Hi Mary,
I have tendinitis in both Achilles tendon and foot pain. I am on Plaquenil and Aleve but I only stops hurting if I take prednisone. I start methotrexate on Wednesday.
I haven't had an MRI but I always have foot pain. I have had physical therapy for the tendinitis. Here are a few tips that I have learned.
If the pain is really bad I use a medical boot that keeps my foot flexed while I sleep. If you don't sleep with the boot remember to stretch before you get out of bed. Apply heat to help soothe them and the follow with ice. If they are hurting really bad after going out come home and ice them. The exercises from the physical therapist helped a lot. As did the deep heat message they did. See if you can get a referral to a physical therapist. An anti-inflammatory helps be sure to take it faithfully.
Hope this helps!
Terrilynne

I fell about a month ago, not badly, but I guess it was enough, the docs are pretty sure I have a crack in the pinky bone of my foot. It causes unbelievable pain sometimes, but I don't want to be in a cast, so I have not gone for an x ray. When I was running to get my son during the earthquake on tuesday, I pulled (or tore) something in my foot, and now it is hurting even worse. When it gets cold from the raynauds, it hurts even worse. I have noticed that when I am barefoot all day or when I wear tennis shoes all day then my foot seems to feel better at night. When I wear sandals, or some other kind of shoe that's when it hurts the worst. Maybe you could get an ace bandage or some orthotics for your shoes to help it.
It's funny, my sed rate is never up,even though I still have inflammatory type pain, so my docs tell me that I am not normal. I don't think there is anything normal about this disease!
-Kate

My feet just ache horribly these days. I am down to 5 mg of prednisone and everything hurts but the feet especially, it is like walking on tree stumps when I get up in the morning. I cannot go without shoes at all anymore, always got slippers or birks on. It hurts to put my sneakers on, even blankets tucked tightly at the foot of the bed hurts my feet. My rheumy also tells me "you are a very unique case" as I don't really seem to respond to anything but the prednisone.

Foot pain is bad. Had severe plantar fascitis a couple of years ago. Really is an inflammation of the plantar fascia which is the tendon that stretches from the ball of your foot to the heel. So painful. For 2 years I was in such severe pain. Really changed my life. Finally had an ossitron treatment on my feet. They blast your feet with sound waves like the stone crushing they do for kidney stones. They put me to sleep and put my feet in water and did the treatment. Insurance covered it because I had done steroid shots in my feet, physical therapy, the boots at night, orthotics in my shoes, ect. I tried it all. Now, I use my orthotics faithfully. Without them, even for part of a day, the pain starts again. Right now, I am not taking a steroid one day a week. My feet are starting to hurt again. I am terrified this will come back. Try everything! But I think the night boots, stretches, and orthotics help the most. Then, check on the ossitron! Do not soak your feet in hot water. use ice. Hot water makes it worse. Good luck!
Mary Ann

I must be the odd man out.....I think foot pain was one of the first signs of my mctd besides the reynaulds. My doctor said it was plantar facsitis and I would need orthotics. The chiropractor said the same thing. I didn't want to do the orthotics so I did all the exercises and went barefoot all the time to strengthen the muscles. I haven't had any pain since......I dont know if it is the same but it worked for me.....I love my shoes too much to do the orthotics.....would rather be in pain than wear ugly shoes.....LOL

I'm so sorry for all of you having so much pain.

I just found out a few weeks ago I have Peripheral Neuropathy? Just before that I was told I had Diabetes, but not bad enough for pills or shots.
Before I knew about the Neuropathy, I was sent after a year of surfering your simular pain with my feet to another type doctor.

I went on my own to arthrits doctor who said with blood tests I didn't have RA. it was it for them.

But didn't undertand when I couldn't bend my toes on ;left side for almost a year now?

Anyway it took me showing my GP doctor several times to get help of any real value. I guess you could say seeing this Nruo type doctor first real help.

Pain I still have and I have pain pills. They work for me.
Just not being able to use my foot right, and falling down without warning isn't right.

So I don't know what is truely all wrong with me except this new added illness to many I already have.

I don't know if they will ever fig out what or if they all connect or not?

I don't know what is going on but I am getting worse.

My husband thinks it my diet all the years of eating bad? could be?
or not?

But it's not easy it is wrose. all the stuff I have wrong with my spine is catching up......or it's my age, like they say when you get older you have more problems maybe not yet but as you get older you will........well I am older and it is worse!!!!

All I can say please check out a nuro type doctor you sound like me with your pain. My ankle hurts and was first to hurt...it has for years. I am not suppose to fall down any more so I had to get a scooter last week.

fun yeah right.

Well not sure if this is all about my genes either?

I hope you all have better luck and better doctors then I have had.
One that pays attention to you.

I pray for each of you too.

hugs ruthie

My foot is actually how they found my disease. I work on my feet all day and from being on my feet all the time developed a bunion which was not a bunion in the begining it wasjust a very swollen joint so my ortho oreder blood work and I had a + ANA so then here goes my journey to the Rhuemy. I had foot surgery in March it was so bad they had to correct my large toe joint adn I guess I had a hammertoe and a fracture in my foot that they had to repair also. I am doing great with that foot since my surgery but on my last post op visit I had him look at my other foot and it is starting to do the same thing.......He said I guess your disease is attacking your feet joints

my feet ache and hurt like heck at night .I look at them and wonder "theres not much to them bone a bit of muscle and skin how can they hurt sooo much . Ive never complained about them to the rhuemy .I think I will now after reading your posts ,I just thought it was part of the whole MCTD thing just something to put up with.

Tonight, my feet hurt enough that I went online to see if I can find any suggestions on what the heck is going on.

My story is like all of yours...MCTD and with all the other joys, my feet flippin' hurt: there's the sharp stabbing pain at the joints when I'm walking; there's the burning when I'm laying in bed kicking the covers up every so often...not sure if the blankets make them burn or them touching the bed does.

I refuse to go to a rheumy...after 8 quacks telling me quack talk, I found family doc and we work on all this together. Oh, but the discomfort of my feet...glad to know this isn't something outside of the MCTD/Lupus/whatever.

i want to thank all of you for your personal stories of foot pain. i have severe foot pain almost every day, yet for some reason, i never attributed it to the mctd. i was diagnosed with plantar fascitis nearly 20 years ago, but after much care, was relatively foot pain free for a long period of time. in this last year though, along with learning of the mctd, my foot pain has returned and increased exponentially weekly! along with the pain on the bottom of my feet, i now also have intense pain in my left heel, and shooting pain that feels like fireplace pokers jabbing me :-( interestingly, when my dr put me on prednisone, the first sign i had that it was working, was my feet feeling wonderful! being terrified to stay on the prednisone however, i weaned myself off of it, and now am back to hobbling around like a hundred year old with broken bones! i am thankful though to know now, that this too is from the mctd. thanks all for sharing!

Interesting that so many of us have foot pain-me too. I've got Plantar's fasciitis, hammer toes, previous stress fractures in both feet for no apparent reason (not being a long-distance runner or wearer of high heels), Achilles' tendon pain, electrical-type nerve pain, numbness, etc. it's worst at night.