Developing foot problems – take care with your footwear

"…and it's permanently bordering on that 'asleep tingling' feeling."

Your entire foot, or a particular part?

Lots of hikers get their boots laced up improperly, and the longest toes are allowed to slam up into the toe of the boot, and this produces either pain or numbness.

For the hiker on Kilimanjaro, this same thing can happen, and it might be even worse due to the steepness of the descent. It might be further worsened by cold temperatures on the summit. Again, this can produce either pain or numbness.

Related to the altitude of Kilimanjaro, lots of hikers use the drug Diamox to help prevent altitude illness. One standard side effect of Diamox is numbness and tingling in the extremities. That is complicated by the cold, and it is hard to sort out what causes what symptoms. After one big climb when I took Diamox, I didn't get all of the normal feeling back in my toes for a couple of weeks.

Kilimanjaro may not be relevant to you, but only to the hiker there.

–B.G.–

It's mainly a problem with the forward, right third of my foot. At first, all of my toes were a mess, but now it primarily manifests in the outside three. But when wearing the boots is almost gone.

When you take you shoe off it felt/feels like you are standing on a pencil or maybe a wadded up sock?

You might want to consider Morton's neuroma as a cause of the pain. This, in my experience, is pain centered on the second toe and involving the ball of the foot. One thing that helped me was looser lacing of the shoe, or boot, in the forefoot area. Having the laces too tight compresses the foot around a nerve bundle resulting in potentially exquisite pain.

"You might want to consider Morton's neuroma as a cause of the pain."

Yep. But wouldn't you think that a Doc could figure that out?
Blows my mind how often they don't.

Or they do, but don't know what to do except cortisone injections (NOT!)

Nothing like a "loose shoe treatment" to see what happens.

My boyfriend had exactly this thing happen to him–his doctor said "oh, its just the nerve dying" and the podiatrist said he had metatarsitis, and wanted to put an orthotic in his shoe. However, before he took that step, my boyfriend had a massage with a really good massage therapist. She said that the muscles all down that side, from calf to thigh to torso, were really, really tight. 2 sessions and he was fixed–we had thought he might have to quit hiking. Changing boots was essential as well, but the problem didn't completely correct until the muscles got sorted out.

"…a really good massage therapist"

Sometimes hard to find, but worth the effort.

I was told by two ortho guys I needed knee surgery… the only trick they knew…

A PT took one look, said "Hum, no medialus". We fixed that and life was good.

Anymore, a PT is the First place I go when things seem broke.

Quite a few of us suffered the "numb toe syndrome" in basic training. Went from comfy running shoes to all leather black speed lace boots. I bet it was 6 months after basic before my toes were normal. When I got to my unit I wore nothing but my comfy jungle boots as was the fashion at the time.

I would think the change of footwear suggestion would be a good place to start.

Thanks for all of the suggestions. I'll talk with my doctor on my next visit.

The foot compression might be part of the problem. The hiking boots I'm now using have a lot more room, and don't compress my feet at all whereas all of my shoes due to varying degrees.

There's nothing like an excuse to get a massage. Time to find somebody and get that scheduled. :)

Yeah. This happened to me too.

I was hiking in Yellowstone for two weeks. When I came back about a week later I lost the feeling in my two front toes.

Doc said it just happens and science isn't exactly sure WHY it happens but that it's not long term.

I got my feeling back in my toes in about six months.

The issue was that my shoes were TOO TIGHT. Now I give my feet a bit of breathing room…