One of my patients just tore her plantar fascia and needs to be immobilized. We have to stop impact stress (so no running for now), and we have to stop the bend of the ball of the foot (which puts stress through the plantar fascia back to the heel). These patients have been traditionally treated with removable boots (aka cam walkers). Even with the use of EvenUp type shoe accessories for the other foot, these removable boots tend to put a lot of stress on the back. Like me, so many of my patients have back problems, and so these bike shoes that do not bend (and look fairly normal) can be a God-send.
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Monday, March 1, 2021
Use of Bike Shoes for Immobilization of Various Foot Injuries: And a big help for bad backs
https://bike.shimano.com/en-US/product/apparel-accessories/shimano/SH-CT500.html
Sunday, February 28, 2021
Heel Pain Overload Syndrome Review
The following comment was placed on my You Tube video today on examination of heel pain.
Dear Dr. Blake:
I was diagnosed with heel pain overload syndrome by an orthopedic surgeon. How do you treat that condition? pain is more on the outside bottom of the foot, and same area at the heel.
Dr. Blake's comment: Thank you for your comment. This is a new diagnosis label I have been seeing lately. The diagnosis implies the heel itself is overloaded or overwhelmed by the stress asked of it and soft tissue injury occurs. The attached link here reviews this problem.
In my video above, I point out the areas of pain other than plantar fasciitis (the most common cause of heel pain). Heel Pain Overload Syndrome is a syndrome since the same overload can cause multiple injuries: heel bursitis (both superficial and deep), deep heel bone bruising (MRI diagnosis), plantar nerve entrapment (Baxter's neuropathy), and heel stress fractures (again usually only seen on bone scans and MRIs).
The following photos should give you an impression of the treatments. On my blog, type heel pain in the search engine and start reviewing other links. I hope this helps. Rich
The patient has to decide with immersion in ice water for 10 minutes or a 5 minute frozen sports bottle ice massage feel better.
With heel overload syndrome, there is a role both for heel pads for straight cushion, arch supports to transfer the weight off the heel and into the arch, and entirely soft based orthotics which do both. The above are unfinished Hannaford soft orthotic devices runners wear.
Here I have added a soft rim to an orthotic to take pressure off the bottom surface
Why do you develop this? What is the Root cause? That should be investigated so this does not happen again! Is it a poor fat pad, high arches with a prominent heel, over striding with running and slamming the heels down too hard, poor padding in the shoe choice, etc, etc.
I love support the foot tape, at least one application to rule out plantar fascia symptoms. Buy at www.supportthefoot.com
This emphasizes that it is the transference of weight into the arch that typically is more important than heel cushions. But it is good to try both.
We can not forget the nerves that can get locally irritated, or the irritation is in the back or another part of the spine and the symptoms just present at the heel. Of course, combinations of the two exist called "Double Crush Syndrome". Yes, another syndrome.
In this walking boot, since there was still heel pain in the boot, I applied 1/2 inch adhesive felt to float the heel 80% which really helped.
Here I have customized a pair of Sole OTC inserts by adding as much arch as the patient can tolerate.
And softening the heel with first grinding out the hardness of the red material, and then adding a 1/8 inch heel cushion.
Gout-like Pain Post Vaccine Shots: Common Symptom for a Podiatrist to Hear About
Hi Dr. Blake,
It has been over 2 years since we have been in touch and I am happy to report that I have recovered well from my accident. I am very active again, including long bike rides and even jogging 3 miles once a week. However, I have new and debilitating pain in my right big toe that I think must be related to the Shingrix vaccine.
I had the second dose of the Shingrix vaccine 9 days ago. When I stepped out of bed the next morning I noticed I felt like I had stepped on something. When I reached down there was nothing there but a swelling under my right big toe. At first this wasn't really painful unless I stood on it, at which point it became a bit of a pressure point. I have been resting, icing, and taking ibuprofen but over the past week it has gotten worse, much worse now so that I cannot sleep. It still is not painful to move the joint, but there is a sometimes constant pain and a sharp burning pain when I touch the skin or put pressure on my toe. It seems like pain has radiated from the original spot (most distal toe joint) out towards the distal end of my toe. There is some swelling but not a lot to see. With all my past injuries, I need to stay active or things deteriorate fast, but right now I can't do much.
