Wednesday with Ledderhose

Today was a tough day and not particularly because my foot hurt, which it did and not because of money which is at a bit of a stretch at the moment with the wedding and a leak and my partner changing jobs but because my partner wasn’t feeling great, she looked a bit down which is probably because of the money thing and because of being ill and I hate to see her like that. What can I do though, I managed to insist on her not going out and teaching a lesson this evening even though because due to admin stupidity of the company she is with she has had to cancel tomorrow’s lessons because she needs to have some training. Well I love her and hope that we can get away from it for 2 weeks over the wedding.  

Still on the interesting side of things I got an interesting comment on one of my blog posts today (comment on the top ten blog and forum in google post):

Pete said “Hi, thanks to your site, I came across the new site "itsinyourhands" through the link above. I've had Dupuytrens for a good few years now but didn't do anything about it (I didn't even know there was a name for it!) until it became obvious it was gradually getting worse. To be honest, I'm really not a pill-taker & always look for a natural alternative for an ailment. The thing is, a lady I know who works with herbs/oils etc, recommended I take a look at an enzyme called Serrapeptase. I did & have been taking it for 5 months now with great results. The rope-like build-up on my left palm has broken up into pieces & getting softer! I reckon at the 12 month stage I might be rid of it. I'm trying to spread the word - it's working for me, so why not other folks? Many thanks Pete  “

I have tried to look a little bit into Serratiopeptidase and as far as I can tell there is no hard evidence that is does anything much in medical terms. I have seen a few little things here and there suggesting that it may be able to help with Ledderhose as it is an enzyme that breaks down proteins and the bulk of the lumps that form are proteins therefore it can break them down. However there is no evidence to suggest that this is the case and therefore at the moment I for one am not going to give it a try but if you have found it has helped you then please comment here as so far I only have one persons word to go.

I think that it is great that the right kind of people, those who can help and might need help are finding this blog. 

To be honest I guess if things got to the point where I was considering surgery then I would first consider the options above. Today my foot was bad again and this is starting to annoy me as that is two days in a row, have the orthotics worn themselves out already or am I just going through a bad patch before the wedding which will of course finish in time for my stag do. 

Some pain today with my Ledderhose

As anyone who read here often will know my foot does not always hurt too much and I like to be able to do things for myself and indeed for my partner so I am perhaps not as much off of my feet as I should be.  I have however now got orthotics and I am at the stage where I have been wearing these all day which is pretty good and only slightly quicker than the doctor ordered so I don't think I have been too naughty.

I don't know if it is because the doctor poked it yesterday but today I have been in quite a bit of pain. To be honest I don't think that I can blame the doctor from yesterday as unlike last time he was very gentle and barely touched the lump let alone put any pressure on it (again shows that he knew what he was dealing with more than the other guy did). I think that the pain today is due to one of two things.

1) I have been on my feet more: Being on my feet more does mean more pain and today I was up and about a lot and that often means more pain but this hasn't been too much of an issue in the last few days.

2) It is just one of those days: The specialist also said that I just have to grin and take the pain as until it gets to the point where I really cannot walk they will not operate on ledderhose. This also means that I will have some days where it is painful, I mean I do have a disease after all so what should I expect.

I am hoping that on a day to day basis I don't have too many days like today, even once a month would be annoying but I think that it is something that I have got go try and get used to and the problem is knowing when I can push myself, what are the days when I can stay on my feet? What are the days when I need to sit down as much as possible? I guess that maybe as I become used to the Orthotics and with time I might be able to start to notice the signs of a troublesome day earlier rather than later an so will be able to make provisions and try to sit on my bum as much as my job will allow me.

The good thing is that my wedding and honeymoon are coming up and this not only is a great thing for the obvious reasons but also because it means that I should be able to sit a lot. To anyone out there that has ledderhose from what I have seen on the net and from what I have been told by the specialists you want to consider surgery as your last option only and they mean once you cannot walk. Just think about how much weight and how much pressure goes through your feet and your toes not just in a day but with every step and if you start messing about with that and messing about with the nerves then that is asking for trouble and in all likelihood if you are currently capable of walking then it is going to be more trouble than you are currently in. Of course I am not a doctor and you need to listen to what they say to you and not what I am saying as I am only 1 patient and not qualified so what I am saying is these are just my ramblings.

I have had experience with both orthotics and steroid injections and I am trying to build up a collection of details on different treatments but I will now be travelling outside of my experience with the disease so will be asking upon others for information where I can and I am going to try to make my next one of those kind of posts about surgery.

My Birthday!

What day is today,
Today is my Birthday,
What a great day for a Birthday,
Lets all have some cake
And you smell like one tooooo...
(Thanks Futurama for those kind words)

25 years young today and hoping for a good one. Though my birthday is more going to be celebrated tomorrow and it doesn't seem like such a big deal as you get one every year and in just over 3 weeks I am getting married to my wonderful partner and that is a once in a lifetime thing.

