UKC

Hi folks, looking for any advice or recommendations of who to see regarding an injury, preferably around Birmingham although I'm now getting that fed up I'll probably be willing to travel for treatment! Bit of background in case anyone on here can give some advice, back towards the end of June I started to feel some pain and stiffness in my big toe joint, then middle of July I was breaking in some new shoes and the pain got worse, I spent some time "stretching" the joint which seemed to help at the time. The day after this I was left in considerable pain and struggling to walk normally! Since then I have been to the NHS 3 times where I was first refused an x-ray, then told it was merely arthritis it will just get worse that’s it and then told it was a strain it will take 8 weeks to heal at which point I said it had been 9 weeks and they said in that case it will take 12 weeks.

Since then I have been to an osteopath, a podiatrist and a chiropodist/sports injury clinic all privately, the osteopath helped me free up my tendons in my leg and walk properly again but couldn't help anymore with the toe joint. The others have provided me with an orthotic and told me to rest for a week after which I tried to climb and the pain was too much. I went back today and have just been told that it is a bruised bone and just rest for 3-4 months minimum and if that doesn't work rest more. Since July I have climbed maybe 4 or 5 times, each time to check if it was healed properly and each time for only 3 or 4 problems as it was too painful. It just sounds ridiculous to me that the only advice is to rest for almost a year, and I don't really want to keep throwing money at people who are just guessing would rather see someone who is more specialised particularly with climbing injuries.

In reply to Brum_climber:

I developed something similar in my right big tow joint, and at first thought it might be gout, then thought it was the start of rheumatoid arthritis, but then got it in my left big toe joint, and it's painful. Think I've developed Hallux Valgus and the cause of that is unclear. I haven't climbed for a while (for other reasons) but it's a bit sore most of the time and gets a bit worse when I run. It's obviously swollen on the joint and a bit red as well.

Did you actually injure your joint as it sounds you've just developed it as you don't mention an actual injury?

In reply to JayPee630:

It suddenly came on the day after stretching the joint out, I think it's pretty self inflicted. The thing is at no point in time has there been any redness or inflamation at all, just pain.