Pain on the outer lateral bottom of feet and lateral sides of both hands.
by Debra
(Michigan)
I have been having foot pain for about a month. The pain involves bilateral feet and bilateral hands. The pain is on the bottom lateral side of feet. There is no heel pain. The pain in the hands is the lateral sides of both hands. There is some tingling of both areas of the hands and feet but not really numbness. There is no moment of no pain just a slight variance in the intensity. The pain is greater in the feet and only slight pain of the hands.
History: About two years ago I would get shin splints just walking the dogs, walking on the treadmill or just taking a walk outside. I was advised about 2 months ago that I tend to walk on the outside of my feet and acquired shoes to help decrease this, and it did.
December of 2008 I also stubbed both small toes. I believe I may have broke them but only wrapped them to the adjoining toe and did not have them xrayed.
However, no damage to hands.
Any suggestion? I can handle the pain and tingling in the hands but the feet seem to be getting worse. They hurt no matter what I am doing and wake me during the night.
Hi Debra,
I cannot offer any advice on your hands but it is interesting that both your hands and feet hurt. Sometimes when the small joints of your body hurt, you need to be ruled out for rheumatoid arthritis.
As far as your feet go, the fact that shoe modification has helped is encouraging. The two things that most often cause pain on the outside of the foot is pressure on the base of the fifth metatarsal bone because it "sticks" out too far and is aggravated by shoe pressure and secondly, inflammation of one of the tendons that passes thru the foot in the same area.
So...you need a proper diagnosis. If it is from the bone protrusion then you need to have shoes of adequate width in that area (this part of the foot may actually be wider then the ball of your foot, where width is typically measured).
If the pain is from the tendons in that area, then anti-inflammatory medication or perhaps a cortisone injection along with physical therapy may prove to be very helpful.
Marc Mitnick DPM