Collagenase for Ledderhose?

I have previously covered the topic of Collagenase injections by looking at various aspects of it including its use in cells, interviewing a Doctor that uses it for Dupuytren's and covering the material presented at the Dupuytren's symposium. Because it has not been approved for Ledderhose I don't have a specific page in detail on the treatments page. 

There are a couple of different enzymes that have been trialled to break down these lumps and it looks like Endo are hoping that their product can be an option for Ledderhose. 

Endo Presents New Investigational Collagenase Clostridium Histolyticum Data at the American Podiatric Medical Association Annual Scientific Meeting

So what does the article actually say? 

That there have been some encouraging clinical trials done on using CCH in the treatment of Ledderhose disease. Basically so far their studies are indicating that the injections are well tolerated by the majority of patients and that most are seeing an improvement in the condition. Overall it sounds promising but obviously they are still looking into it and I know there have been mixed experiences with using it to treat Dupuytren's. 

Would be good to have another treatment for Ledderhose, of course assuming that is a successful and viable soltiion. 

An interview with myself, Ledderhose patient

Ok so I thought I am asking all of these patients to do an interview for me why don't I do the same thing and interview myself, please if you have any questions then add them as I would like to help out as many people as possible. I have done this in part because the story that I have posted about my Ledderhose is very long and some people might find this easier to digest. 

1) How long have you had Ledderhose disease?

Growing up I was sure I had a little bump in the arch of my foot but there was no pain, no growth and nothing to be concerned about, then two and a half years ago out of nowhere it started to grow and started to become really painful, the pain has gradually started to increase more in the past few months and this has coincided with a further increase in the lump.

2)  Do you have a family history of Ledderhose disease? Do you have any of the increased risk factors?

I do not have a family history of this disease and I have asked as far back as my grandparents who do not know of anyone in my family suffering from this disease. Of the risk factors I am aware of I am not at risk at all, I do not smoke or drink and I do not have diabetes or epilepsy. See my family tree below for all the evidence you need that I don't have a family history.

3)  What treatments have you had so far? How did you find them and did they help?

I have had a steroid injection and I have orthoitcs. I had been told that I would require local anaesthetic otherwise the injection would be incredibly painful, well the local was really really painful but the steroid injection just felt like some liquid surrounding the lump. I was told to avoid sport for a few weeks but otherwise I should be ok. Post injection I would recommend staying off of your feet for a few days if possible as it is very painful after the numbness caused by the local goes away. I think this helped me for a few months but it was fairly ineffective as it still hurt but not as much and it didn't last.

As I said I have also been given custom made orthotics, these helped for a couple of weeks but this coincided with me being off of my feet more so again it is hard to tell.

Update 27-08-2012 - I have now had radiotherapy and so far so good. 

4) What do you consider your next step and why?

I think that the next step for me is radiotherapy, it has had good results and I want to avoid surgery as many people have become much worse post surgery and as far as I can tell radiotherapy is at the very least a good pre-surgery measure and is worth trying if you can get it. At the moment I am most likely going to get this done in the UK because I do not have much money and this seems to be the cheaper option although the main guy in Germany probably does have more experience. 

Update 27-08-2012 - My family and friends worked together to raise the money for me to get radiotherapy. My condition is improving and hopefully I will be back to normal by the start of next year. 

5) What other options have you come across? 

As I said I don't think of surgery as an option. Other things out there do include collagenase injections. At the moment these are aimed mostly at Dupuytren's as they are designed to attack the collagen type in the cords rather than the nodules and in Ledderhose the main disease tissue is nodules. Other than that I have not seen much out there though I have heard of people having cryosurgery, NAC treatment, chemotherapy and a couple of other little things. 

 6) What is the worst pain that you have experienced with this disease? Have you found anything that helps?

