Here Comes the Sun!

The summer sun is out and shining bright as ever. With all of the sunshine, there are plenty of UV rays to give you quite a tan. The most important thing for the summer time is to remember the sunscreen. There is nothing worse than a terrible burn after a fun day outside. The sunburn that you get today could mean future problems with skin cancer.

One of the most common places to get skin cancer is on the top of your feet. This is because many people forget to put sunscreen is on the top of their feet. Most of us remember to put sunscreen on our face and our shoulders, but we commonly forget our feet because we often just forget to look down.

Skin cancer is a condition that is becoming more prevalent due to the popularity of tanning beds and the idea of getting a dark bronze tan. The reality is that there are many people with lighter complexions that will burn very easily if sunscreen is forgotten and they are outside for even just an hour.

Skin cancer is typically noticed as what looks like a mole that shows up and keeps growing or has an irregular border. If you notice a skin lesion that is changing in shape, it is well worth it to get it checked out. Skin cancer can progress to become a more invasive cancer if it is not dealt with. To test a skin lesion, it is as simple as doing a quick skin biopsy and sending it off to determine if there are any cancerous cells within it. The test will take about 10 days to receive results.

If you or someone you know has noticed a new skin lesion or a change in a current one our office staff would be more than happy to help you schedule an appointment. Our offices see people in the Methuen, North Andover, Tewksbury and Haverhill, Massachusetts. Dr. Wachtel would be more than happy to help you get to the bottom of your condition and help you find the best treatment plan.

Will Kissing A Frog Give You Warts?

Although frogs often look like they are covered in warts, they are not the source of these pesky skin problems. Plantar warts are common on the bottom of your feet. Warts are contracted by the Herpes Simplex Virus. There are many different strands of the HSV that exists and affects different parts of your body. So, the HSV strand that gives you a cold sore may not be the same one that is giving you plantar warts on the bottom of your feet or your hands. Warts are considered to be contagious, especially if you pick at them, they could spread elsewhere.

Warts are something that you really don’t need to be worried about because they are a very common condition, especially in children. Many times, children will have a lot of warts on their hands and feet and as they get older they will become less and less. Plantar warts can be very painful due to pushing against the nerve endings in your foot. Due to these nerves, with certain plantar warts, every step that you take can be painful. This is why people can become so frustrated with this condition.  

The treatment of plantar warts provides a wide variety of options. A temporary fix is to place a pad around the wart to help prevent pressure from your shoe pushing against the wart. There are liquid treatments that you can use on your warts over a long period of time to try and make them go away. If these are not working, then you can use a spray that will freeze the top of the wart. This will cause the wart to turn black and fall off in a couple of days.

If you or someone you know has been struggling with recurrent warts, our office would be more than happy to make an appointment for you. Through the multiple options that Dr. Wachtel has for you to treat your warts you will be up and going again in no time. Our offices are located in Methuen, North Andover, Lowell, and Bradford, Massachusetts.

Ryan Sweeney's Pain in the Big Toe

Ryan Sweeney of the Red Sox has suffered an injury at the bottom of his big toe on his left foot. He has been placed on the injury list of the team. He had been pushing through his injury for as long as he could but he got to the point that the pain was so great that he couldn’t play anymore and the pain was too great at the plate. He reports that it was not initially affecting him on the field and he was still able to push through. As it progressed though, he reports he is happy to be on the injury list so that he can take some time healing and get back to his best.

The news reports that the injury is suspected to be in one of his sesamoid bones. A  sesamoid is an extra bone that is found in a muscle tendon. The body has some sesamoid bones that are permanent such as your knee cap and the two sesamoids underneath the base of your big toe. These bones can sometimes become injured in several different ways. One way is to actually break the sesamoid bone. This can  happen because of landing on your big toe to hard when planting it to run. Before the bone is fractured though, you can initially irritate the bone. This can be considered as a type of tendonitis because these tendons are inside one of your flexor tendons. So, when the sesamoids are injured and inflamed, the tendon will be as well.

Typically, the treatment of this condition will be noninvasive because you really just need to allow your sesamoid to heal. This means that there will be lots of sitting around and relaxing. There are a couple of options for your treatment. One option is to tape your toe preventing movement at your joint. This will allow your sesamoids to stay immobile and not become irritated. Another option is to place a pad underneath the joint to offset the pressure on the sesamoid. This will also allow your sesamoid to heal. In the instance of an actual fracture, the sesamoid will have to be evaluated to determine what kind of treatment is best.

