My feet are on fire!

One of the symptoms I had with Lyme Disease was excruciating itching on the bottom of my feet. It came on suddenly and I spent about 3 days fidgeting like crazy because my feet were tingling SO BADLY but there was nothing I could do and nothing my doctor would do until the Lyme test came positive. There was nothing physically wrong with my feet: they looked fine, they just itched. Nerve tingling is common with Lyme so I called Sissy (an N.P.) and asked her what I could do. She suggested I get capsaicin and apply it to the bottom of my feet. Capsaicin is a derivative of the cayenne pepper and it’s in a lot of arthritis medications. She told me it has a cumulative effect so if you apply it over a series of days (or weeks) it ultimately dulls the nerve endings.

So I swing by Walgreens on my way home from work, buy the stuff (it’s a liquid), brush it on the bottom of my feet and I did this twice: once that night and once the next morning. And miraculously, the next day the tingling stopped. I was feeling better so I decided to run the next day. I got up the following morning around 5:30 AM and headed out. I was about a mile from my house and I thought, “Gee, my feet are really hot.” I was 2 miles from my house when I thought, “Gee, my feet are on f-ing fire.” I was at the furthest point from my house with only the deserted town beach, the deserted dog park, and the deserted golf course nearby when I realized that my feet HAD TO BE bleeding. They were burning up, they were blistered, every footfall was agonizing. But there was nothing around, no one around, and who would I call to come help me at that hour anyway? So I kept running just so I would get home faster. And I ran all the way back to my house and as soon as I limped into the lobby I sat down and starting to take off my sneakers, convinced that my feet were soaked in blood and covered in blisters.

I pull my sneakers off…and there’s nothing there. I rip off my sweaty socks, expecting to see bright red feet covered in heat blisters…and there’s nothing there. My feet look perfectly normal, they aren’t even red they are just sweaty (ick) and normal foot color. But my feet are still on fire! I limp up to my condo, take all the ice out of the freezer and dump it in the sink and sit on the counter and put my feet in the ice. Finally the burning starts to subside. I reached over the counter for the “indications” paper I had discarded there a few days prior and guess what I read. Something along the lines of “Avoid heat, sun exposure and prolonged and heavy exercise before, during or after use of this product.”

Oh great – wouldn’t that have been helpful to know before going out for a 5 mile run in July. Even more helpful would have been if Nurse Sissy had mentioned that little tidbit to me! I never used the capsaicin after that and it was DAYS before I was able to run without my feet feeling as if they were on fire.

So take it from me: always read the indications…and don’t always trust Sissy!