I had not exercised the 2 days before my shot and onset of symptoms, and also with the unusual symptoms, I am sure this is not a typical trauma or repetitive stress injury like I have had in the past. Due to the sudden onset after the vaccine, I think whatever is going on is due to the vaccine. I looked online and found that the Mayo Clinic website (link below) says contact your doctor immediately if you have "Ankle, knee, or great toe joint pain" after this vaccine. I have had a video call and a phone call with my doctor and now have a video appointment with a podiatrist, but so far nobody has been able to say anything about why this may be a vaccine side effect or what it means. Unfortunately I had to switch to Kaiser this year for financial reasons so my podiatrist appointment is not with you.
Have you ever heard of anything like this? Any experience with this type of reaction to Shingrix or what the implications are of such a reaction? I am at a loss. I realize you cannot diagnose my toe without a visit but I am wondering whether you have any experience with or knowledge of similar issues, because I am not finding any useful information that may explain what I am experiencing.
Kind Regards,
Dr. Blake's Comment: Sorry this happened to you. I am seeing alot of this post Covid 19 Vaccine. I am treating it like a gout attack, which it may be. Gout attacks are brought on by changes in the metabolism something that can occur dramatically with vaccine shots. If you were in my office, I would take an x-ray but that will be inconclusive (however an important baseline). I would have you super hydrate next week (at least 4 eight ounce glasses of water minimum), 3 advil 4 times a day for next 5 days, and the important ice soak 10 minutes (cold water with ice cubes) three times a day. I would fit you for a removable boot and apply a dancer's pad to float the big toe joint just so you can get around. If it was not feeling a ton better in a week, I would order both uric acid levels and an MRi (as you could have a stress fracture say in the sesamoids under the big toe joint or just some arthritis popping up). I sure hope this helps. Everyone (about 5 patients so far) that have got this post Covid shot immediately got better with this approach. Rich
Pain in the Back of the Heel: Could the Pain be from this big spur when the Pain is only 10 days old?
This patient presented to me several weeks ago with pain in the back of her heel for 10 days. No prior history of pain and could not remember what started it. She was really limping as she did not want to put her heel down. There was no swelling (which is a sign of an inflammatory response) and the patient did not feel it the patient was nerve related (no numbness, tingling, electrical, buzzing, burning, radiating). I placed her on some achilles stretches and heel lifts. As she did not improve, I took these xrays showing the heel spur posteriorly (back of the heel area). This spur has been there forever, so really did not explain the sudden pain. An MRI taken a few days ago shows marked internal swelling in the soft tissue, spur, and achilles tendon, but not in the heel bone deep to it. I will rest the heel in a removable cast this month and send her to PT for both calf mobilization and heel anti-inflammatory measures. Wish her luck! Of course, in situations like these, you are not sure if she will calm this right down, or the spur will need to be removed. Or, if it is really the achilles tendon that is failing, and won't respond. Surgery is spur removal and achilles clean up to make sure it is healthy.
Saturday, February 27, 2021
Assessing Correction with the Inverted Orthotic Technique
This is the right foot of a patient with posterior tibial tendon dysfunction. She is trying to avoid surgery as her foot has begun the damaging process of collapse. As the arch collapses, the heel everts to the ground, and the foot gets more and more dysfunctional ("apropulsive" in the Podiatry world). Even though this foot would look better in the shoe, from the walls of the shoe holding the foot some, this is the image of a pronating right foot through the orthotic device. The right foot is still everting at the heel and sliding laterally at the heel on the orthotic device, collapsing the arch, and abducting the fore foot on the rear foot as the front of the foot moves laterally.
In this particular patient, the RCSP was 11 degrees everted to start on the collapsing right foot, and 4 degrees everted on the left. The patient was given a 35 degree Inverted Orthotic right (7 degree change with that orthotic technique), but only responded by inverting 4 degrees. Therefore the photo above shows a 35 degree inverted orthotic device that does not have enough power now to invert the heel enough, so the pronation still wins. Therefore the patient's right heel went from 11 everted to 7 everted (a 4 degree positive change) instead of the 7 degree change I desired. Failure? No!! The mold that made this orthotic device is back in the lab for 4 major changes: 3 mm Kirby medial heel skive, slight increase in the proximal medial arch, change in plastic from 5/32 inch to 3/16 inch (this one I should have done initially), and a full length 3 mm or 1/8 inch extrinsic varus wedge. From each of these variables, I should get 1-2 degrees more extrinsic supination moment to help center that heel at vertical (the whole 11 degrees). I think it is easy to at least see by this photo how the medial Kirby will narrow the medial heel area and let the orthotic device grab the foot better.
