Pandemic foot pain!! Top reasons why #myfeetarekillingme during the pandemic!

 I have heard and seen so many patients over the last 3 months who think they are having foot pain due to their increased activity level.  This becomes very disheartening for the person who wants to be in shape.  You suddenly have more free time than you want. It almost is the “no excuse season” for getting into shape.  Even Dr. Henne and I, even though we are seeing patients daily and have not decreased our time in the office, but we have  a lot more time in our personal life because our kids involvement in sports and extracurricular activities is diminished.  We personally have been running, lifting and biking consistently for several months now.  Dr. Henne looks skinnier, I look the same, lol. 

So of course, if you went from doing little to a lot you may think the increase in activity is the sole reason for your foot pain.  I do agree that some people over do it and develop tendonitis: Achilles’, peroneal or posterior tibial tendonitis are the most common three we have seen in the past couple months in addition to plantar fasciitis.   But the reality is the root cause of your pain may not be just the activity.  So many people have been home, barefoot walking around their house all day. 

The barefoot walking all day in the house is one of the top reason we are seeing patients for foot pain.  If you look at your foot’s bony architecture, like on this X-ray, you will see that these 28 bones need support in all different areas.  If you don’t have enough support for example and you put too much pressure on your forefoot it is very easy to develop capsulitis under the metatarsal heads for example.  This can be very painful from the repetitive micro trauma of walking on hard surfaces with no shoes on.  Many patients come in and say they don’t want to wear their outside shoes in the house especially now during COVID-19.  I usually show them a pair of Oofos flip flops or Hoka Flip flops.  I own both of these and depending on what is going on with your feet one of these might be the correct choice for you. My Oofos I have had for about 5 years and my Hoka’s for about 4 months I love them both and they are my go to shoe gear right when I come in the house after work or on Saturday and Sunday just milling around the house.

I would recommend that if you are experiencing foot pain and have had no trauma you may want to play around with having good support on your feet around the house.  I am not saying don’t go see your podiatrist because you want to make sure there is nothing more serious happening but you can not go wrong with more support around the house.  If you want to learn about more specific foot and ankle problems visit our website at centeranklefootcare.com

The oofos will run about $50 but last for a very long time  

The Hoka’s run from $50 to about $80 on Amazon, I think I purchased mine locally for a very fair price of about $50.  The real point is that if you are walking barefoot around your house more than you normally do, you are going to develop some foot pain.  This is usually pretty reversible if just having some support while walking around your house.  

Michele McGowan DPM

Center for Ankle & Foot Care

3190 Citrus Tower Blvd Ste A

Clermont FL, 34711

Centeranklefootcare.com

Do not ignore an open wound on your foot!!!

Today we are continuing our series on when to actually go to see your podiatrist. Today we discuss the different types of wounds we see in the office.  Again we want to keep you out of the hospital and urgent care centers where all the sick people are going!

For All wounds,  good advice:

• If you notice drainage on your sock go see your podiatrist
• If you know your sensation is poor, you should be checking your feet daily
• If you have a new area on your foot that is open go see your podiatrist
• Blistering and leaking fluid from your legs and feet, go see your podiatrist
• Extreme pain in the foot and an open wound go see your podiatrist
• anything out of the ordinary on your foot or ankle, go see your podiatrist

Diabetic wounds:

• Usually associated with lack of protective threshold(poor sensation, so you do not feel pain and discomfort) 
• The simplest thing, like wearing a shoe that is even just a little too small can cause a serious wound and problem
• Do not ignore your problem, if it looks bad but you can't feel it, that does not mean it is OK
• The best thing you can do is get in to see your podiatrist, there are sometimes very simple solutions that can save you from limb loss

Venous wounds:

• Usually, these patients present with swollen legs with fluid leaking from small or sometimes big blisters
• This is another wound type that can get serious fast, many times if you see a doctor who does not treat these types of wounds they send you to be admitted to the hospital, we are trying to keep you out of the hospital
• Sometimes simple advice, like elevate the legs can be the difference between going to the hospital or not
• There are many simple ways we can mange this in the office as well

Arterial wounds:

• Sometimes patients do not have blood flow, meaning their arteries are not getting blood to where it needs to go
• These wounds can be more complicated, as without blood flow no wound will heal
• Our job is to keep you from getting infected and help coordinate care with the vascular doctor
• We do not debride these wounds, as they can get bigger, unless there is infection with a chance of wound causing sepsis
• So take home point, go see your podiatrist before the wound gets to that point

So like all of you, we are struggling with all the new responsibilities we have had thrust upon us over the last couple of weeks. Yes, it is the worst to be cooped up at home, but it always could be worse.  We are travelling back and forth every day to our office to home with our 3 children, who now have to home school, this is not the easiest task even if you have good kids! We are small business owners who understand having to work hard to make sure everything goes smoothly, or at least try to make things go smoothly! We love what we do and our very happy to help our patients and friends stay out of the hospital.  

Our website has always had a dedicated page for our wounded patients. Check us out here: https://centeranklefootcare.com/wound-care.html

Stay safe everyone and remember to wash your hands and keep your distance from others.

Michele McGowan DPM and Timothy Henne, DPM

The Center for Ankle and Foot Care

3190 Citrus Tower Blvd Ste A

352-242-2502

Don't ignore your ingrown nail, especially if you are diabetic!!

Trying to keep our patients out of the ER 

• There are problems that all of your specialist can handle right now to keep you out of the emergency room
• We treat many foot and ankle emergencies right in our office
• Many podiatrist have on-sight X-ray so they can diagnosis and treat your broken bone 
• You should never ignore bruising, swelling or unexplained redness on the lower extremity

Today we are discussing ingrown toenails

• If you have a toe that is red, and swollen like the picture to the right, you should not be trying to ride this out
• Ingrown nails are typically painful, but in our diabetic patients with neuropathy (unable to feel pain from an infection is one example of neuropathy)
• If left untreated this can be a much bigger problem, infection in the worst case scenario can lead to an amputation of a toe
• Treatment is a simple in office procedure

The Video below is an ingrown nail procedure

Ingrown nail surgery:

• The toe is anesthetized with 1% Lidocaine
• The offending border is freed from the nail bed 
• An instrument is used to only cut out the ingrown border
• After the bad part of the nail is removed, a topical medicine is used to stop the border of the nail from growing again
• If the patient does not have good blood flow, this procedure can not be performed but your podiatrist can most likely alleviate some of the problem and place you on an antibiotic
• The video above is us removing an ingrown nail on a patient

Not sure if you need to be seen in the office?  You can reach out for a Telehealth visit first at:
https://centeranklefootcare.com/telemedicine-request.html