Heel Pain

[janeths466]

Hello everyone, me again.

So my mom has been doing amazing following her lobectomy/thoracotomy. Like mentioned before cancer did not spread to lymph nodes, but she will go to the oncologist as soon as insurance arrives to rule out anything. It has been 2 months since surgery.

I have noticed (years prior to diagnosis), that she had heel pain. She is super active, but her heels starts hurting. When she stands up, she walks a bit weird for a bit since they hurt. She is also a dyalisis patient for your information. I worry for her so much. I read a post on google that it could be mets in bone. And that is so scary to me. She has been amazing and I am scared of anything occuring to her. That is the only pain she gets that I have noticed. Other than that she has been great.

I know when she was in ICU because of her tumor they did an MRI and frequent xrays, but could these have not shown anything. I also have health anxiety so barw with me. Thank you.

[Denzie Moderator Volunteer]

Have you asked your mom? Is it possible that your anxiety has you looking for more things to scare yourself about? Since mom is a dialysis patient she should mention her foot pain to the dialysis nurse or her doctor.

There is a lot of misinformation on the internet so you are better off not looking there for trouble. A pain in any body part is usually a response to something that is normal not cancerous.

Cancer patients still get ingrown toenails, bruises, sinus headaches, split nails, cavities and any other injury or condition everyone gets.

My grandma used to say don’t go troubling trouble. It’s good advice for everyone. Have you started your anxiety meds yet? Did your doctor tell you how long it would take for them to start working?

[janeths466 in reply to Denzie]

Yeah, thank you for the reply. I calm myself down sometimes, but I always have that slight fear. I am going to the psychologist soon to hopefully get some meds and cope with all of this.

[rdflynnjr]

Hi janeths466,

Once there is a cancer diagnosis, every ache and pain is suspect. Since you say that your mom is very active, I’m thinking she may have plantar fasciitis. Heel pain is a major symptom. Check it out. Better to find that is the issue, not cancer.

Rick

[JanetteR57]

I found a book 'cancer is a word not a sentence' by Dr Rob Buckman helpful in stopping me thinking that every mark, cough, etc was related to cancer. Years ago I used to do high impact aerobics and tore my ligaments and had a bone cyst in my heel identified so stopped the challenge walking etc that I used do in favour of swimming. After my lung surgery, unable to keep active with swimming (fear of the wound opening) I used to walk further each day - starting slowly but after a couple of months we went away for a weekend and I probably did more walking than usual which resulted in heel pain and the back of my leg being painful. I was worried it could be bone mets but it turned out to be tendonitis and had to rest it. I was quite concerned as meds and inactivity were making me gain weight (I went up to 14 stone 6lbs and only 5'4") but eventually just had to settle for recovering my health and worrying about fitness later on. As Denzie has said, I've since had my fair share of ingrown toenails, split nails etc but the above book stopped me thinking it's all linked. good luck.