To Doreen & Tawny Re: Acute Pain in feet and toes - sometimes with numbness

[Guest guest]

Hi Doreen and Tawny

Thanks for your support!

Can I ask if the Doc's have given you reasons for the cause of the

pain for either of you in your feet (and legs)? Also do you still

get it if you're asymtomatic with your RA at the time - or have

neither of you been that lucky?

Doreen here in Australia we work under a medical system called

medicare. Some treatments are free (we pay it into a big government

run pool of money through our taxes) others you have some out of

pocket expenses and some you have to pay all - private health

insurance can help with SOME of the out of pocket expenses and get

you into hospital quicker. Dropping down to part time work has meant

I can't afford the private - and there's still lots of out of pocket

expenses with it anyway. As wisdom teeth extraction is considered "

elective " surgery you go on a wait list for the hospital under

medicare, apparently for it at the moment it's a 12 month wait. I

haven't even seen the surgeon yet - have had my appointment for 2

months - and waiting till 23/10- he was that fully booked. I'm

waiting on heart valve replacement surgery anyway so they won't let

me have the tooth surgery till thats all finished and ok so in this

instance it's not as bad for me as it might be for someone else.

The thing I get most angry about around here is a lot of Doctors are

willing to diagnose something without proper testing. Granted some of

these tests are expensive (and our healthcare system is in overload)

but i'm starting more and more to wonder how much this ends up being

a cost / benefit when the diagnose is incorrect and it causes other

issues later on. There is a real side of me that thinks the $$

overload is due more to negligence, and a don't care attitude than

over use by patients. If we got the right answer to start with we

wouldn't have to keep searching.....sorry rambling....just has

happened to me too many times!!

> >

> > Sorry this is sooooo long!

> >

> > Does anyone else suffer sharp acute pains in the feet - sometimes

> > which are accompanied by numbness - sometimes there's just

numbness

> > and no pain, just a little bearable tingling. The pain only

lasts

> > from mins to an hour or so at the very most each time. They can

> > occur whether i'm lying around or walking around - when I read

> > about peripheral neuropathy it definately sounds similar and the

> > only thing that gives me some amount of relief is codeine. But

> > aside from some heart valve damage I have, which surely couldn't

> > cause it to this degree, there seems no obvious cause that I

could

> > think of. I've got errosions in my feet - but that's bone right,

> > surely it wouldn't affect circulation to that degree if my RA

isn't

> > that active in the area at the time?

> >

> > I also notice if I swim or am out on cold water the bottoms of my

> > feet will go numb, the pain is unbearable (like i'm walking on

> > glass (to get to the hot shower) and they turn white (translucent

> > like)until I can get the blood flowing in them properly again.

> >

> > The pain can be just in my one of toes or ball or heel of my

whole

> > foot. It feels different to the usual pains from my RA and none

of

> > the RA meds seem to work.

> >

> > I'm at the point where my RA is under control and i'm trying to

> > peel away the layers of what appear to be other problems -

> > unassociated but which have previously been lumped into the whole

> > RA thing cause it's easier for Doctors to do - and you know how

it

> > is you give up and agree. I just found out i've put up with 3

> > impacted wisdom teeth for 18 months thinking it was RA in my

jaw!!

> > arrrh - now waiting 12 months to get them out! lol So i'd really

> > love to get to the bottom of this or at least know the best way

to

> > treat it - these pains are agony - the take your breath away

kind!

> > Give me a broken bone any day!!

> >

> > Any ideas or hearing from someone else with this would be greatly

> > appreciated!!

> >

> > Thanks

> >

> >

>