Tuesday, February 23, 2021
The Effect on the Knee and Hip with the Inverted Orthotic Device
This is one of the closest articles to date on the positive effect of the Inverted Orthotic Technique on knee and hip problems. When I lectured at the University of Virginia, 2007, this is the results they got, although I never saw their study published. Rich
Monday, February 22, 2021
Sesamoid Fracture Article Review
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31109214/
Most of these fractures (90%) do well without surgery
Average to complete return to sports 5 and 1/2 months
10% require surgery by this study
Average healing for me is the center of a bell shaped curve. Only 1 in a thousand are not healed in one year.
For sesamoid injuries, the 1 and 1/2 month is -4 on the graph, 2 months is -3, 3 months is -2, 4 months is -1, 5 and 1/2 months is average, 7 months represents +1, 8 months +2, 9 months +3, and 9 and 1/2 months +4. If you give or take 3 months for delayed diagnosis and inadequate treatment then 12 months is pretty normal for my slow healers. This study matches up with my understanding and treatment of this injury. Good treatment for one year, with little change on repeat MRIs, and continue symptoms normally need surgical treatment. If you are in this process, you know that there are many ifs, ands and buts. Rich
Sunday, February 21, 2021
Balance: More Exercises to Up Your Overall Stability
Please scroll down on the article below until you get to the 6 balancing exercises: static and dynamic
These will improve your lower extremity tone and coordination. These are crucial if there is any lower extremity instability: fall prevention, chronic ankle sprains, etc.
Below are several blog posts I have made regarding this topic.
Saturday, February 20, 2021
Static Stretching Helps Hamstring Flexibility: Research Proves
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27458757/
The above article documents the long held belief that static stretching (holding a stretch for a certain length of time) helps with hamstring tightness. The hamstrings, calf/achilles, quadriceps, and iliopsoas are the most common muscle/tendon complexes that a podiatrist has their patients stretch. I have added a video I made on hamstring stretching.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KEFpJaMwEtQ" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Below are a few other posts about hamstrings:
Sunday, February 7, 2021
General Approach to See Patients
I thought I would share the general thought process I take with patients day in and day out. This 14 step approach has served me well (and of course complexed when a patient has multiple injuries and problems at the same time). Still the process of talking, evaluating, making decisions, and then seeing the patient in followup is time tried and true. Rich
First, let’s review the general biomechanical approach for the first few visits (this can be accomplished in 1-3 visits based on the time you are allowed per patient). These are the common steps in a general biomechanical approach for the first several visits dealing with a new patient or new problem:
History and Chief Complaint of the injury and the patient’s understanding why they were injured.
Gait evaluation of walking (running is crucial if their activity requires running) to decide on gait patterns and if the patient’s complaint matches). And, if you are fortunate to use a computerized system it can help you here.
Physical examination of the injured part (begin to separate the 3 sources of pain: mechanical, inflammatory, and neuropathic).
Physical examination of possible biomechanics involved.
Is there biomechanical asymmetry?
Tentative working diagnosis made (your best guess).
Common Differential Diagnosis: common not rare (a good possibility, not all of the distant possibilities).
Occam’s Razor (simplest solution is most likely the solution) and the Rule of 3 (3 most common causes and their treatment) for initial treatment help.
What Phase of Rehabilitation is the patient in at this visit? Immobilization, Re-Strengthening, Return to Activity.
Should we do Imaging at this point?
First Decision: What do I have to do to get the pain consistently between 0-2? This is the real reason that the patient has to be put into Phase 1 of Rehabilitation where PRICE rules. The 0-2 pain level realm is where injuries can heal.
Second Decision: How Much Inflammation needs to be Addressed?
Third Decision: Is there any neurological component that should be treated?
Fourth Decision: What mechanical changes can I make in the first few visits that may help the pain relief, better biomechanics, and cause reversal?
Patient #1
History and Chief Complaint A 22 year old ballet dancer presents mid season with right big toe joint pain.
