[pct-l] Long distance foot problems

[m.karon@attbi.com (Marshall Karon)]

Many people have foot problems both during and after the hike. Your shoes
were probably the problem and you didn't correct it. Now you are paying the
price. You also may have pushed yourself too soon and went too many miles
per day with too much weight. Regardless, your feet didn't like it.

However, I believe the doctors you have been seeing are exaggerating the
problem. You are right not to trust them. They haven't seen many people who
hike day after day for 5 + months. Some people may lose toenails and have
permanent numbness.  But, my guess is that the numbness and tingling will be
gone within a few months as you stop torturing your feet. The nerves did get
pinched, the muscles did get overused, etc. - but they will recover.My
soreness and pain didn't go completely away until about 4 months after I
stopped - and the pain didn't really start until I finished.

Can't say what you should do, but I'd skip the doctors, keep walking (maybe
with some inserts to take pressure off) and see what happens in a few
months. Not easy to just "grin and bear it", but I don't believe all the
doctors in the world will make a difference - only time will.

As for the eating - most folks also keep eating after the "starvation diet"
hiking. I've read that is the body's way. Hopefully you won't blow up like a
blimp.

Good luck.

Marshall Karon
Portland, OR
m.karon@attbi.com
----- Original Message -----
From: <Raylinlane@aol.com>
To: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2002 5:55 PM
Subject: [pct-l] Long distance foot problems


> (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
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