What does the Stanley Cup Have to do with Feet?

The Stanley Cup is over and the Blackhawks have taken the series. This series has been being referred to as one for the record book. It was also a very aggressive tournament with many fights occurring on either side and many injuries to the players.  As we watched the teams throwing elbows and slamming each other against the wall it’s important to think of how much recovery time they need for playing that intense.

Skating is a very intense sport, especially for all of your leg and feet muscles. It is a great sport because it combines core work, upper body work and lower body work all in one activity. The recovery time for these games is very necessary. The constant stretching and strain on your tendons means that you need to do a lot of stretching and muscle relaxing.

Now it doesn’t help things that these guys are beating each other up in addition to all of the exercise they are already getting. This only adds to the recovery time. The more swollen that you are from injury, the more time it will take you to recover. So for these guys, the majority of their time between games is probably not spent parting, but rather using ice, muscle relaxers and whirlpools to try and get rejuvenated to go at it again.

So, if you or someone you know is a skater that gets injured, you should seek help from your podiatrist. If you live in the Chelmsford or Tewksbury, Massachusetts area, Dr. Wachtel would be more than happy to see you and help treat your feet. We are also happy to announce our Methuen and North Andover offices located at 451 Andover St. Suite 300, North Andover MA 01845 and 87 Jackson St, Methuen, MA 01835.

Pain After Surgery

Have you had surgery a couple of months ago and you are still having excruciating pain? Pain is normal within the first several weeks following surgery. The more swollen that you are following surgery, the more discomfort you will experience, because the swelling presses on the underlying anatomy. Your foot is such a small area that when it swells there is much room for it to expand.

There are several things that can cause you to have pain several months out. One is that you can have pain after a surgery due to nerve damage. Nerves can take a long time to recover, you may have pain or even numbness for several months out. Second, you may be a person that tends to scar a lot more than others. A key to preventing this scarring is following your doctor’s and physical therapists recommendations for when to start movement again. This will help prevent the scarring and will help ease the pain on range of movement.

There is a third condition that can cause pain many months after surgery. It’s referred to as CRPS, but the much simpler definition of this is that it is a condition that is not completely understood. It is a condition that we work to rule out every other condition before deciding that this is what is going on with you. The mainstay treatment for this condition though is physical therapy. This is a condition that if not treated can get much worse. So, if you are experiencing a great deal of pain still, it is very important that you speak with your physician about your symptoms.

So, if you or someone you know has pain months after surgery, you should seek help from your podiatrist. If you live in the Chelmsford or Reading, Massachusetts area, Dr. Wachtel would be more than happy to see you and help treat your symptoms. We are also happy to announce our Methuen and North Andover offices located at 451 Andover St. Suite 300, North Andover MA 01845 and 87 Jackson St, Methuen, MA 01835.

Barefoot Summer Time

It is summer time and that means it is flip flop and barefoot season. While everyone is running around on the beach and out in the yard, there could be splinters or rocks finding their way into the bottoms of your feet. If this happens, it could be really easy to remove, but sometimes they will get deeper into your feet after you step on them. If this happens, it’s really important that you come into your podiatrist to have the foreign object removed.

So, if you get something in your foot that you can no longer see, what are some of the most important things that you can do? First off, you need to leave your foot alone. Digging, pushing or prodding around in your foot can cause you to actually push the foreign body deeper. This can cause damage to nerves and blood vessels that could be avoided by just leaving it alone.  Second, you need to bandage up your foot and keep it as clean as you can. Now that something is in your foot, there is an opening extending into your foot that can bring in infection. Finally, you need to make an appointment with your podiatrist so that they can determine what is inside your foot. Taking x-rays or an MRI can determine what level the object is at and what kind of means will be required to remove it from your foot.

So, if you or someone you know has stepped on something and it is embedded in your foot, you should seek help from your podiatrist. If you live in the Bradford or Burlington, Massachusetts area, Dr. Wachtel would be more than happy to see you and help treat your feet. We are also happy to announce our Methuen and North Andover offices located at 451 Andover St. Suite 300, North Andover MA 01845 and 87 Jackson St, Methuen, MA 01835.

Your Child's Painful Foot Bone

Have you noticed a little bump starting to form at the tip of your child’s toe? Was it not there before? It is possible that your child could have a tumor forming in your bone. Now in the last post, we talked about benign soft tissue lesions that can form. The same can happen in bones. In children, there is a tumor called an enchondroma that can grow within their bone and cause the skin to pouch outward. It can also occur in bones where you won’t see the results in the skin. There is nothing to be concerned about though, because this particular tumor is benign. The vast majority of enchondromas are painless and will never be noticed.

