Originally Posted by mrsD

With long standing CMT for YEARS, there is muscle wasting.

If you Google Charcot Marie Tooth on Google and click images...you'll see the muscle wasting on the legs. It is quite dramatic.

Now this may vary from person to person, but with time, and Alan is older, there should be some wasting in his legs with CMT.
Cramps and other muscle issues like weakness. If his pain is localized only to the feet and not legs, then the CMT diagnosis would not be done by doctors. But as Kitt says there are many many variants, and they are all different.

There is a controversy about long term use of Coal Tar products and skin cancers. For this reason, doctors don't use it much, and most coal tar products on RX are discontinued. But the proof is not total yet.
OTC products are still allowed to contain some coal tar... so keep that in mind. It is recommended to scan the skin carefully often for strange lesions, when using a coal tar product.