Sciatica and Foot Problems

[Frank_B]

Hey Will,

Just an update: This blasted nerve in my toe is still irritated. That said, I found padded toe covers at Wal-Mart that I can slide on my toes. As long as they’re on, things are pretty uneventful.

I squatted earlier this week at 135 lbs with no issues. I gave it a few extra days for recovery and went to 140 yesterday with no issues. I still need to go visit Pete next time I see my parents in Florida to make sure I’m squatting correctly, but I’m going to build the weight back up from here and see how things go.

Oh... And also.... I asked my PT about desensitization training and they used some sort of Chinese scraping thing (reminded me of a butter knife) to “scrape” over the toe. Dude... that thing had me in an all out cold sweat.... Something about it “tripping” over that nerve each time was like biting into cotton balls or scratching fingernails on a chalkboard. Major cringe factor. :-)

[Frank_B]

Will,

Just wanted to say thanks for all your help on this post. I thought you might be interested in the results. So... the nerve wasn’t getting better. I’d have a good few days and then a bad few days. PT sometimes felt good, then it’d be back to day 1. I went to a massage therapist and was explaining what was going on. She noticed a nice protrusion about 6-8 inches above my ankle. She told me that usually they’re varicose veins but sometimes if they go away upon lying down, they might disappear - in which case it could be a herniated piece of muscle.

So... upon lying down it disappeared. She used some sort of facial release tool. I thought it was a bit of BS, but let her do it anyway. It hurts like hell that night but the next day, the nerve pain was highly diminished. Two weeks later, and it’s still getting better each day. The lump is still there, but I can’t see it looking straight down. Only if I look in a mirror and don’t dorsal flex my foot.

I happened to mention it to my Mom and she said my Dad had some sort of lower leg herniation years ago. It didn’t give him many issues, but he is rather sedentary.

I have restarted my LP but things are pretty good. I showed my PT the lump and he agreed that the lump is right in the vicinity of the nerve that feeds into my big toe. Oh, and my big toe did have a bunion that bunion cushions have been doing marvelous work with.

Back to square one for me, but I think I’m through this and just wanted to say thanks as well as drop a little rare information your way. I’m told lower leg muscle herniations are pretty rare, at least.