had a groin pull, or an inguinal hernia, or any thing you can think of near your bladder? If it is a nerve, the fact that your foot pain is in both feet is important. It rules out nerves that only affect one side of the body.

My second thought is inflammation, because you also have pain elsewhere. I am learning more about inflammation as a consequence of infection. I had cellulitis 3 years ago and although wiped out with antibiotics, I am left with a lot of stiff, creaky, achy, burning pain around the site where it started (behind knee), and it's been moving down my leg to my foot. The doctor was useless when I asked about it. My foot is also more swollen than the other one - the only visible sign. So... have you ever had a bacterial infection?

You could also have both, as I do. Finding a culprit nerve is difficult unless it's a major spinal nerve or a well known one off the spine (in my case, the sacral nerve isn't directly off the spine). Dealing with inflammation is in the realm of natural foods and alternative medicine such as avoiding sugars and eating foods high in anti-oxidants, things I am terrible about. You can have nerve tests done, called EMGs, but they can be painful, and it can be a crap shoot finding which nerve or nerves are causing all this.

You could try a good chiropractor! I also went to a bad one after I moved, so be careful. The first one got rid of a lot of the pain being referred down my thigh, knee, and foot, but the abdominal pain comes back with exertion. Not his fault - scarring can't really be totally fixed.

[Handyman2007]

The idea of amputating your feet will only remove your feet and not the pain. The pain is caused by some impingement on either the sacral nerve or possibly the sciatic nerve. Your feet are not the problem.
I am going to suggest a really good chiropractor. I had debilitating lower back pain for years until a friend suggested his chiropractor. Within one month of starting treatments (heat, traction, and adjustments, my pain was so tolerable that I began doing things like I was 20 years younger. I now have adjustments 5 or 6 times a year and have completely returned to my normal activities. THis may not work for you but at this point, if you are in so much pain, you have nothing to lose even just for a consult. Good Luck.

[joypulv]

One key question remains regarding sacral or sciatic nerves: there is a set (each sacral set is actually 10 nerves and each sciatic set 5), for each leg. It is unusual to have equal sacral or sciatic pain to both feet unless the condition arises in a vertebrae or two, I would think.
So we can't say THE nerve when someone has pain in both feet. And I'm rethinking this now in terms of vertebrae, where the nerves originate to the left and right sets. Have you had an MRI of your spine?
Ditto to Handyman: find a good chiropractor. If you have an MRI or X-rays, take them with you.

And ditch a doctor who feels your feet and x-rays them when the pain can't possibly originate there!! The whole 'pain clinic' sounds suspect to me.