Another quick question I wonder if anyone can help. 18 months ago I presented with a numb left leg. The right one was always fine. The left still gets intermittently numb coupled with a few sensory issues normally when an infection is brewing. The right leg has been fine. This time last year I was walking 2 miles & exercising by way of jogging on the spot in front of the Wii Fit. In August I decided to switch to flats as I was flat sitting in London (no pun intended) & it was the time of the scorching heat. Now I’ve never worn flats - mainly due to my pancake flat feet & the flats I wore were totally flat & the other pair had an ankle bar. The latter being way too big & caused me to have to keep catching my foot & shoe for fear of over shooting. To cut a long story short - my legs ached like billy-o due to the flat shoes & lack of arches in the flats. A few months later I noticed that if I walked for more than 15 mins my good right foot would start to slap against the ground. Not like the drop foot I’d experienced in my presenting left one. A few weeks later I find it hard to pull the foot upwards. I saw my neuro & he thinks a Botox shot would help. I saw him a month later & he felt all I needed was specific exercise & that this is due to demyelination but states its not a new episode. (Still only one clinically isolated episode). Go figure. Now I can only walk on it for a few mins. I’m still not a confirmed ms’er, still transverse myelitis or a demyelination issue (acc to neuro). However - could thus just be a case of tendinitis? Neuro stares tendons are tight. Could it just be down to bad shoes causing it? Is everything MS?? Moving soon & need to be able to move. Any suggestions?
Hi, I blamed my shoes for years before diagnosis. Even (some) medics blamed my shoes - which was nonsense because I’d never worn stupid or extreme shoes. Sorry, but the tight tendons are part of MS (or whatever MS-like condition you have), in my opinion. Inappropriate footwear won’t help, of course, but no, it’s NOT all down to shoes. Most healthy women can and do wear lots of different types and style of shoe without suffering a severe reduction in walking ability - unless there was something obvious but temporary, such as a blister, or a turned ankle. Sorry, but I think you’re clutching at straws here. Because of my VERY short calf muscles (MS-related, I’m sure), I do find a slightly raised heel more comfortable than total flatties. However, I think it would be wrong to blame my foot and leg problems on what I wear. For some years now, I’ve been able to wear little else but structured trainers or lace-up walking boots - hardly frivolous or reckless footwear. My feet did not miraculously recover, when I was limited to such sensible, conservative (OK, downright ugly!) shoes. Over the years, I’ve also blamed my chair and my bed for various problems, as well as age, stress, hormones - you name it! None of this was true. The common theme was I was ill. It had nothing to do with furniture, footwear or state of mind. Botox injection sounds a bit drastic as a firstline treatment - although I appreciate it’s not permanent, and would wear off over time. Have you been recommended any physio exercises first? Tina x
Hi Tina, Thanks for your thoughts. Neuro is very ambiguous as he states I don’t have a diagnosis of MS yet. I’m still at the one episode back in July 2012 with the left leg numbness. I too was surprised at the Botox but he felt it would loosen the very tight tendon. He did recommend that I slowly draw the foot towards me & then backwards but no physio. I did twist the foot in November wearing a wedge shoe. To be honest I’d never worn flats before the August due to my flat feet. When pushed he’s stated that thus far it’s been transverse myelitis but most definitely a demyelination issue. In your experience - are you thinking that this could be the 2nd episode (time & space) thus an MS thing? Maybe you’re right & I’m clutching at straws. To be honest I had wondered if this was a 2nd episode thus confirming MS. I’d even put that to my neuro. My vitamin D is at 10 again & my B12 at 120. Could this also be an MS confirmation? They are at the same numbers as when I presented. Any suggestions as how to loosen the tendon? Thanks again for your help.
Hi, This will be my last post tonight, as I’m always up 'til the small hours, and then moaning about fatigue - but I think it’s partly that I put off going to bed, because I find the nights harder. Bed is not such a comfortable and welcoming place as it used to be. I am reluctant to say whether you may have had a 2nd episode. If your neuro thinks not, he must have his reasons. I’m officially diagnosed RRMS, and have had distinct episodes, or relapses - but not that many. But I’ve always felt I’ve continued to get just that little bit worse without any obvious relapses - both before and after diagnosis - so either I’m having minor relapses I don’t notice, or damage is occurring in other ways too. I wouldn’t rule out that the current problems are all residue from the original episode, but the change of footwear may have exacerbated an existing problem. Several years before I was diagnosed, I was referred to a so-called gait specialist. I expected it to be very hi-tech, with perhaps a computer analysis of my gait, but in fact, my appointment was in a sort of community-hall type place, with no specialist medical facilities at all, and the “analysis” consisted of me hitching up my skirts and walking up and down the corridor a couple of times, and him saying: “Oh, that doesn’t look too bad!” He was one of the people who blamed my shoes, but he did notice my calves were very tight, and said that whilst he did not normally encourage the wearing of heels, a small heel might be beneficial in my case, because heels flat on the ground were causing calf-ache, like yours. Even my walking boots, though you’d never really call them heels, are slightly built-up at the heel. I don’t think I could ever wear, say, ballet pumps. There are lots of calf-stretching exercises if you Google (most are easier seen than described, so look for videos or diagrams). I do the ones where you face the wall, palms on the wall, and bend the front knee, to get a stretch in the back leg. This sounds horrendously complicated, but if you see a picture, it’s clear straight away. I also do the ones where you stand on the bottom stair, facing the stairs, with heels hanging over the edge of the stair. Preferably whilst holding the handrail, you drop your heels. Again, sounds complicated, but isn’t. Finally but less frequently (mainly because it needs a tool, so you can’t just do it when you think of it), I do the thing where, in a sitting position, leg straight out, you pull your foot back towards your body, using a dressing-gown cord, or similar. Probably though, you should take physio advice before trying any of these. But I’d definitely want to try stretches before going straight to botox. Another thing that has helped me is the drug Baclofen. I don’t know how willing they’d be to prescribe this if you haven’t had a formal MS diagnosis, but if you do have muscle tightness and resistance to movement (aka spasticity) it should not really matter what your diagnosis is - you still might benefit from an anti-spasticity agent like Baclofen. Although it’s an extremely common drug for MS-related muscle stiffness, I did have trouble getting any, even after diagnosis. This wasn’t because anyone believed I shouldn’t have it, but because my hospital and GP surgery fell to bickering about whose responsibility it was (and therefore whose budget, I’m guessing), and I was caught piggy in the middle! I don’t think it’s a very expensive drug anyway. But it can be tough getting anyone to take the initiative and prescribe. I had to raise my voice before anything was done. I knew it was helping the first day I took it, and that I should have been on it ages before. Tina x
Sorry, one last thing: Many folks with MS Do have low vitamin D and/or B12 too. However, these are not used as confirmatory tests, because they can occur without MS, as well. Anyway that has to be it from me tonight. I’m well overdue for my third and final dose of Baclofen, and some sleep. Tina x