Hey Everyone,

I'm a 28 year old male. I'm single, live alone, healthy (despite what appears to be PN), and prior to this year felt as though I was on the fast track to building a happy life with an eventual partner and family.

Unfortunately those goals seem to have gone out the window, as over the last year I've struggled with considerable pain and equal anxiety as I've been unable to get any kind of clear guidance from various medical professionals regarding my continued issues.

That's what has me here.

First, let me explain how it all began. In January of last year a man broke into my home while I was sleeping. I woke up, approached him and was immediately attacked by him. I'm a big guy, so I fought him (successfully) out of my house and onto the street in front of my home. My then live-in girlfriend called the police, who showed up shortly and arrested the individual. I was only in my pajamas, so I had no shoes on and suffered considerable damage to my poor feet! They were bashed and bruised, and I had a displaced fracture of a pinky toe. I also had a considerable amount of blood from that individual make it's way into my mouth (I'm not a violent person but I will say I at least delivered that jerk a serious beating!).

I took a few weeks off from my regular exercise routine, but things seemed fine after a few weeks so I jumped back into the swing of things. My doctor advised that I could've been exposed to blood borne illnesses (scary stuff, HIV and Hep C), so I followed her advice about being safe with my girlfriend in the meantime and went through the appropriate testing. I ultimately tested negative up to 6 months after the encounter -- which is apparently a larger than necessary "window" to ascertain that I hadn't contracted anything. About two weeks after the injury I also started to suffer from tingling in my toes (predominately my right foot), as well as pain in the ball of my foot, which is exacerbated while walking.

Fast forward a year later and my foot pain remains. It's worst in my right, but definitely exists in my left as well. It's worse when walking or standing, but occasionally even hits while resting. It feels simply like pain in the ball of my foot, third and fourth toes, arch and even sometimes the heel. The pain isn't numbness or burning -- just good ole' pain, and equally my feet feel super cold (even when they shouldn't -- I used to never have issues with the cold)! My girlfriend (who was in fact, the love of my life) left me because she couldn't handle that I remained in pain. I've seen countless doctors, all who have been stumped and ultimately suggested that I have small fiber neuropathy (I had a normal EMG / NCV and have no weakness / balance issues) due to the incident.

I find myself really at my wits end. I feel too young (and too alone) to deal with this. My life has fallen apart in that I've lost my girlfriend, I don't feel confident dating anyone (why would anyone want to be with someone who has this type of pain day in day out), I've quit soccer and doing other things I love, and worst of all -- I can't even focus at my job anymore. My career is falling apart, as the pain drives me nuts and I can't do anything but google / try to research what could be wrong / what I can do to fix it. I seriously feel like my life is falling apart, and like suicide would be a better option than living the rest of my life alone and in pain. I had so many goals and objectives, and now they all feel so very far away.

What I can't figure out, however, is that my symptoms still seem largely different than most of you here -- which leaves me wondering if it really is neuropathy. So, a few questions:

1) Do any of you have an intense feeling of coldness in your feet? No burning pain, no numbness -- just a cold type of pain.

2) Do any of you have neuropathy that is very localized to a region of the foot (ie, the ball of foot and the areas nearby)?

3) Does exercise make your pain go away? I find that after a good warm up I tend to actually feel better -- once things get stretched out.

Does this sound like neuropathy?

Just looking for some help / hope / comfort. I of course sympathize with every one of you and wish you all well. It's not fair that any of us live with this type of pain, and it's been EYE opening as far as medical care in this country goes. Doctors tend to make me feel crazy, and only exacerbate my already sky-high degree of anxiety.

I just want to know that I can work through this and live a normal life -- as right now I feel simply like a broken burden to society. Furthermore, without direct causality (my injuries don't seem bad enough to have left me with this for life), I worry that I could've acquired some infectious disease that I could possibly spread if I were ever to date again.

Thanks for your input, and sorry for the novel.