If you or someone that you know has been experiencing a slow onset of pain at the inside of their big toe, it could be related to sesamoiditis. Our offices are located in Methuen, North Andover, Lowell and Bradford, Massachusetts areas and our office staff would be more than happy to help you schedule an appointment. Through a clinical work up, Dr. Wachtel will be able to determine what is going on with you and get you up on your feet again.

Shoe Inserts for Flat Feet

There are many different foot types that different people have. One of the more common one is referred to as a pronated foot type, more commonly known as a flatfoot. Flatfoot is a result of many different causes, but most often it is due to obesity, genetics, lax ligaments and trauma. Many people are flat footed and never have any issues, but when flat footedness starts to cause problems it can be very detrimental to a person causing them a good deal of discomfort.

Some of the problems that can result from having a flat foot include problems that extend up the kinetic chain through your foot, ankle, knee, hip and lower back. A person can suffer from common ailments ranging from plantar fasciitis along the soft tissue sheath on the bottom of your foot, clear up to lower back pain. Problems that are due to your flatfoot can often be corrected by shoe inserts that are known as orthoses. These foot inserts cause your feet to sit in a corrected position that relieves the pain elicited by having a flat foot.

There are two main types of orthoses that exist. One is a generic version that fits an average foot type and the other is customized to your specific foot type. By coming in to the office, an impression can be made of your foot that will then be used to make your customized orthoses. Adjustments to these can be made to better support your foot and cushion areas that are causing you trouble.

If you or someone  you know has been experiencing pain due to their flatfeet and you live in Methuen, North Andover, Lowell or Tewksbury, Massachusetts, our office staff would be more than happy to help you make an appointment. Dr. Wachtel can help determine what is the best form of treatment for you to help relieve your pain and make your feet happy again.

Shoes, Shoes, Shoes!

Many people have a tendency to forget about their feet and just how important they are. They are often viewed as a luxury, because you just get up each morning and walk around forgetting that every step you are doing and every action that you are taking is directly affected by your feet. On the same level, every motion that you are taking affects your feet. For these reasons, your shoe wear is extremely important because it provides your feet the support that they need.

There is a common misunderstanding throughout the population that a pair of shoes requires a good breaking in before your feet will be comfortable. Unfortunately, this is just not true. For instance, high heel shoes should not be rubbing blisters on your heels every time that you buy a new pair. The reality is though, most women purchasing high heels have to buy a size that is too small for them in order for their feet to not slip out of them. As a result, after a long night out on the town, many women will go home to nurture those blisters that have popped up at each of the pressure points of their shoes. Just as easily though, you can apply this to running shoes that are too tight and rub up against your pressure points causing just as many blisters. The only reason that you don’t get blisters after a while is partially because the shoe may stretch out a bit to better fit your foot, but it’s mainly because your skin will get harder in that area preventing these blisters from forming. But, boy is that a painful price to pay for a pair of shoes.

With as many people as are running and exercising these days and the improvements in technology, there is a shoe type for every foot type. The most important thing you can do for your feet is come in for a consult, where your foot type will be determined and suggestions can be made for the particular brands that carry a shoe that fits your foot type. As far as dress shoes, everyone has had at least one experience with uncomfortable dress shoes, if not many more. This problem can be remedied by examining your foot type as well. For instance, if you have a wide foot then you will need a wider area for your toes to fit so that you aren’t rubbing blisters on the inside of your big toe or outside of your little toe.

If you or someone you know struggles with finding shoes that fit your foot, then a consult with Dr. Wachtel to look at your foot type could be very helpful. If you live in the Methuen, North Andover, North Billerica or Burlington, Massachusetts area, our office staff would be more than happy to schedule an appointment for you. There is no reason that your shoes should be causing you pain every day, so before you go barefoot through the office, give us a call so that we can find the best shoe for you.

Clayton Keyshaw's Plantar Fasciitis

LA Dodgers pitcher Clayton Keyshaw has been reported to suffer from plantar fasciitis. He claims that although his foot is in a good deal of pain, it does not inhibit him from pitching, only running. As a result, fans and the coaching staff have expressed concern for  his injury, but he is pushing through and seeking the necessary treatment to continue to pursue his love for baseball.

Plantar fasciitis is an injury that occurs when the connective tissue sheath on the bottom of your foot is overstretched repeatedly, causing micro tears within the fascia. The plantar fascia connects the heel bone to the area of your foot that is right before your toes. As you walk, run, jump, or do any motion that involves flexing and relaxing your foot, you are putting a stretching motion on this tissue. For people that do a lot of running, standing on uneven surfaces (like a roof) or are just starting to age, the plantar fascia is an area of concern for injury.