The rehearsals for Swan Lake had been very intense the last few weeks before her pain began. She feels that she just bruised it somehow and that it is really no big deal. She never had this problem before and can not remember doing anything. The pain is aching, not sharp. The pain is the dorsal joint, not medial or plantar. She would describe pain as 4-5 when performing, 3 when getting out of bed, 1-2 when walking around with a feel that she is walking on the outside of her foot a little, and 0 at rest.
Gait Evaluation In this case, a ballet technique examination may be necessary if the problem is recalcitrant or keeps reoccurring, as this sounds like a ballet overuse injury. At the initial visit, the patient wore some flip flops as it was her day off, but barefoot she was a mild pronator, and she did not appear to limp. She did not bring in her ballet shoes for evaluation. Even if you do not know ballet well, the shoes can help in the wear patterns right to left both in the ballet pointe shoes and ballet slippers.
Physical Examination The examination reveals slight big toe swelling, no redness, no palpable pain, mild stage 2 bunion, and negative tendon and ligament stress tests. The patient had hypermobile metatarsal phalangeal joints, with over 90 degrees of big toe joint dorsiflexion, and a long first toe only on the injured side.
Cursory Biomechanical Examination and Asymmetry Noted Different from the normal physical examination of the injury, this looks further into the biomechanics of the patient that could have caused the injury or will slow down the rehabilitation, or just allow the problem to come back over and over again. The cursory biomechanical review included excessive ranges of motion allowing possible excessive big toe joint stress (as noted above), a pes cavus foot type with slight hallux hammertoe, forefoot valgus foot type, callus formation under the first and fifth metatarsals, first ray motion more than 10 mm but abnormally plantar flexed, a relaxed calcaneal stance position 5 everted right 3 everted left, no tight achilles tendons, pronation worse on the injured right side, great FHL strength. Therefore, marked biomechanical stresses (which will be discussed below), which could all be related in some way to our injury cause and upcoming treatment plan.
Tentative Working Diagnosis (your best guess) is based on your experience, historical review, and physical examination. Definitely ballet can overuse the big toe joint. My best guess would be a sprain of the big toe joint as a stress fracture would be more swollen.
Common Differential Diagnosis (2ndary Working Diagnosis) is not a list of the 10 possibilities in a standard differential, but the next best guess if proven that the tentative working diagnosis is wrong. For me, in the sports arena, overuse injuries are stress fractures or stress reactions until proven otherwise even though the examination does not match her pain level.
Occam’s Razor and Rule of 3 Occam’s Razor to me means the simplest solution is usually the solution. In this case, the simplest solution is to stop ballet until all the symptoms are fine, and then gradually wean back into ballet. Here is where the Rule of 3 helps out tremendously. Most ballet dancers would seek care elsewhere if told to stop dancing. The Rule of 3 means that we need to find 3 treatments based on our examination of possible causes that should help the patient progress. And, you can add 3 more next visit also if needed. The joint was sore and the dancer probably sprained her joint, so taping the joint to immobilize some is one good treatment. With a bunion deformity and a long hallux, the big toe joint typically gets stretched medially and pinched laterally, so the taping can try to correct that. Since the patient has a plantar flexed first metatarsal (typically causing more pressure on the first metatarsal), a dancer’s pad (aka Reverse Morton’s Extension) can help. And #3, using a Hapad adhesive felt arch support in all her ballet shoes, and her day to day shoes can both off weight the sore area and prevent the excessive pronation she presents with. Therefore the Rule of 3 helped us start treating based on her specific biomechanics.
What Phase of Rehabilitation? This patient is typically like so many patients really between phases. She needs some activity modification (in an attempt to get her pain more consistently 0-2). She also needs to ice, and will get some daily PT for anti-inflammation since she is in a ballet group. These are Phase 1 treatments, but she will continue to dance as we experiment with padding, taping, etc, so I would put her in the Return to Activity Phase 3. She is hurt, but she can dance completely, therefore she is definitely Phase 3. Phase 1 you are completely restricting her activity, and Phase 2 she can not dance professionally but you are working her through her sports routines. If she worsens as we attempt to get a handle on the injury, we may have to put her into Phase 1 or 2. Sometimes this is a big rehab failure, when the patient is not put into the right phase of restriction when they present with worsening symptoms. The patient should improve each visit, or changes are needed.
Should We Image? This is presenting as a minor soft tissue injury, so imaging will be delayed.
