Burning Feet
What are Burning Feet?
Hi everyone, I am Doreen, (Keith's wife), and I have what I describe as "burning feet". It feels as if my feet are far too close to an electric fire.The pain is extreme and my feet have dominated my whole life. I have visited many hospitals over the years for long periods at a time for treatment. So far I have not been able to find any form of cure, in fact all of the specialist I have seen don't even seem to know what the problem is or what causes it, let alone find a cure.
Before I go any further, there is one thing that you have to be aware of. If you have any form of medical problem, then the first thing that you must do is to go and see your doctor. Do not seek a cure on the web. The reason for this is "why would you put your health into the hands of an unknown on the web, who knows nothing of your history, nothing of your health, has not examined you, and would be working in the dark". Most sites that you come across on the web are commercial ones who's business it is to make money.
My Symptoms
As far back as I can remember I have had problems with my feet, and my memory goes way back to when I was a young girl at school, my feet used to have blisters all over the bottom of them. The shape of my feet if viewed from above show that I have a very wide foot at my toes, and that instead of my toes showing a slight decrease in size from big toe to small toe, mine are square across the front of my toes, I also have very high insteps. Could this be the problem, could it be something so obvious?. When I was young my mum could not afford anything other than the cheapest of shoes and I do not doubt for a second that my feet were pushed into whatever type of shoe she could get hold of and the fact that they did not fit my strange foot shape did not enter the equation. Because of this foot shape my toes have to be squashed together as my feet go into any shoe, and over the years perhaps this is the cause of the problem.
I can discount this as the cause as there are other members on my family that also have the same foot problems, all though to my best knowledge none of them have the wide square toes. My mothers mum had the same problem and lived her whole life in carpet slippers, she had seven children and two of them had the same problem, one was my mother and the other was her brother uncle Albie, he had it very bad and spent all of his time in carpet slippers because of the pain. My mother has the same problem but her feet look to be the same shape as everybody else. I have three boys and all them have normal shaped feet. One of my sons (Paul) suffers badly with it, my oldest son (David) suffers from his feet but not too badly, but the youngest of the three boys (Marc) does not have the problem at all, his feet seem to be good which is a blessing as he has recently been diagnosed with MS, so if anybody in life does not need any others problems then it is Marc.
Someday's my feet are on fire all day and other days are not as painful, but every day I have the pain. If I walk for more than ten minutes then I am in big trouble as the pain in my feet brings me to a stop, and it is a long and slow process to get back home. Walking not only increases the pain, but my feet get swollen as well, so when I am out and my feet are bad, I cannot take of my shoes for some relief, as if I do then I will not be able to get them back on again. The winter months are better for my feet as I can walk about the bungalow with nothing on my feet and the floor in both the bathroom and kitchen are not carpeted and beneath the floor covering it is solid cold concrete. It helps but does nothing else and its comfort is lost as soon as start to move about again.
My treatment to date.
Over the years I have tried to firstly find out what the problem is and if and how could it be cured or at least controlled. My first major foray was to arrange a visit to a foot specialist at one of the large hospitals near London. On that particular day my feet were really bad due to the traveling. He examined them and said that he wanted to have me take a test (not sure what its name was), but it involved me walking up and down while being filmed and then to stand on a plate that gave a thermal picture of the soles of my feet in glorious colour. He agreed that I did have a problem but offered no information as to what it could be. He prescribed some tablets which he said would certainly help. Well they did not, in fact they made me physically sick every day and did nothing to stop the pain. I attended the hospital for some months but neither the pain or the sickness improved and it seemed a pointless task to add to my problems so I told the specialist that I would not be carrying on with the treatment. He was not best pleased as he said that he felt that if I would continue with the tablets I would see some improvement. How long do you want to go on with something that makes you sick and there is no improvement with the problem, they still hurt as much as ever.
At that time I had read in a daily newspaper that there was another woman who appeared to have the same problem as me and her specialist was treating her with some form of cream that was made with chili peppers. I told my specialist about the other doctor he basically rubbished him and his line of treatment. I was unable to find out anything more about her case and I do not know if she had success.
My feet were so bad and because of their strange shape we both agreed to look into the feasibility of having a pair of shoe hand made by a specialist. I contacted him when I saw in a newspaper that he had made some giant sized shoe for a man with ridiculously big feet. We arranged to go and see him up in Oxfordshire. It took many journeys before the shoes were finished. I had explained in great detail to him what I needed for my feet, what would hopefully work and what most certainly would not. These shoes were horrible to look at and to try and walk in them was a painful nightmare. I went back and saw him and he made some adjustments, and after more journeys I collected the modified shoes. My disappointment with them was immense as they did nothing for my pain, in fact they increased it if that was possible for as I struggled to walk in them I was making other parts of my body hurt. I finally consigned them to the rubbish bin. That was a costly experience as the shoes alone cost over £700 and the long journeys would have to be added to that.
I do not think that it is appropriate for me to name all of the hospitals where I have sought help and treatment without any success. Some of these hospitals really did their best for me, some of them seemed to have a cavalier attitude to my problems seeing me as a patient who had painful feet, and how bad could that be. There is an old saying about "walking a mile in my shoes", and how I wished that they could.
