Hi! Thank you for taking the time to check in with us. We appreciate the care & prayers of our family & friends in this time. If you haven't heard my story, you can read my background story below . You can also read my "latest" by skipping to the "Journal" section. While you're here, why not sign the guestbook? We love hearing from you. God bless you, Cherilyn and family
*** UPDATED: February 2015*** For most of Sept. 2009, I was living my normal life as a full-time stay-at-home wife, & homeschool mom to our 4 young girls. I had started back a regular exercise program a few months prior, recently adding jogging on a treadmill to my regime. I noticed that both of my heels were hurting a bit, but chalked it up to needing to stretch more & warm up longer before jogging. At a regular chiropractor visit, my athletic dr. looked concerned, sharing that it could be the starts of a painful, but common foot condition called plantar fasciitis. She encouraged me to have my gait analyzed to make sure I was wearing the correct shoe. From the analysis, I learned I had the correct shoes, but it was recommended I use padded arch support inserts for my high arches. I left hoping that would be the end of my foot problems. Meanwhile, I went to my chiropractor 3 days a week for foot treatments. She primarily used ultrasound & a method similar to ART. She gave me stretches & an icing program. She also taught me to tape up my feet in order to give support to my arches. However, after some weeks, my pain continued to increase while my activity level in life in general continued to diminish, she became gravely concerned that I may have something worse, like Tarsal Tunnel Syndrome. She promptly referred me to a podiatrist. The podiatrist took x-rays, taped up my foot slightly differently than the chiropractor and sent me home. During that first appointment, he drew a picture of my foot to explain what was probably going on. He then discussed all of the conservative treatments he planned to try, and had faith would probably work for me. He showed me that only 1% of a small percentage of patients not responding to treatments would ever need surgery. I made my next appointment with the dr. days earlier than he had asked to see me again. The taping wasn't working, & I needed him to know how tremendous the pain was. I looked him in the eye explaining how active my lifestyle was, & that I now have to keep my feet up 20+ hours of my day. After reviewing my case, he decided to send me straight to the neurologist for a nerve conductivity test. He rarely jumps to that test so quickly, but my case was abnormal. Aside from finding I have hyperpronation of the subtalar joint, this whole scenario onset so suddenly and advanced so quickly, he was greatly concerned. The very painful nerve conductivity test showed that I had bilateral, advanced entrapments of all 3 of the nerve branches that go through the tarsal tunnel. Because of all of the conservative methods failing, the continued advancement of pain & the obvious nerve entrapments, the dr. recommended surgery, believing he could give me some relief. We left the dr's office, praying about what to do. We sought additional professional opinions. I saw a 2nd podiatrist, a sports medicine dr., a DO, & spoke with another chiropractor that specializes in ART (& has worked with tarsal tunnels). I also tried medical massage & accupuncture in the meantime. I even wore splints on my feet at night. After much prayer, extensive online research, reflecting on discussions with the neurologist & friends in the medical field, & having failed more conservative methods, we had peace to move forward with surgery on one foot to start. I had no quality of life, which gave additional motivation. It was a huge step of faith to submit to surgery. Just to go through with it. It was outpatient and went as well as the dr. had hoped. However, disappointingly, it gave me no relief. Therefore, I did not schedule my other foot to get that surgery. I have since been to... several chiropractors, neurologists, podiatrists, a neurosurgeon, an OBGYN, a gastronologist, family drs, massage therapists, reflexologist, pain drs, sports medicine... had MRIs of... all 3 parts of my back, my brain, my feet and ankles, heart CT... innumerable blood tests, and an Endoscopy thus far. All findings have been 'minor' and so far not seemingly connected to my current strange issue. My church family in IL graciously took turns grocery shopping for me for about 2 years! A wheelchair helps me take family walks and I use a walker "as needed", which I use for the seat for resting, not to help me walk. I am also on strong pain meds to help me cope, and look very forward to coming off of them sooner than later. :)
Nearly 3 years later, my case was confusing the drs, but we continued to search and pray for answers... Or a healing without answers.
4 years and more therapies -- alternative and modern. No relief . No answers . Clean bill of health . So why the severe pain that every step is excruciating and my calves and feet feel I've run a hard race barefoot without stretching on a daily basis ?
At 4.5 years post all of this starting , I finally applied to Mayo Clinic, hoping they would be able to help . I applied two times and was rejected both times because they didn't think they could help me .
