Hi Angelina,

I am in fact from Seattle! I'm a young, healthy dude with a perplexing toe / foot pain issue!

Let me tell you, it hasn't been a fun ride -- but the people here have helped immensely, as have the doctors I've come in contact with.

A few recommendations from my experiences:

1. Dr. Jason Attaman, Interventional Pain Doctor

Dr. Attaman is the first one who identified my issue and got me on track for treatment.

2. Dr. Oscar Benitez, Pain Psychology

I was referred to Dr. Benitez by Dr. Attaman. Dr. Benitez has extensive experiencing treating the emotional / mental aspects of pain. More importantly, the largest decrease in pain I noticed was achieved via his guidance.

Pain is immensely tied to our psychological state. I have no doubt that all of us have some underlying physical issue -- it's just elusive enough that it's beyond what modern medicine can understand via current diagnostic methods. Accordingly, it's irreparable physically at this point in time.

What's remarkable, however, is how powerful the mind is. There's clear clinical evidence of a link between our mental response to pain and bio-chemical changes that introduce things like heightened sensitivity, depression, anxiety, pain -- even Fibromyalgia appears to correlate with an "immensely stressful" experience.

Reversing the cycle seems so simple. It feels as though it should be immediate -- wake up one day with this epiphany and bam, my body will reset! The reality is that it takes months, possibly even years to reset the body once we're bio-chemically and emotionally off-kilter. Resetting our perception is however the best current intervention for the pain that we experience.

So, as you navigate this perplexing and frustrating disease focus on these things.

1. You are NOT sick. Your body is amazing, actually. You're healthy, and your brain and body continue to function despite a malfunctioning circuit.

2. Your brain will learn to listen to that malfunctioning circuit less as you train it that there is no associated threat. Our brains are trained to identify and respond to threats. Pain signals are our bodies mechanism of alerting our mental state of an issue that we need to be aware of. The problem for us is that we all have some type of malfunction associated with this signaling mechanism and even though there's no (remaining) threat, our body won't turn the pain off. We can however achieve some degree of relief by helping re-train our body.

3. In time you'll end up stronger both physically and mentally. Just remember how strong, determined and AMAZING you truly are for battling this issue every day. You'll look back in a few years and recognize how far you've come and be truly inspired and proud of yourself.

I know you can do this, stick in there!