I have once had it so bad that I was not able to walk from the bedroom to the bathroom without crying because of the pain, at the moment this has only happened once and I hope it stays that way. As for things that helped, I have been given Co-codamol which does help somewhat with the pain but makes me very tired and sleepy so it is not really an option I can use at work and so far no other pain killers including dicofenac and the standard ones have helped. I have also found that heat helps a little or at least takes my mind off of it so I have a water spa which is therapeutic even if the pain relief it offers only last for the 20minutes I keep my feet in there. I have also got some microwave slippers, these also help a little but my feet get very hot in them and I can't use them for too long. I have also found that taking weight off of my feet helps, I know some find exercise helps (or at least doesn't hinder) but this is not the case for me so I also have a walking stick to try and take the pressure off of my foot when it gets bad. 

I have also found that talking about it and letting others know what you are going through helps as they might offer to do things to help keep you off of your feet and if you can help raise awareness then we might increase the likelihood of something being done.   

Finally a picture of my ledderhose. It doesn't look like much and I have seen worse. 

 

Just another day

Woo I have made an appointment and woo my wife is now a fully qualified driving instructor well done :-). 

So today I managed to make the appointment to see the foot specialist again. I made it for the earliest possible time that they had which was 3pm on Monday 2^nd April. It was not as simple as me just phoning up though, not  of course as with everything else regarding the treatment I have had (with the exception of the orthotics) it had to take a bit of a rough trip to get there.

So first of all I phoned up and they said that I had been discharged despite the fact that the specialist has promised not to do this so I was very annoyed at this point. For anyone who is not aware this is what happened to me last time. When I was in a different hospital I went to an appointment after my steroid injection and said look yes it is a little better. Then in a few months it got bad again and I tried to make an appointment and they said oh no you got discharged you need to get referred again.

She then said she would look for the letter to see what it said (my discharge letter) and she couldn’t find it. I then had to explain what happened in the appointment and that the guy said I could go back when it got worse.

Hmm she said I will have to have another look for the letter, she then proceeded to hunt around for it and eventually she found something that agreed with my statement and so after putting me back on the system I was able to make an appointment. Still what should have been a no stress, 2 minute phone call turned into a slightly stressful 10 minute phone call.

I guess at the end of the day I got an appointment and that is all that counts and the appointment is for a date much closer than I was expecting and actually much closer than anyone else was expecting. 2^nd April is actually the day after we are celebrating my Nan and Grandads 60^th wedding anniversary which is a fantastic achievement.

On other things my foot was of course painful again today. This seems to be the case everyday now and if anything the time at which it starts getting bad is getting earlier and earlier. I have also been writing the much anticipated book that will have a main character the develops Ledderhose (basically it is my story but slightly different) although I doubt that 1) I will finish it, 2) I will let anyone else read it and 3) that anyone else will want to read it. Still if I do 1) then maybe I will be proud enough of it to do 2) and then maybe it will actually be good and some people will read it and it will raise awareness for Ledderhose and Dupuyten’s and I am sure that I will advertise the British Dupuytren’s society (BDS) in there and maybe that will help them gain money.

I have heard from them today and I have rattled off a few questions to ask them and I am awaiting their response, if anyone wants me to ask someone questions for them then just let me know. They are also no in the process of joining myDonate by BT, this should make raising money for them through sponsored events much easier and is better than the alternatives like Just giving as it is free for the charity.

I think that is enough for now and I hope to get round to doing another post from my amazing book soon enough.

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.

Steroid injections for the treatment of Plantar Fibromas

Steroid injections for the treatment of Plantar Fibromas / Plantar Fibromatosis / Ledderhose Disease:

So my first blog posts on the kind of treatments that are available comes in the form of the steroid injection. The idea here is that the injection will help reduce any swelling and hopefully will be able to decrease any pain to a more tolerable level. Note that I am not a doctor or a specialist and that everything on here is just my experience with the disease and some information from on-line resources and that you should trust what your doctor tells you. I am not responsible for what you chose to do so please don't make your choice based on what you see here and blame me.    

How and why do steroid injections help a plantar fibroma / ledderhose disease?: 

Steroids such as cortisone are released into the body from the adrenal gland after periods of stress. Their effect is normally short lived and can be weak due to delivery through the blood stream. The actual role of steroids in the body are not as specific as their use here but they do aid the reduction of inflammation (1). Their role in the healing process that they are trying to get with plantar fibroma's, is at least in my understanding to try and reduce inflammation that is being caused by the presence of the lump. It has also been shown that steroids added to cultured cells from Dupuytrens patients have increased levels of apoptosis, for those without a science background this is the process of programmed cell death and means that the addition of the steroids is targeting the abnormal cells and causing them to chose to die (2). 

