We wanted to celebrate the New Year with our patient who had suffered from bilateral foot numbness, pain, and burning for over a year. She was diagnosed with refractory plantar fasciitis, as well as tarsal tunnel syndrome. She had severe pain that limited her walking, and standing. Her pain was primarily in the heel, arch, and instep with numbness radiating into the sole of the foot and toes. After failing other therapy we had the privilege of seeing her here in the office. The diagnosis was confirmed, and we felt that she would best be treated with a combined approach to her plantar fascia and the tibial nerve and it's down stream branches of the medial plantar, lateral plantar, and calcaneal nerves. She is now 3 months out from her left side tarsal tunnel release with decompression of the medial plantar, lateral plantar, and calcaneal nerves with a simultaneous plantar fascia release and lengthening of her gastrocnemius muscle. And now she is 6 weeks out from a similar procedure on the right side. We are very excited for her excellent improvements! She is back to walking, standing, exercising with over 90-95% relief of her pain. Her incisions are still softening and will continue to mature for several more months. She continues to follow up with our colleague Dr. John Senatore to continue to ensure she has appropriate supportive shoe wear and arch support.
I am thankful for the team effort on this patient who had a combination of problems that we were able to address. If you or someone you know has had long painful history of heel pain and arch pain with numbness, and burning in the foot, including the heel, arch, ball of the foot our toes, it is possible that you could have straight forward tarsal tunnel syndrome or possibly a more complex issue with more than one diagnosis leading to a delay in improvement and treatment. We would be happy to check this out for you, as there may be a combination of nerve related and musculoskeletal issues that may need to be treated together for maximal improvement. Call us today at 410-709-3868 or fill out a contact form here!
Happy New Year!