In some cases, an enchondroma can actually weaken the bone that it is in because of its size or impinging on the edges of the bone. In a growing child, they can put pressure on the growth plates. In any of these instances, your child may experience pain from the enchondroma because of its location. For this reason, enchondromas are typically removed if they are painful.

The procedure to remove these is very simple and for children, although it is always scary for parents when their kid goes through surgery, it is a very minor procedure and they heal very well.  The part of the bone with the tumor is removed, it is cleaned out and the skin is closed up. In instances where the tumor is close to the growth plate, great care will be taken to preserve the growth plate.

So, if you or someone you know has a child that is having pain in the bones in their feet, you should seek help from your podiatrist. If you live in the Tewksbury or Chelmsford, Massachusetts area, Dr. Wachtel would be more than happy to see your children and help treat their feet. We are also happy to announce our Methuen and North Andover offices located at 451 Andover St. Suite 300, North Andover MA 01845 and 87 Jackson St, Methuen, MA 01835.

What's this Lump on my Foot?

Have you noticed a new growth on your foot? It is not uncommon for people to have a buildup of fibrous tissue, fatty tissue or even a cyst filled with fluid. These growths described above are benign, but any new or changing growth needs to be checked out. It is never normal for a growth to get bigger or change shape or for a new mass to form. This is why it is so important to know your body so that you make sure and know when something new has shown up.

Tumor is a word that many of us associate a negative connotation with. This is because we are used to hearing about the bad tumors, the ones that are invasive and are bad for your body. The true definition of a tumor though is a swelling of an area due to the abnormal growth of a tissue that can be benign or malignant. Some of the more common masses in the foot are swellings due to a proliferation of fat cells or fibrous tissue.

So, what do we do to treat these masses? Any new mass that you have should be biopsied. It is important to get a definitive report as to what the identity is of your mass so that it can be treated appropriately. If the mass comes back as nothing but a benign area, then it is up to you as to what you want done with it. For some people, these masses will be right in the area that they tie their shoes or their sock falls and will therefore irritate them due to the mass rubbing against their shoe gear. On the other hand, some people just don't care and once they find out it is harmless they are happy to just leave it alone.

So, if you or someone you know has a new growth on their foot, you should seek help from your podiatrist. If you live in the Bradford or Burlington, Massachusetts area, Dr. Wachtel would be more than happy to see you and help treat your feet. We are also happy to announce our Methuen and North Andover offices located at 451 Andover St. Suite 300, North Andover MA 01845 and 87 Jackson St, Methuen, MA 01835.

Are Your Pipes Clogged?

There are many factors that go into healing a wound. You have to make sure that there is good nutrition, that the wound has the right kind of bed to form new skin on and most importantly that there is good blood flow. As a diabetic patient, there are many things that you need to be concerned about. These include your sugar, your kidneys and your feet. Blood flow can decrease both with age and the contribution from diabetes making it tougher for blood to get to your toes. Think of it like a water pipe. If that pipe is all cleaned out, water can go through easily, but the more sludge and grime, the harder it is for the water to get through.

So, you might be wondering what a podiatrist can do for your arteries. A podiatrist serves as a preventative caregiver for your feet. By having you come in once a year for a check-up, we are able to assess your blood flow, how well your nerves are working, and make sure you don't have any problem areas like calluses or thin skin that needs to be seen more often. When your arteries are checked in the office, if they cannot be felt or heard with special equipment, then your podiatrist will know that you need to be sent for further studies.

These studies start out really basic with a test that just uses blood pressure cuffs to assess the flow in your arms compared to your legs. It gives us an idea how much blood is really getting to your toes. If these come back showing any kind of decreased flow than there are further studies and treatments that can be done to get your arteries working better.

So, if you or someone you know has diabetes, you should seek help from your podiatrist. If you live in the Lowell or Reading, Massachusetts area, Dr. Wachtel would be more than happy to see you and help treat your feet. We are also happy to announce our Methuen and North Andover offices located at 451 Andover St. Suite 300, North Andover MA 01845 and 87 Jackson St, Methuen, MA 01835.

Why Does it Feel Like I'm Walking on a Rock?