Results?: 

I have tried to access research articles that cover this but have had no luck so I am restricted a bit in what I can say. For what happened with me see the end bit of this post. The only other account that I have is from someone on the Plantar Fibroma Support forum  (3). She had a very difference experience to me. She found that the steroid injection made the lump worse and was not at all helpful. I guess that the usefulness of these injections comes down to the stage, size and type of lump and the only way to know it works is to try. 

Side Effects: 

Well as you heard from the above case of a plantar fibroma being injected with a steroid it can make it more aggressive and do nothing useful at all. I think a fairly common problem is the one that I had (see below). I was fine when I had the injection but when the local wore off I was in agony and it felt like the bottom of my foot was covered in bruises and it was really unpleasant for 24 hours or so but gradually got better. As far as I am aware there are no serious side effects. Side effects are particularly worrisome in Ledderhose as the injection can cause loss of fat cells which will mean a lack of padding in the feet and potentially increase pain (4). 

My Experience: 

I had a steroid injection into my Plantar Fibroma in July(ish) 2010 and it was the second form of treatment attempted by the specialists after initially sending me for physio which was a know go from the start. I am not sure how this procedure it performed elsewhere in the world but in my case it was performed with the use of ultrasound to ensure that the steroid was delivered to the correct site and it was done under a local to ensure that I was not in too much pain. 

The process started with them having to find the lump under the ultrasound and this only took a minute and I was quoted as having one on the larger side. Next I was given the local to the surrounding area, this was quite painful and although it hurt it was not as bad as some of the reports I have read on-line and I guess this is because they were having the injection without the local but that is just a guess. I was then fine for the next few hours but then the pain became unbearable and I was hardly able to walk at all, this lasted about 24 hours and then gradually dissipated. I then felt an improvement in the lump as there was both a decrease in size and pain which lasted a couple of months before things returned. 

This picture is actually from much later when I was having radiotherapy but it shows nicely the area in which the steroid injection was applied - picture added 05/06/2012.

References: 

(1) Macmillan - http://www.macmillan.org.uk/Cancerinformation/Cancertreatment/Treatmenttypes/Supportivetherapies/Steroids.aspx accessed 20/01/2012: 

(2) Meek et al, 2002,The effect of steroids on Dupuytren's disease: role of programmed cell death, J Hand Surg Br. 2002 Jun;27(3):270-3.accessed 21//01/2012

(3) Plantar Fibroma Support Forum - Post by peekaboo64 http://plantarfibroma.freeforums.org/injections-t9.html

(4) Dupuytren Online, Steroid Injections - http://www.dupuytren-online.info/dupuytren_steroids.html accessed 21/01/2012

Blog is posted in association with Plantar Fibroma Forum

A painful birthday

Today things have not been good. My birthday which is great but we decided to go for a lab lunch. The place we decided to go to was about a ten minute walk away and then of course ten minutes back when the place was full. The meal we ended up having was really nice but by 2pm my feet we really killing me. I was struggling to stand for long periods of time and there was a lot of grimacing, I changed to my insoles and things were not much better but I kept them on for a bit to see if they would help. Things were not helped by me being busy in the lab, I needed to use the centrifuge a lot which is annoyingly on the other side of the room so I was up and down like a yo yo getting bits and pieces. 

Most of the pain was coming from the location of the plantar fibroma. One thing that was nice today though was that on the way back from the initial place that we tried to get food someone actually said we should go to the closest place because they were worried about my foot. I guess this kind of concern is something that I need to get used to and something to appreciate and is something that more people with Ledderhose would get if we could raise the awareness of it even just a little bit. I think that there are lots of ways of doing this and we just need to get round to implementing them but the thing is timing and money. Timing not just the right time but also finding the time to do it and then money well who has any of that and is willing to contribute any to a thing like this? (Sure I am repeating myself from previous blogs) 

Anyway back to my feet, the pain did seem to ease a little bit after putting the insoles on, still not to the point that I was happy standing or walking for any length of time but any improvement is better than no improvement. Only a week Monday  now until I get to look at my MRI results. I find it hard to believe that it is going to show anything other than Ledderhose but at the same time I can only imagine that it would be a good thing if it did as it is so hard to do anything about it otherwise. 