What now ? I was praying and still researching at the beginning of this year , when I came upon a woman online who had been diagnosed with Tarsal Tunnel and other nerve entrapments and had almost 100% relief after surgery. She mentioned the "Dellon Technique" was used for her surgery . Hmmmm... I had seen that name while researching for my 1st Tarsal Tunnel release surgery but had not realized how very different this technique is compared with the basic/traditional /not very successful technique I'd originally had done . This woman (thanks, Karrie ), allowed me to be in touch with her and quiz her about her surgery and also her lifestyle before it . It all sounded so very similar to mine . I nearly immediately got in touch with Dr. Dellon, the originator of this more-thorough technique of nerve release surgery . He answered many questions and agreed to see me . The only issues were #1 they don't take insurance (you can submit it yourself though ) and #2 he is in Maryland and I am in Texas. Dr. Dellon also designed a non-painful "nerve conductivity" machine that tests for entrapments . The plan was that I'd fly to see him , have this test and if it showed I could use surgery , I'd go for it . As we prayed , thought and talked about it, we came to the realization that many other drs use this diagnostic machine, it's just a matter of finding one. Through prayer, Internet searching and phone calls , we found a dr in Houston , 3 hours from us with the diagnostic machine . We thought we would have it done and meet the dr . If we liked him and needed surgery , we'd use him . If we weren't sure about the dr , we would fly to MD to have the rest redone for confirmation and then decide on surgery . Well, off to Houston we met . By act of Providence , the nurse who did my test had the tarsal tunnel release Dellon style by the dr. she is working for. She had only had it weeks before . She shared having symptoms that mirrored mine and said that surgery really helped her (she also trusted her boss to do surgery on her !). I can't begin to tell you what a blessed encouragement it was to now to have someone online and in person who knew what I'm feeling and have been going through . I felt a lot less crazy .:) The diagnostic test, along with Dr. Parker's testing showed I have nerve entrapments of calves and feet (of course original nerve conduction 5 years ago showed some similar findings) . He believed I would be a good candidate to try surgery . He is a dr who has many alternative therapies and is not surgery happy. I had already been through 4.5 years of therapies . I knew I was ready for surgery . To fully release the tarsal tunnel area requires two surgeries per foot/ leg. Some drs do all of the surgery areas at once , but this dr . is conservative and doesn't believe in too much surgery at one time . Steve and I are comfortable with his philosophy, reputation, experience and wisdom . He is probably at least in his 70s and continues to train other drs in these more successful and updated techniques.
At near 5 years since this all began, in August 2014, I went in for my third surgery on my right foot/calf area. My nerve entrapments seem to extend beyond the tarsal tunnel, and the sural nerve was released at mid calf with dr. Parker.
In November 2014 I went for the Tarsal Tunnel release surgery on my left ankle. Today, in February 2015, I can say I have had a decrease in neuropathy (tingles, pins and needles, burning, numbness) in the targeted area of the 4 surgeries I had last year. While I still have more areas needing relief on my foot and leg, the positive (though not complete) response from the surgeries , encourage me to keep going . We are now looking at scheduling the 2 further surgeries on my left calf that I had on my right calf. So far when the dr has gone in for surgery , it has been extremely clear that my nerves were trapped and needed releasing. We still don't know "why" or "how" this happened , and we may never know . For now, we give thanks for God's leading to this point , and continue to pray for wisdom and full healing . Thank you for joining us on this journey. Your love, care and prayers mean the world to me/us!
Hi. Anyone out there still following me?😊🤗 I’m experiencing my limitation at present and waiting on some meds to kick in so while my mind is on it I’m going to share a little update. I merely decided to make dinner and the standing and back and forth making that, my foot decided it’s had enough. Frustrating. (PS I’m not looking for suggestions like “could you sit more when you cook, etc” though I love ya’ll.)😂 My surgery last year did not help as much as we’d hoped. I’m not sure it helped at all, but on the upside I am no worse. When this all started my R side was worse than my L. My left now remains worse than my right. On the positive side, I’m thankful for 2 legs so I can stand like a flamingo when my left leg /foot decides to go wonky on me... On the downside, I’m like your average older person or disabled person who has motivation and energy to be active at times and the body doesn’t want to cooperate. I still really, really miss jogging/running and long walks. I didn’t start to love running until I was 16 and then did so until my late 30s when this happened. It was such a release. I’ve had trouble finding any exercise that doesn’t affect me. I’m trying to stretch more and push myself to take more steps when I can, even if it’s in the shortest of spurts and only in my house. 😊 (Also not looking for exercise ideas, but thanks). On the really up side, I stay busy and life is full in spite of the pain. Things could always be worse, of that I’m aware. The kids are all good, Steve is good and I am. We have food, clothing, jobs, family, friends, a great church and good neighbors. In that sense life is good. I thank God for all of these blessings and the strength and grace to push through the pain and for wisdom to rest when I need to. I check in with my GP dr about every 3 months. So far he’s been supportive in my care. Please pray he doesn’t grow weary of me and can remain supportive. Good medical teams are diamonds in the rough. Thanks for reading if you did. Much love to all,
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