Question
My situation is this. I have been to no fewer than 4 doctors in the past 3 months with no answers. I am now 45 years old and I have been a smoker for the past 10 years. However, I have had a very active life style and have maintained a rigorous exercise regimen throughout.4 months ago I quit smoking and About 3 1/2 months ago while at the gym exercising I experience a slight pain in my right chest rib area, which subsequently (next day) became progressively more and more painful over the course of 3weeks until I could only breath short breaths. I went to the doctor and He said this was a pulled muscle and prescribed vicodin. I have been working out since I was about 15 years old and I have never experienced a chest pain like that for that long a period. The pain eventually after about 1 month subsided and is now completely gone. At about the time that this chest pain alleviated I began feeling a sharp pain in my left calf that increased in pain upon standing and walking. This pain came although I had not been to the gym or had exercised since the chest pain began (now about a month). Again I visited the doctor and his advice was that this was a charley horse or a severe cramp. So about two weeks go by and this too alleviates. At about the same time that this alleviates I feel that the heel of my foot ( and only the heel) is somewhat numb. At night I notice that my left ankle is slightly swollen which is reduced by morning. Yet again I am off to the doctor for complete blood work and chest x-rays. This doctor says that I should see a podiatrist. I do have varicose veins and this doctor also says that this could be due to that fact. I am convinced that this is attributable to some kind of circulatory situation. The ankle feels fine but it still gets swollen at night and returns to normal by morning. Starting about a week ago after the last doctors visit I have started to work out at the gym and my progress there has improved steadily. The irony of this has been that since I quit smoking I have had physical set back after setback. Any suggestion you might afford me would be appreciated.
Thank You
J  

Answer
These Chicago & Elmhurst Podiatrists say......
http://www.allexperts.com/expertx.cgi
You may continue to have minor chest discomfort and may continue to spit up mucous as your lungs try to get rid of the smoke irritation. Try a humidifier.
The chest sounds sounds like a muscle pull-but if it recurs-please follow-up with your primary care Doc.
For sure see a Podiatrist Board Certified in Orthopedics and maybe Surgery.If they do sports medicine-then that's even better!
The calf pain may just be ankle irritation and not a venous problem-but if you have any sharp calf pain with swelling-get in ASAP.
My gut feeling is that anytime you restart exercise-it always takes a few weeks before most of the aches and pains go away-unless you are not performing the exercises correctly and not doing at least 15-20 minutes of warmups, 45 minutes of brisk activity and 5-10 minutes of re-stretching and warm downs.
If these suggestions resolve your symptoms-you may need to do nothing-but sometimes a good pair of orthotics/orthoses in the right gym shoes makes a world of difference.
Your heel pain may be plantar fasciitis or tendonitis of the Achilles tendon.
Have the varicose veins evaluated to see if they will be a problem in the future.
Bring your shoes in to be evaluated by the Podiatrist and skip the running shoe store people, trainers and Chiropractors-least qualified to make recommendations.
My partner went to school for 8 years and also spent many years in postgraduate training to be Board Certified in Foot and Ankle Orthopedics & Surgery
Nobody understands Biomechanics like a Podiatrist.
Biomechanics is the study of human motion.


Hope this helps!
Good Luck My Friend!

Dr George Tsatsos & Svetlana Zats
Podiatrist Chicago 60618 & Elmhurst 60126 Podiatrists
Board Certified in Foot and Ankle Surgery & Orthopedics
New South Loop Location-Chicago 60661
AnkleNFoot.com
Runnersdoc.com
BabyFootDoc.com

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