One hospital I attended for over a year and this doctor was knowledgeable and very willing and in fact keen to help if at all possible. As he was a surgeon I asked him if he could remove my small toe so that my feet would be slimmer across my toes and that way I could at least find wide fitting shoes that I could wear without making the whole situation worse. He said that he had done the operation before but that he would not recommend it for me. He said that people did not know how badly the loss of feeling or the loss of toes can effect the way you walk. He did offer to give me an injection in my feet that would numb them for twenty four hours just so that I could have the experience. Keith had to almost carry me out of the hospital as I found it impossible to walk when I could not feel my feet. Once back home and sitting down the pain had gone. This was the most relief that I had had in all of my life, but as I moved about the bungalow banging into things and having to hang onto every thing as I made my way from one room to another I began to think that this was not the way I wanted to go, as I would be swapping one problem for another.The bottom of my feet are covered in calluses and corns, and I have attended foot clinics to have them removed too many times to recollect. They now bleed as soon as the nurse starts to trim them with a scalpel, she says that the veins are now very close to the surface. After she has finished she puts lots of pads on my feet so that I can manage to hobble out. I have to remove the patches after the shortest of time as they make the pain worse. I have tried various creams and foot care products over the years, but what I know for a fact is that if I massage any cream into my feet the burning feeling increases.
About two years ago my fingers started to go numb and greyish at the ends when they got cold. I went and saw my doctor and he said that I had "Raynauds Disease". This disease causes the small blood vessels in body extremities to shut down and try and conserve the body's core temperature. It is an over the top reaction of the body. Starved of a good blood supply, the toes, fingers and the end of the nose rapidly start to get cold. In the worse scenarios it could mean the loss of these extremities. Could Raynauds be the culprit?, well I have no idea at all, but they say that this condition can be inherited, and this would certainly fit in with a family history of foot problems. I do not think that Raynauds is the culprit as the symptoms are one of cold with the reduced blood flow, while my feet are at the opposite end of the scale, they are burning.
I have 2 pair of soft rubber type insoles to ease the pain of walking, and what I now do is to put both pairs of the insoles into the freezer (they do not freeze), and when I go out I put the first pair into my shoes and wrap the second pair up in newspaper so that I can change into them later. The cold from the insoles is bliss, but they do not last for more than 15 minutes so I can't get very far before I have used up both pairs. I suppose that I could purchase hundreds of them and fill the freezer up and drag a cart full of them with me everywhere I go (just joking).
January 2006. I have managed to find a supplier of shoes where I have been able to get a pair (well 2 pairs) that are more comfortable than any other shoes I have ever had. I can walk longer and further in these shoes before the real pain sets in. The supplier is The Shoe Tailor . I ordered 2 pairs which look to be both the same as you would expect, but one pair is smaller than the other pair and I have had to get the small pair stretched three times for them to be the same as the non stretched pair, but they are a good firm to deal with and I have no problems at all if I have to send back shoes that do not fit my unusual feet with all of their problems.
January 2006. I have found a cream that if I massage it into my feet just as I go to bed, I can feel the cooling effect of it immediately, and that enables me to get off to sleep. The cream is called "dayspa" Virgin Vie and I obtained mine from Virgin Cosmetic Company. Their web site is Virgin Cosmetics
July 2007. It has been a long long while since I had anything positive to write concerning my "Burning Feet", but at long last I can now say something I never thought I would.
I recently came across a reference to a firm supplying shoes that I thought sounded interesting. I went to their site at
the shoes that I ordered were the "Pirouette Mahogany" in size UK6. They arrived two days latter and I was actually trembling and stood for a few minutes with the unopened box in my hands, dreading the moment of truth.
I have gone through this process dozens and dozens of time in my life and can always remember the disappointment brought on by the first sight of any new shoes. Sometimes it is because you just know that they are not going to work for you, and sometimes because they are just plain ugly.
I was stunned as soon as I saw them, and they are certainly different to any shoes that not only have I worn, but different to any shoes I have ever seen or read about. They are higher at the front, i.e. the sole is fractionally higher than the heel, which means that when you have them on the weight and pressure are taken off of the ball of your feet and also the toes. They are wide enough for my wide square toes to fit comfortable within them with NO pinching at all.
We were just getting ready to go out shopping so I did no more than put on my new shoes and off we went. I always take one of my old pair with me in a plastic bag just as an insurance measure. All times when wearing new shoes for the first time I am in real agony after no more than ten minutes and frequently less, but this time my feet were really happy and we completed the shopping trip and even when we arrived back home I was in no hurry to remove my new found friends.
For anyone who has problems with shoes then I urge you to go their web site and have a look, and better still do as I did and telephone them and talk to someone about you problems. I found them very polite and knowledgeable. If you do not like them or you cannot get on with them, then simply take them to your post office and send them back.
I was so overjoyed with my shoes that as soon as we arrived home Keith brought me another identical pair for an early birthday present.
These are the best shoes I have ever owned by are large margin, and for the first time in my life I have managed to get a pair of very happy feet.
Best regards Doreen