First Decision: How to Reduce Pain 0-2 This is for everything. The pain 4-5 when performing is too high. We have to reduce her rehearsals, and experiment with the above treatments to see if the pain can be reduced (our local dance medicine expert Joey Levinson had her get wider shoes just after her visit that helped). I prefer not to use NSAIDs at all as it masks pain and slows down bone healing (which we presently do not know if she has). Therefore my standard anti-inflammatory cocktail is icing twice daily, and contrast bathing each evening.
Second Decision: Inflammation Concerns This blends into the first decision as working on any inflammation (swelling, sudden stiffness, redness) found is crucial at helping these patients. If inflammation is found, and there was only a slight amount of swelling in this case, it needs to be addressed. My icing twice daily (especially just after she aggravates it) is important.
Third Decision: Any Nerve Component? This appears hard for patients and doctors to assess. Nerve pain can be numbness, radiating, electric, buzzing, vibrating, sharp, and just a hyper-sensitivity. Chronic pain (pain over 3 months) can lead to nerve hyper-sensitivity or tissue neural tension. The pain from nerves alone rarely swell, and it is characterized as pain out of proportion to the physical findings. In this case, no nerve pain was discovered or considered.
Fourth Decision: Initial Mechanical Changes This is now I end my initial visit with the patient--with 3 or 4 easy but effective mechanical treatments. Many times they are in a prescription to purchase. Sometimes, I am able to dispense something I have in my laboratory, or show them some tape technique (I pretty much love to tape all of my patients if I can find something to help them). Some of these treatments will be temporary until a more permanent fix can be found or made. Some of these day one treatments are forever (like toe separators for bunion improvement). In this case, the initial mechanical treatments were spica taping with an effort to straighten the bunion deformity, dancer’s padding instructions for her to attempt (luckily she had a PT who worked half days at the ballet), and medium Hapad longitudinal medial arch pads for pronation control and off weighting.
For this individual patient, the initial treatment was completely successful. It did take about 4 weeks with reduced dancing (50%) to really get her symptoms in control. For this injury, I did see her one other time for ballet slipper and pointe shoe application of arch supports (Hapad adhesive felt) and dancer’s pads. She was advised to wear medium gel toe separators long term for her bunions. Due to the pronation right greater than left, I had wanted her to get orthotic devices for her daily shoes (athletic and fashion casual) but I am not sure if that ever happened. That was for long term prevention.
Saturday, January 30, 2021
Sesamoid AVN Help: Info emailed from patient
For sesamoid AVN, we had a long email correspondence throughout last year :-) the main things that worked were:
- initially, lots of rest, icing, massage
- walking in Hokas and Birkenstock sandals with metatarsal pads
- wearing dancers' pads in the initial stages (but I found that in the later stages they had a tendency to sustain the swelling rather than allowing my foot to press down on the swelling and evacuate it)
- taping my toe down
- doing the toe mobility exercises (from the video that you had sent me)
- I also did the Exxogen quite diligently for 4 months, though I'm not sure whether it helped or not (but who knows!)
- and a lot of patience, and trial and error to get things right
Second MRI showed a sesamoid that was fully inflamed, but no more signs of AVN according to my doctor Dr Saxena!
Kind regards,
Friday, January 29, 2021
Old Plantar Fascial Tear: Email Advice
Hi Dr Blake,
I have just experienced a severe pain in my left arch reminiscent to the tear in my plantar fascia from 8 or 9 years ago. You treated the tear and I was in a boot for 90 days. Since then I have worn the orthotics you designed...religiously. No problems until yesterday. The pain feels like the pain I had years ago just before it tore.
What should I be doing? I don’t want to go through another torn plantar fascia?
Please respond and let me know next steps. Your next appointment is not open until 2/8.
Thank you.
Dr. Blake’s comment: It is so important that you create the 0-2 pain level consistently as quickly as possible. If that means you have to be back in a boot until I see you, please do it. Remember to ice 3 times a day 10 minutes each for the next 4 days, than cut to twice a day. No achilles stretching or arch massage until we feel sure it is not a tear. See if anything you are doing really picks on it, and try to avoid for the next 2 weeks. Normally takes 4 to 14 days to either be obvious an injury, or just a small strain of the tissue. Hope this helps. Rich
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Arm Swing: A Vital Part of Pain Free Gait
When we walk and run, swinging our arms is a vital activity. We need it to free up our hips for instance as the left arm swings and the right hip and leg move, and vice versa. The photo above of a runner clearly shows when the right leg is forward, the right arm is back. Put another way: the right shoulder moves in the same direction as the left hip and leg, and the left shoulder moves in the same direction as the right hip and leg. This contra-lateral rhythm dissipates forces allowing for smooth gait.
