[pct-l] Long distance foot problems

[Raylinlane@aol.com (Raylinlane@aol.com)]

(I forgot how to post a message on the digest. Is this the correct way
sending this e-mail?)
Hi Everyone,

I just finished through-hiking the PCT a couple of weeks ago. I can't thank
everyone enough on the digest for all the help I received before I left. For
5 months before  my departure in April, I was online daily reading what you
all had to say about equipment, resupply towns, food choices, etc.

I have a problem in both feet with numbness, tingling and pain (like
bruised), that is not going away.
I have a more serious problem in my left foot. The last 3 toes on my left
foot have lost their ability to move laterally. I am unable to make them
separate from each other. I can move them up and down.

I went to a podiatrist who isn't used to through-hikers. He asked me when it
was that I first noticed the problem. I said, "Half way through my
through-hike." He then said, "Why didn't you quit when you noticed the
problem?" I said, "QUIT?". "Why would I quit just because I have a little
pain and numbness?"

The doctor said that I had what he thought might be entrapment of the lateral
plantar nerve on my left foot.  He wants me to go to a neurologist for
testing. And, I will go to a neurologist. But-the doctor didn't seem
interested when I tried to explain my initial plantar fascitis problem in the
left foot , (the foot that has the toes that don't respond to lateral
spreading movement). I had had a terrible shooting heel pain and sore arch
tendon after backpacking in the snow over the High Sierras. To relieve the
pain in the arch, I hiked placing most of my weight on the lateral side of my
left foot. A month or month and a half later I began to feel a tendon or
ligament or muscle problem around the outside of the left ankle.

Also, by the end of the through-hike, both my feet felt as if someone had
taken hammers to the bottom of them. On the downhill in Washington, I had
terrible pain.

I'm aware of a sensation from the above mentioned ankle weirdness on my left
foot, where I can sometimes feel the unnatural sensation moving up the
lateral side of my calf. I'm also beginning to get a pain in my left hip. I
don't know if these symptoms are related. I only know that the doctor I saw
told me not to exercise. Right! I'm still eating like I was still on the
trail. How can I not exercise? He also said that my foot problem was serious
and that I could eventually be left with a deformed foot as the result of
atrophy. So....I'm concerned. But I don't trust this doctor's knowledge with
long distance hiking related foot problems.

I would appreciate any feedback you might have on the course of action I
should take, any doctors you know in the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles,
and do you have a name for what I have based on the limited information I
gave you.

I've been reading the book, Fixing Your Feet, (second edition), by John
Vonhof. I tried to e-mail him but my mail was sent back.

I welcome any feedback.

Thanks,

Linda Jeffers
aka "Gottago" @ lindajeffers.com