Do you have pain between your toes? Does it feel like you are walking on a rock? It is possible that you could have a swollen nerve between your toes that is causing pain to extend between your toes and can be extremely painful. A neuroma can result from irritation, trauma or pressure. A common cause is a flat foot or a high arch. Each of these can cause particular toe spaces to decrease resulting in less space and more pressure on the nerve.

A neuroma can present with several different types of symptoms.  These can be symptoms such as numbness, tingling, shooting pains and pressure. The neuroma can start out as just a mild issue and can progress to be much more painful. There are also people that can have symptom free neuromas. In order to determine that the pain is actually coming from a neuroma, there are multiple assessments and tests that a podiatrist can perform. So, if you think that this may be an issue that you are dealing with, it is important to make an appointment to see your podiatrist.

So, what can be done for a neuroma? There are several conservative things you can try, including wider shoes, padding and decreasing pressure to the area. All of these things are typically only a temporary help. Another option is an injection that will help relieve the pain and the inflammation in the area. There have been really good results seen with this treatment plan. In some people though, you may need to have a surgery to remove the swollen nerve.

So, if you or someone you know is having pain between their toes, you should seek help from your podiatrist. If you live in the Wilmington or North Billerica, Massachusetts area, Dr. Wachtel would be more than happy to see you and help treat your pain. We are also happy to announce our Methuen and North Andover offices located at 451 Andover St. Suite 300, North Andover MA 01845 and 87 Jackson St, Methuen, MA 01835.

How to Treat Ankle Sprains

Have you stepped off the sidewalk the wrong way or rolled your foot while wearing very tall shoes? It is possible that you may have stretched or torn some ligaments in your ankle. A sprained ankle can be a very painful condition that can result in a great deal of pain that can be very uncomfortable.

Ankle sprains can vary in their severity from a day of pain to a broken ankle. There is such a great amount of variability in the presentation that it is really important that you have your ankle checked out. There are so many times that people come in weeks to months after the event and they are still having pain, only to find out that they broke their ankle, tore a ligament or tore a tendon. In these circumstances, the healing process is now a much greater problem.

Treatment for an ankle sprain can range from resting, icing and elevation to needing to have surgery for a broken bone. In order to determine the type of treatment that is going to work for you, you need to have a thorough examination and x-rays taken of your foot and ankle. Once a podiatrist has seen you, they will be able to tell you how your ankle can best be treated to get you relief from your injury. This process can be a short one or it can take months.

So, if you or someone you know has injured their ankle and it is causing them a great deal of pain, you should seek help from your podiatrist. If you live in the Bradford or Burlington, Massachusetts area, Dr. Wachtel would be more than happy to see you and help treat your ankle. We are also happy to announce our Methuen and North Andover offices located at 451 Andover St. Suite 300, North Andover MA 01845 and 87 Jackson St, Methuen, MA 01835.

What to do about Really Sweaty Feet

As the summer is approaching all of our feet are beginning to sweat more. Do you struggle with extremely sweaty feet?  You could be suffering from a condition called hyperhidrosis. This condition can cause stinky feet, the perfect environment for fungus to grow and self-consciousness. As we get older, this condition can become a really big problem, because you can end up having a chronic case of athlete’s foot which can lead to blisters, cracking skin and eventually a really bad infection.

It can sometimes be difficult in this situation to realize that you are sweating more than typical. The reality is that we are taught from a young age that feet are stinky. If from nothing else than the age old saying “Trick-or-Treat, smelly my feet.”  The truth of the matter is that men have stinkier feet than woman, but if you are taking off your shoes and small animals are running for cover then you may have feet that sweat too much.

So, what can be done for your excess sweating? For one, there is powder that can be used both inside your shoes and on your feet. This treatment has a fine line because too much of the powder can cause cracking and breaks in the skin. If you use too little, you can end up not fixing the problem. The treatment for this condition is an important conversation that you need to have with your podiatrist. They can help determine if you have an underlying fungal or bacteria infection. They can also determine the severity of your condition and suggest the best treatment plan.

So, if you or someone you know has excessively sweating feet and it is causing them to have infections and bad odor, you should seek help from your podiatrist. If you live in the Bradford or Burlington, Massachusetts area, Dr. Wachtel would be more than happy to see you and help treat your feet. We are also happy to announce our Methuen and North Andover offices located at 451 Andover St. Suite 300, North Andover MA 01845 and 87 Jackson St, Methuen, MA 01835.