DEAR DR. GOTT: I am an 86-year-old woman with a foot problem. My right foot is very painful. It gets me up several times during the night but doesn’t pain me during the day when walking on it.
My foot doctor’s diagnosis was that it was caused by a nerve in my foot. He prescribed a pain medication, Lyrica that I could not tolerate as it caused rashes and made my lips swell.
My family doctor gave me an anti-depressant drug. I cannot tolerate it with my other medications, Synthroid, blood pressure pill and cholesterol pill. Would shots help me or what can I do next to try to solve this problem? Hopefully, no more pills!
DEAR READER: My initial reaction is that you first need to determine the cause of the foot pain before trying to determine if shots will help. It doesn’t make any sense to me to put a bandage on something until you know why you are bandaging it. However, because you can walk without pain, I would guess nothing is displaced or fractured.
The foot is a rather complex thing. Consider that in actuality it is rather small in comparison to the rest of the body. It contains 26 bones and 33 joints, more than 120 muscles, ligaments and nerves, all of which can be injured rather easily.
If your podiatrist has focused on a nerve in the foot, perhaps acupuncture or physical therapy might alleviate the problem. Have you had blood work that might reveal diabetes or a deficiency and an X-ray that might shed some light on the matter? Is there a need for either, in his or her opinion? Are you overweight and exposing your feet and legs to additional stress? You should make a list of questions to ask that will require a simple yes or no answer. While I am not suggesting surgery, ask if a visit to an orthopedic specialist might be appropriate. Sometimes a slightly different view can be extremely helpful in diagnosing a problem in an effort to provide relief including a second opinion from a podiatrist.
I wish I could provide a better answer but until you get to the bottom of the problem, you will not experience the relief you deserve.
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