By Kael on Wednesday, February 18, 2004 - 10:32 pm:

Hello,

Does anyone have experience or knowledge of prolotherapy's success in addressing chronic foot pain? I've been diagnosed with plantar fasciitis, and also have burning numbness in the balls of my feet and toes. I've heard that these symtoms can be due to ligament and tendon weakness in the metatarsals and arches, and that prolotherapy has been able to strengthen these areas and eliminate the pain. Does this seem plausible? Thank you so much for any suggestions.

Kael

By Michelle Castle on Friday, February 20, 2004 - 10:47 pm:

So that other helpful souls out there don't spend time duplicating similar info, I thought I'd post the email I sent Debra.

Debrah,
I saw your posts on the hypermobility forum. First, your doctor is right that your daughter will probably grow out of it. Joint laxity decreases as we age, so that's always a possiblity, especially for someone so young. But you're right to pursue treatment if she's in a lot of pain.

As far as any connection between a weak bladder and HMS, I can't think of anything one way or the other. Since lots of kids have bladder control problems, it'd be difficult to know if her problem was normal or HMS related. But since HMS is a connective tissue disorder, some people have other connective tissues besides the ligaments and tendons that are affected - mostly skin abnormalities, but very rarely organs can be affected. If her skin or other organs are affected, she probably has one of the Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes. The Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome National Foundation has a lot of information at their website, www.ednf.org. Just be aware that some of the extremely rare EDS types can be fatal - but not the ones associated with joint hypermobility, so try not to be alarmed. It's also important to note that most experts believe HMS and the hypermobility type of EDS are the same thing. I don't know where you live, but it seems to me that HMS is the more common name used in the United Kingdom and EDS (Hypermobility Type) is used more commonly in the United States.

Another good, general resource is the Hypermobility Syndrome Association website, www.hypermobility.org. They have links to several authoratative medical articles by leading researchers, as well as an active forum where you can ask questions. You can request printed materials from both the EDNF and the HMSA at minimal exspense.

The Yahoo Hypermobility Group is also a good place to ask questions. You can join the email list by visiting http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/hypermobility.

For abstracts of related medical articles, you can search Pubmed. To search for recent articles on EDS, visit http://www.nlm.nih.gov/cgi/medlineplus/pubmedsearch.pl?theURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Encbi%2Enlm%2Enih%2Egov%3A80%2Fentrez%2Fquery%2Efcgi%3FCMD%3Dsearch%26term%3DEhlers%2DDanlos%2BSyndrome%5Bmajr%5D%2BAND%2Benglish%5Bla%5D%2BAND%2Bhuman%5Bmh%5D%2B%26db%3DPubMed%26orig%5Fdb%3DPubMed%26filters%3Don%26pmfilter%5FEDatLimit%3D1%2BYears%26tool%3DMedlinePlus.

And although I haven't added anything to it recently, I keep a list of related resources at http://hms-eds-resources.blogspot.com. I have a lot of useful links there.

If you run across terms you don't understand, I've found dictionary.com to be useful. If you need help finding info, send me an email and I'll see what I can dig up. I've gotten to be too good at it.

Michelle

By Michelle Castle on Friday, February 20, 2004 - 10:56 pm:

Oops. Wrong thread.

Kael,
If you haven't already tried it, I'd suggest orthotic insoles for your shoes. I had alot of problems with Mortan's Neuroma until I had insoles custom made. It completely eliminated the pain by correcting mu fallen arch. The orthodics were exspensive (around $600), but my HMO covered it. I did get a spare set made by a local shoe store for $15 though. You might want to try shoe store for mass manufactured and custom orthodics before looking into medical routes.

An article discussing Plantar Facitis and prolotherapy can be found at http://www.caringmedical.com/symptoms/condition.asp?condition_id=999. Whether or not to believe their claims, I don't know.

Michelle