I am hoping that these orthotics will make things easier as I increase the amount that I am wearing them and that the MRI results will clear things up either way. 

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/

Ledderhose News

I was on facebook earlier today and I get the messages from the British Dupuytren's society. Their most recently linked article is Brighton Music Lover Thrilled with treatment. This is quite local to me so it grabbed my attention. It is about a man from Brighton with Dupuyten's who was given a Xiapex injection and it helped him hugely. Of course it is annoying that he had to pay from his own pocket but it got media coverage. Perhaps this local news outlet is a place to go to try to get a story in about Ledderhose for Rare Disease Day.

Anybody else find any news stories about Plantar Fibroma's or any of the related diseases? As I have not really had any success.

Though I don't seem to be able to access them there are several on Dupuytren's on the Times and I would really like to see the one by Jonathan Agnew as he is someone who I actually have heard of (cricket for those not in the know). I can actually find out much more about Dupuytren's than I can about Ledderhose which I have only found in one article and that was just because it was mentioned as being associated to Dupuytren's.

Just an update...

Right this is all done on my phone so any mistakes might not be my fault for once. I had some spare time on a train today and thought I could write a blog post.

The first thing that I wanted to cover was my Orthotics which I got on Monday and today is Thursday. I know they will not work for everyone but I'm beginning to have some hope that they will work for me. Over the past three days I have not worn them much and then today I was a little bit naughty as I used them for three hours in a row although I was seated for Quite a bit of this. The difference when I put the trainers on is subtle I can feel that there is extra support and like to think that over the course of a few hours I can tell the difference. I tried standing for a little bit today, just standing still as this is what was one of my most painful things and at the moment it still is and I could feel the pressure building. Not wanting to push the limits of them too much I took them off and switched to my normal running trainers before heading for the train. Apart from the insole containing trainers being much warmer and drying which was to be expected there was no difference, ok so actually there was.

Anyone who had read this blog will know that I not only have problems with pain in the foot but also that I twist my foot right over to protect from the pain and have a bad ankle on the other foot.

1) The ankle - this was ok, despite going up and down stairs it felt good, hopefully this will continue to be the case and that'll be one problem dealt with by the inserts.

2) The twisting - wow, after wearing the insoles I sure notice the difference that they make. After taking my feet and placing them in the running trainers everything felt unnatural, it seemed normal again after a few minutes but I guess this is why I have to break them in and hopefully they can adjust my walking completely but perhaps for this to happen I would have to get some for my slippers and never walk barefoot.

3) the plantar fibroma - It is hard to tell from such little use. When wearing the insoles the lump was again not too bad and when switching back to the running trainers I started to get the odd twinge. I'm not saying that insoles are the right way for everyone, they might not even be right for me but as a minimum I am now hopeful that they will at least help delay the disease getting to the point where it runs walking life and the next step is to try then in shoes to see if I have to get some new ones fire the wedding.

I have also been thinking about rare disease day as it is something that interests me greatly. I have mentioned it to my partner who was encouraging and as the special day coincides with her last day at work we're thinking of serving cake with a helping of Ledderhose information. I have also mentioned it to my best man who said we should at least do something, do with those encouraging comments behind me I'm thinking of implementing something.

Although the above has the potential to raise money if we sold the cakes who is there to give the money to? In a post yesterday I talked about the rare diseases and I also did a search on the official site of all UK charities to see what was out there. Looking for Ledderhose or plantar fibroma(tosis) gives no results so if I did raise any money then there would be no relevant group to give it to. The chance to start a charity is there but that requires start up money and the time to manage it of which I have neither. But lets assume that there was a charity, who would that charity give the money to? With no research really going on into this you can't even give the money to them so you would only be able to use it to give support to those who have it and can't afford what they need to get round. Although helping these people would be great it would not get us any closer to a cure which is what some people are waiting for. I have to say that I think I am lucky to be living in the UK, as although I have find that the NHS is slow getting things done I do get them done and I don't have to pay. I have had physio for two conditions, the steroid injection, the Orthotics and an MRI. That's not too bad considering I only went to my GP with this 25 months ago.