Plantar fasciitis is a condition that has very specific symptoms in the average presentation. You will have a great deal of pain on the inside portion of your heel when you first wake up in the morning and take your first steps or after you have been sitting down and resting throughout the day. This pain signifies that these micro tears are in the very beginning stages of healing, but then you stand up and start to move, irritating and stretching the area, and this will result in putting a strain on those inflamed areas.

So, treatment for plantar fasciitis is very dependent upon the individual case. These micro tears, if untreated for a long time, can lead to rupture of your plantar fascia. When this occurs, surgery will need to be done. But for most of us, we will not advance to that level of injury and so for many cases, there are several other options. One of these is giving a corticosteroid shot to block the inflammation to the area and reduce the pain and then immobilizing your foot so that it can heal by not having stress on the injured areas.

Another option for plantar fasciitis is a non-invasive low energy laser that will stimulate the tissue to move from a chronic injury setting to acute. What this does is it brings in all of the cells that are useful for healing the tissue and returning it to its original state.

If you or anyone you know has been suffering from heel pain in the Methuen, Tewksbury, Bradford, Westford or North Billerica, Massachusetts our office staff would be more than happy to help you schedule an appointment. Dr. Wachtel will be able to help  you determine what your underlying cause is and get you back up on your feet again.

deStress Your Fractures

Have you ever started a new, ambitious workout regimen that leaves your feet in a great amount of pain? This pain could be the result of a stress fracture. Stress fractures are commonly due to a repetitive motion that is exerting force onto the same location over and over again and the bone eventually gets a small fracture in it due to this stress. Stress fractures range in severity from very mild to a complete fracture of the bone. They will increase in severity the longer that you continue this repetitive motion on this bone.

The most common locations for you to get a stress fracture are the calcaneus (your heel bone) and the 2^nd metatarsal (the bone that is leading up to your 2^nd toe. These locations are common in people you begin to run after a long time of sedentary lifestyle and in people that run many miles a week.  They are also common in people who do work outs that include things like jumping rope or anything that is putting a great amount of stress on those bones due to absorbing your weight.

Stress fractures can be difficult to see on an X-ray because they can be so small. Don’t be fooled though, there small size can lead to big pain. Many times though, your description of the changes you’ve made in your daily routine will point your podiatrist to highly suspecting a stress fracture. Because of this, your podiatrist will often recommend that you should keep off of that affected area as much as possible and may even recommend that you immobilize the area to allow it to heal. Then in about 10 days, you may be asked to return to the office to take another x-ray to confirm the diagnosis and rule out any other conditions that could be causing your discomfort.

If you or someone you know has been experiencing pain in your foot, please call our office staff and they would be more than happy to help you set up an appointment. Our offices serve the Methuen, Lowell, North Andover, and Tewksbury, Massachusetts areas. It is important to remember than with any pain, it is best to find out the source early so that you can prevent greater injury resulting from continued stress.

Ever Wonder Why Your Toes Are Cold?

Have you ever had your toes turn white, red or blue or be all of sudden cold or numb? This could be due to a condition known as Raynaud's. Raynaud's is a health condition that occurs as a result of  your blood vessels clenching up, also known as vasoconstricting. When this phenomenon occurs, you are unable to get blood to those areas and you will feel cold at the tips of your toes or fingers because they are not receiving the heat that would normally be brought to them by your blood.

There are two different forms of raynaud's, one is raynaud's disease and the other is raynaud's phenomenon. The manifestations are the exact same in both conditions, but the cause is different. Raynaud's disease has no underlying cause and there is no risk involved with the condition. Raynaud's Phenomenon is associated with autoimmune disorders. Autoimmune disorders are the result of your body recognizing yourself as being a foreign substance that needs to be fought off, and so  your body is essentially doing battle with itself. There are many different manifests of autoimmune diseases and Raynaud Phenomenon is one of them. It is commonly associated with Rheumatoid Arthritis, Scleroderma, Lupus and Sjogren's.

In each of these forms, Raynaud's is typically exacerbated by cold weather or stress. Both of these causes are similar because they already cause your blood vessels to vasoconstrict, so the only difference is that Raynaud's is further exacerbating this event. As a result, you are unable to get warmth to your finger tips and toes.

Raynaud's itself is a fairly insignificant condition, but if it is associated with autoimmune diseases, these are very important conditions that need to be properly managed to allow you as much comfort as possible and delay the effects. If you or someone you know has been experiencing any of these symptoms, our office staff would be more than happy to help you set up an appointment and get to the bottom of this. Dr. Wachtel serves the Methuen, Tewksbury, Lowell, North Andover and Boston, Massachusetts areas and would be more than happy to work with you, to get you back up on your feet again.