Foot numbness

This weekend long run will be very important—I need to figure out exactly what causes my foot numbness. So I am going to experiment—running on a treadmill for 16 boring miles, since I want to experiment.

The possible causes:

1. Tight calves: In the sequence of my pre-run stretches, this is one aspect I seem to gloss over really quickly. It is possible they play a part. They are the easiest to resolve as well—I have stretched over the last couple of days.
2. Collapsing arch on the right foot: My bet will be on this. I have a very high arch leading most shoe stores to lead me to neutral shoes. However, my feet are asymmetric. In fact, my previous podiatrist observed that my right arch collapses. When the arch collapses, it adds pressure on the lateral medial nerve when the foot strikes the ground. The nerve gets irritated, leading to a tingling in my feet, followed by numbness.

   Here the story gets more interesting. I was given orthotic inserts to wear in my shoe so as to prevent the collapse of my arch. They worked for a while, but the tingling and the numbness came back. This time, the culprit was supposed to be unequal leg lengths. My right leg being shorter, the orthotic inserts wouldn’t work quite as they were supposed to. A half cm post on the right orthotic insert raised my right leg, and solved the problem till this training season.

   Why did the problem come back? One reason might be that the little post just ground the back of my shoe, negating the raise they provided. Besides, the post itself has been worn down.

   That still leaves one small mystery—why did they not work on the new shoes last Thu? Perhaps because the shoe sole inserts are still soft, and the unequal pressure exerted by the inserts on the left and right are both absorbed completely, preventing them from equalizing the leg lengths. Perhaps because the post was worn out.

   I have a solution to test this: use the insert, without the post, on my right shoe, while leaving my left shoe free of inserts. Let us see if this works. Maybe the solution is to use a new post—but I will not be able to implement this solution before a trip to the doctor on Mar 12.

3. There is a more disturbing diagnosis. If you read about these symptoms on the Internet, they invariably point to compartment syndrome, which can only be resolved through surgery. Bulletin boards are full of people convinced they need surgery.

   However, this is a relatively rare condition. In my world view, I think the procedure that leads makes so many people think they have the compartment syndrome is not very sound. I think one must look at the maximum a-posteriori probable diagnosis consistent with the symptoms. Just because some rare and obscure condition fits my symptoms, there is no reason to believe that condition is a reasonable diagnosis!

   I must admit, when I first encountered my symptoms three years ago, I did look up the Internet. Finding this everywhere on the Internet, I was on the verge of losing hope then—till my visit to the podiatrist.

   Moral of the story—people like sensational, whether it is realistic or not. Never diagnose yourself based on the Internet. You will find lots of articles on the most dramatic diagnosis, with no regard to how likely they are. We have not outgrown our cavemen minds, it is why we worry about cancer and terrorists, rather than being run over on the street. Though the later is much more likely.

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