Fingers crossed that we can raise awareness, even raise funds and who knows help people get on the path to help and wanting to find a cure. After all I hope to raise awareness in a scientific research building.

I'm thinking of doing a few posts covering all the different treatment options in as much detail add I can and maybe I'll find something new and useful in the process.

Raising Awareness of Plantar Fibromatosis

Raising Awareness of Plantar Fibromas / Ledderhose Disease:

If someone comes up to you and says they have something like asthma you go ok fair enough. Someone comes up to you and say they have a Plantar Fibroma (or Ledderhose disease) you go "eh!". Almost everyone who I have had to explain what I have to has not had a clue what it is, I also think that some of the so called specialists that I have seen have not been up to scratch with what I and many others have.

The problem with Ledderhose is that although it is debilitating to those that suffer it is not life threatening and how many do you know that have it? In all likelihood you are looking at this page because you are the only person you know who has it and are looking for others or you've come to the wrong place but I don't know anyone other than myself that suffers with this. So how do you convince people that it is something that needs to be looked into? Why should people research this little known and rare disease? I guess the answer is that they should not, I mean with disease like cancer out there why bother wasting your time on something like this? Well I think that the pain that those of us that have it have to go through means that it deserves some attention and in some cases it leads to depression, it leads to people being unable to work and with the related diseases that could also benefit from the research surely it is worth a shot? I also think that this is a disease which, if studied correctly, could be cured in a relatively short space of time whilst something like cancer I don't think we will develop a way to properly stop it and being in the cancer research field I should know.

So I think that the only way  anything can happen is to raise awareness but with our numbers so little and the numbers of people that have the internet and are connected and suffer pain enough to want to do something about it being even less what can we do? The answer is that I don't know and I wish I did, it is frustrating for people like me and those on the forum - Plantar Fibroma Support Forum that we have this and we want to do something about it but where do we start?

I think I have made and start and that brings a smile to my face. How many of my family, friends and work  colleagues knew 3 years ago what a Plantar Fibroma was? None, whilst now they all have at least heard of it and some have tried to get a better understanding of it and certainly an understanding of the different types of treatment that have been tried on me so that if someone else was to come up to them and ask they would know and this might provide relief to them. I also hope that the above mentioned forum, if it gets enough members, can have an impact as it can be a place where everyone who suffers with this can get together and we can talk, discuss and arrange to do things that help us and everyone who has the condition.

Earlier today I came across this Rare Disease Day 2012 and I am wondering if it is something for me.

It seems that this is a day that takes place pretty much across the entire globe to raise awareness of rare diseases. I wanted to check and see if Ledderhose / Plantar Fibromas were on this list so I went to http://www.raredisease.org.uk/ which directed me to Orphanet which came up with the following entry Plantar Fibromatosis Although there is nothing there at the moment this seems to confirm to me that this is on the rare disease list and took me to the US version which also had this on the list NIH - Plantar Fibromatosis (though this does state that - ORDR lists rare diseases for information purposes only and does not guarantee that a condition is rare.) 

One this that came from this is that it list research projects on this disease, the result for Ledderhose is equal to zero at the moment so I think it is fair to say that something should be done and that I should do something for Rare Disease day even if it is just to put up a poster.


On other news my foot has been hurting again today and the pain did really ramp up as the day went on. Interestingly and hopefully promisingly I am sure that at about 4pm when I stuck on the trainers with the Orthotics in my foot did hurt a bit less, whether this is actually due to the Orthotics or whether this is just a fluke I do not know but fingers crossed that they are going to help me. I am finding the adjustment hard, not wearing running trainers is odd as normal trainers are not as springy but are much warmer and dryer given the current weather conditions in the UK and as my lump hurts more when it is cold this is hopefully a good thing.

I am also looking forward to celebrating my Birthday on Friday, it will be my only birthday with a fiancée so have to make sure to make the most of it by being at work all day.

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.