Back on the foot and it does hurt a bit today as does the ankle, no more or less than I would expect which I guess means that I really do need to wear the insoles long term over a long period of time to feel the benefits the next day.


Plantar Fibroma Support Forum
http://plantarfibroma.freeforums.org/

Today with Plantar Fibroma

Today was my first day back at work after Christmas as having had flu I have been stuck at home and not been on my foot. Does my foot hurt more today than it has for the past month? Yes it does.

I have also been trying out my Orthotics and they are ok, just getting used to them and hoping they are more comfortable. I have got the Mrs to have a look and my feet and ankles don't seem to tip over so much but it still remains to be seen whether that is going to last or whether I am going to be able to wear them all the time as well.

Further to my post yesterday my rankings have flown up and the blog and forum are much higher so many Plantar Fibroma help can be found by a few more people.

http://plantarfibroma.freeforums.org/

Top 10 Blog and forum in Google

A few crazy things:

Right so I noticed that my blog is now linked to on here: http://dupuytrens-society.org.uk/TreatmentL.html

Which is great and crazy at the same time, at least it means that my story should reach a few more people and maybe the forum as a place to talk for a few more people. So I thought I would investigate and see what else I could find and found that Google searches for the following words result in the blog coming up in the rank shown:

I also saw that someone had linked to the blog through a search with Ledderhose and weight as their search and the blog comes up 9th with this.

Ledderhose blog - 7th

Plantar Fibroma Blog - Forum is 6th and blog 9th

How to cope with Ledderhose or how to cope with plantar fibroma - 1st (wow)

Ledderhose & running trainers - 7th

Plantar Fibroma Support - Forum - 7th (disappointingly Ledderhose support does not yield the same result)

Christmas and Ledderhose - 3rd

Cali and Ledderhose - 10th (thank you Cali)

Plantar Fibroma Forum - 2nd & 3rd - interestingly the forum does not come up but the blog does in 8th place.

Plantar Fibroma Video - 4th place - another one that has actually been used to find the blog.

Another very likely search to be done is Plantar Fibroma Sportsman where the blog comes 2nd and 3rd.

Plantar Fibromatosis physio -2nd  Interestingly this brings up the review I wrote on Dooyoo which is the same as one of my first posts on here. http://ledderhose.blogspot.com/2011/11/plantar-fibroma-real-pain-in-foot.html. This also comes 3rd if you search for plantar fibroma uk specialist

So as you can see there is a huge chance for people that need help with this disease to come across this blog, come across the forum and hopefully be able to find someone else with the disease even if we can't make the pain go away.

http://plantarfibroma.freeforums.org/index.php




On my travels I also came across this

http://www.pfizer.co.uk/sites/uk/media/pressreleases/Pages/200PeformersCreateGiantHumanHandtoShowImpactofDUPUYTREN%E2%80%99SDISEASE.aspx

I know it is for the hand version (for lack of a better phrase) of the disease but it is good to see someone with a bit of backing trying to raise awareness.

I'm back

Right I am back after the Christmas break and have been suffering with some nasty virus that has kept me out of action for a while but I want to get back to posting.

First of all I have been and had my MRI, they are looking not just at my bad left foot but also at my dodgy right ankle. The process was as anyone who has had one knows painless and not too bad. I went into a room with a giant noisy machine and they basically wedged my feet so they wouldn't move and then slid me in. Each foot took about 20 minutes and the machine was one loud beast but overall if it hadn't been for my cough I think it would have been very smooth. I have a date later this month to discuss my results with the specialist and see what happens.

I have also been and had my orthotics fitted. See pictures below:

The black ones are the orthotics and the red ones are the old standard insoles. They have Achilles support at the back, arch support that doesn't put pressure on the lump in the middle and a toes bar at the end. They are supposed to stop both pain through the lump, me tilting my foot to the sit which meant that all weight was going through my little toes and also help with my poor old Achilles.

I think due to the Christmas break and being ill I have not been in much pain at all anyway and have just been suffering the odd spike as I have been stuck in bed almost all day every day for 3 weeks. I think that is almost over now, I am at least out of bed for a few hours before I need to crash and my head is certainly much much clearer.

I have also had some people finally join the forum I made, whether this will come to anything I do not know but one person has even made a post about their experience with plantar fibromas.

Looking forwards it is only 4 weeks until my wedding day so I have that long to a break and with these orthotics in to make sure my shoes are nice and comfy on the day.

Stay tuned for my progress with the orthotics that I have to wear in for 30-60 minutes at a time and bring that to a whole day over the course of 3 weeks and for my MRI results to see whether what I have is a plantar fibroma or just something with very similar symptoms.