Yet what can upset this delicate balance (and I hope you can appreciate actually how delicate this body is that we live in is)? The simple reason I see day after day is that patients don't move their arms. And when they don't move their arms, stress builds up in the lower extremities. Their hips and knees can start to hurt. Get them to start moving their arms, and they start to feel better. Sometimes, the lack of arm motion is totally due to carrying too much stuff. Backpacks may not be their generation, but they free up the arms, which free up the lower extremities.
Since I do gait evaluation on 100% of my patients, I pick up asymmetries in arm motion. It can be from pain in the upper extremity or neck that affects one side. But, this asymmetry can be from uneven foot or leg motion, or compensation from short legs.
The moral of this simple story: if patients have lower extremity pain, make sure that they are moving their arms which may help ease their symptoms.
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Sesamoid Fracture in a Dancer: Email Advice
Hello Dr. Blake,
I am a 40 year-old dancer, though not professionally. When I'm feeling my best, I dance approximately 1 - 1.5 hours per day 3 days per week, take 5 classes one day per week (tap and jazz), and one class on the fifth day of the week (hip hop), giving me two rest days.
Dr. Blake’s comment: Probably too much at 40, but everyone is so different. Just think about your recovery time. With 5 days of weight bearing activities, definitely the 2 days should not be in a row (like Saturday and Sunday).
I have injured my left foot three times now. The first time, when I fell coming out of a turn, there was no reason diagnosis, but after the second injury I recognized it as a turf toe injury. The second time (aggravated by lots of barefoot jumps and jump turns on hardwood) was diagnosed as metatarsalgia, rule out turf toe, and I did at least 9 months of physical therapy. I had both a podiatrist and an orthopedist look at my imagining (x-ray and MRI, from what I remember) and neither saw any fractures or anything indicating any significant injury from either the first or second injury.
Dr. Blake’s comment: Accidents happen! Do you think you had fully recovered from these injuries before the latest one? Were you completely pain free and full activity after the second injury?
Come to October 2020. During the second half of a 10+ mile hike, on the last day of what became 25+ miles of hiking in Yosemite, I suddenly felt like I was stepping on a bruise. I recognized the pain as being in the same area. My doctor recommended conservative management, which I did. Pain had not improved after one month and so I was seen in urgent care, they did x-rays that the radiologist said showed no abnormalities, and they gave me a post-op shoe to wear and said I was okay to be wearing my work boots.
Dr. Blake’s comment: Sudden pain like this, without a fall, in an overuse situation is a stress fracture until proven otherwise.
I just saw a podiatrist at the beginning of January 2021. He told me my lateral sesamoid is fractured and that he thinks it's been there since the first injury. He did not listen to what I tried to tell him about what happened during the previous treatment. His only treatment recommendation was to tell me to stop dancing. Not for a discrete period, but as a blanket statement.
Dr. Blake’s comment: I hope you can find a real sports podiatrist!!! Terrible advice! Check out the AAPSM website for members near you.
When I tried to explain the importance of dance, he told me to get dancer's pads and then I could dance again. He said that I will need to have surgery at some point in the future and told me that he would do a CT to see the level of separation. He declined to do any additional imaging at that time and told me to keep him updated and that the referral will be active for 3 years. He didn't want to see anything I've been doing on the meantime, didn't listen to the time I have taken off from dance already, nothing.
Dr. Blake’s comment: The CT is a good idea since you will have more information, although I would like an MRI first.
I'm trying to figure out the best way forward and have already asked my doctor for a referral for a second opinion, but seeing as most people seem to think this is just some silly hobby, instead of understanding that I'm a hobby athlete and artist in one, it would be very helpful to have some idea what to look for going forward. I just want to give myself the best possible chance to heal. These injuries have been very frustrating and it's hard to believe that the only option is to do nothing until I need surgery. I'm sorry this is so long. I'm just frustrated and trying to figure out some options so that I can advocate for myself. I appreciate your time and any assistance you can provide.
