I wondering if any of you feel like tightness when moving your toes towards the balls of your feet, the tightness feeling is under the toes and in the front part of the balls of my feet, they are not swollen in appearance but have the feeling they are.
I guess it's the remains of the small nerves that have still not healed yet, i only get a very slight burn on extremely hot days these days, but otherwise pretty well right, still haven't felt the need to take any Tramadol since i posted last about stopping them, only take 50 mg of Endep at night.
appreciate any thoughts
Brian

Yes, I have this type of feeling and others like it. It is pretty typical pf PN, I think.

I did when I could feel my toes,it is pretty commmon in some PN.hugs Sue

This is where most of my discomfort is too.

I find soaking in Epsom salts very helpful for it. I think it is a stiffening of
tendons. So I do toe and foot exercises/stretching while reading in bed.

That feeling started about a year after my PN - now feels real tight to try to move the toes down at all - in fact one foot they wont move down at all any more, the other one didnt until they cut the sural nerve out of my calf for biopsy, and I could bend them again just on that leg - weird.....

Brian,
I have the same experience as well - I've discussed this several podiatrists and neurologists including my recent trip to Johns Hopkins and they all seem to agree that the "sensation" results from tendon shortening due to a lack of innervation as MrsD noted. The lack of innervation causes an inbalance in the intrinsic extensor and flexor muscles of the feet and toes (these are the small muscles of the feet). I've been doing specific toe stretching exercises for several weeks now and I can actually see a little movement in my toes where before there was none at all - so who knows?

In any case I included a couple of links that may be helpful for some more details - these are specific to diabetic neuropathy but the symptomology is the same regardless of the cause.

physical signs of intrinsic minus foot
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/reprint/26/6/1945

magnetic resonance imaging of intrinsic muscle atrophy
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/reprint/25/8/1444

I hope you can find some relief I know it is aggravating at best!

Alkymst

Thanks everyone for your replies, a lot more common than i ever expected.
I can't remember if the subject had ever been posted before, maybe, i may have missed it, i don't know, but none the less i am glad now that i did bring it up.

I will try the Epson salts soaks and thanks Mrs D and Alkymst for the great explanation and links, much appreciated.
I seem to have full movement of the toes but i will do some toe stretching exercises and see what happens.
again thank you,

Brian

Brian:

Do you have anyone to give you a nice relaxing soothing body massage??

This does wonders for my husband.

Of course I wouldn't know from personal experience, because I'm the one who gives the massages. lol

Melody, I am in the same boat as you, i do the massaging but i don't ask anyone to return the favour , i am always fine, so they think
The best [paid for] massage i have ever had was Bowen therapy, i would highly recommend it to anyone, it's a very gentle massage but very affective, i felt absolutely terrific after the sessions.

Brian

Would you like to know what I did to Alan the other day after watching a repeat of Oprah?? She had a Dr. Oz episode and Dr. Oz gets Rolfing done by some professional Rolfing person.

So I asked Alan, "do you want to get Rolfed?" Quicker than a jackrabbit I did what the guy on the tv did. You should have heard Alan's going nuts. He was in Rolfing heaven.

Now I have arthritis, and there are days when I can't use the can opener. But for some reason, for 5 minutes I was able to do what the guy on the show did.

I would never let anyone NEAR ME DOING THAT!!! I have scoliosis and if I don't like the massage chair thingee going up and down my back, I certainly wouldn't want to get Rolfed. At least I don't think I would.

Who knows??

Hope you have a nice christmas.

melody