PMR/ OSTEOARTHRITES QUESTION. Direction appreciated.

[Coachev]

Hi all. I hope it is a good day for everyone. I can't walk on the bottom of the R foot this morning. I think I lost a lot of fat pads. However I do have tendonitis which is actually tarsel tunnel (they did the exam and all the symptoms point in that direction, though Mri and xrays show nothing except a few spurs (no impingement) as well as archilles issues. Left foot is also painful.. I'm down to 5 milligram mg of Prednisone. But if i increase it will only mask the symptoms. My husband is a podiatrist. He's been great since making me orthotics many years ago to help with the plantar fasciitis. However, nothing seems to be helping now. They would do tarsel tunnel surgery though nothing showed up on the MRI or EMG. They also say that it doesn't help often. Saw an orthopedic surgeon as well who specializes in foot and ankle, as well as a few other podiatrists. Is there anyone with tarsel tunnel surgeries here or a similar problem? They did find a neuroma as well. I apologize for the post to so long, but I think it's better than having questions going back and forth. I really don't mind answering questions. Kind of rainy and damp here today after beautiful weather. Maybe that's the culprit, but it's going on too long. Also getting worse. Much appreciation and thanks. Wishing everyone good day as little pain as possible.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

"But if i increase it will only mask the symptoms"

Since you know what it is - does that matter? After all, the pred is only masking the PMR symptoms, it does nothing to the actual disease process.

[Coachev in reply to PMRpro]

Correct. Perhaps I was not clear. And I meant to say Achilles tendinitis and tarsal tunnel as they are separate. However, I don't know what's going on with my foot and I don't want to mask the pain but increasing the prednisone. In addition, I'm wondering if anybody else had tarsal tunnel surgery and how it worked for them. I hope this explains my situation and questions better.

[Meg1711b]

My sympathies to you. It is very hard to get much done with pain in the bottom of your foot. I just went through a bout of foot (heel) pain too. It sounds like you have more going on than me, but just in case, I will share that mine came from my hips that were out of alignment.

Went to regular doctor who didn’t know what to do. Then asked Rhumy who suggested physical therapy. Therapist measured my leg length and found them to be off, straightened my hips on two separate days, then did therapy twice a week for 3 weeks to strengthen the hip, ankles, and work on getting better balance back. (I was unaware of weakness in any of those areas)Was probably 80% better after first visit. I’m back to normal now.

The heel pain got progressively worse over about 8 weeks and eventually involved my whole leg, but since it was only one side, knew it wasn’t PMR. I had some sense that I was sitting slightly off, or that my legs angled a little in one direction while lying in bed, but didn’t think it had anything to do with my foot. So thankful the Rhumy suggested the PT.

Best of luck.