Dr Blake’s comment: I know you wanted to tell me your complete story, but try to start with October in a new email. Get an MRI (which you will probably repeat in 6 months) and go into a removable boot for now. You have to get the pain to 0-2 for the next 6 months. You should be icing and contrast bathing each day, and read alittle in my blog on the conservative treatments for sesamoid fractures. Please also get a Vit D level and probably bone density to make sure your bones are healthy. Rich
Sincerely,
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Monday, January 25, 2021
Right and Left Handed: Its Influence on Mechanics
I have had the personal experience of spraining my left ankle in basketball multiple times. It is not fun. You learn, as an athlete, that right handed players land first with their left foot in basketball and that is the typical foot that lands on someone else’s foot and rolls it. This injury influenced by your hand dominance has been a fascination for me in my career of podiatry. It is always fun after watching someone walk to tell them they are left handed and be correct!!!
Right Handed vs Left Handed: Effect on Lower Extremity Biomechanics
Ask any ballet dancer if they are dominant on their right or left side because they are right handed or left handed and they will say no!!! They spend their whole careers fighting any dominance of strength and coordination from being right or left handed. But for most of us, we use one side of our bodies a lot better, stronger, gracefully, than the other side. I am right handed and I have long played basketball as if I have no left hand--pretty gruesome sight to behold at times!!
If you are right handed, your right side is your movement side (the side you kick the ball with), and your left side is your support side (the one you plant for stability before you kick the ball). And vice versa if you are left handed. And there are shades of this that I see in patients, and myself, from very dominant handed to almost ambidextrous.
So a very common pattern of problems I see concerns the instability (weakness) on the support side. This can be very dangerous and slows down or speeds up rehabilitation. For an example, let us take a left ankle sprain in a right handed patient. The injury is to their support leg. The leg they support with is technically injured and unsupportive. And this can dramatically slow down rehab. The more dominant they are to their right side, and the more they rely on the left side for support, the more a left sided ankle sprain is disabling. Patients also hate to make their movement leg into their support leg. It feels so unnatural to them. So, it is much better for a right handed patient to sprain their right ankle, they seem to heal from and handle this injury better. When a right handed patient sprains their left ankle, they must regain that stability as quickly as possible with boots, braces, casts, taping and strengthening exercises. When a right handed patient sprains their right ankle, the goal is protecting it, but emphasizing getting motion back fast.
I hope this explains a common problem seen in a podiatry practice when an injury occurs to one side. I like to ask if they are right or left handed to make some correlation with the movement side vs the support side. I have seen many variations of problems created with this phenomenon. Recognizing this syndrome can help in subtle ways patients recover sooner.
This is an excerpt from my book “Secrets to Keep Moving”.
Sunday, January 24, 2021
High Heel Shoes: Pros and Cons
I remember working with a back doctor, an osteopath by training, who told me that high heel shoes got a bad rap!! She said of her back patients, half felt better in some heel and half needed to wear flats. It depended a lot on the curve of their spine. It definitely got me thinking about general rules that were only half right, but practiced as if it was the gospel of truth.
High Heel Shoes have been loved and maligned for years. A True Love Hate Affair.
From a Podiatrist's perspective, these wonders of the fashion world have many interesting biomechanical aspects. Let me explain the pros and cons of wearing high heel shoes. The possible positive benefits include:
- Greater Arch Support over Flats
- Better Forward Shift of Body Weight over Flats
- A More Relaxed Hamstring, with Less Lower Back Tension
- With regular use, Foot, Ankle, Knee, and Hip Strengthening
- Heel Lift producing less strain on Achilles Tendon
But, these are weighed down by the possible negative effects including:
- Toe box crowding with gradual development of bunions and hammertoes
- Ankle and Knee in more unstable positions
- Positional Changes in the Low Back which may produce or aggravate symptoms (increased lordosis).
- Gradual shortening of the ankle tendon, and hamstrings with possible symptoms.
Four very common recommendations for regular high heel wearDrs include: A) stretch the Achilles 3 times daily, B) stretch the hamstrings once daily, C) vary the heel height several times a day, with the lower or higher heeled shoe having more toe box (yes, switch shoes--possibly a chance to shop!!), and D) use bunion protection with medium gel toe separators and Yoga Toes (or knockoffs). I hope these simple, but effective, tips can allow you to wear high heel shoes for many years to come.
The following was adapted from my book “Secrets to Keep Moving”.
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