Conversation: The conversation between human and AI assistant.
[|Human|] I am a 29 year old female who is currently terrified thinking I have RA or something like that. About 5 days ago my feet started hurting or rather aching. Its gotten a little worse and now it is switching between a dull aching and sharp pain every now and then. Both feet feel the same way and my heels hurt badly when I stand up. Almost as if I have no padding under them? It does no good to rest and put my feet up or walk. Feels the same regardless. Today was the worst yet and its extremely uncomfortable to stand. I have not done any sort of exercise, had no accidents or anything. I am self employed..work from home so Im not on my feet all day or anything like that. I do not have any swelling, redness or warmtChatDoctoring from my feet. Only discomfort, aching pain. It radiates up into my ankles as well and also hurts in the tops of some of my toes off and on. Mainly the heels though. I have no prior foot problems. I currently have been taking Viibryd for about 8 weeks and I did read it can cause joint pain but feel this is probably not caused by a medication. I should also mention about a year ago or so I did have aching and tenderness in my wrists and thumbs. It lasted a few weeks and then went away and I have had no prior issues (I am a wedding photographer so I shoot weddings on the weekends a other shoots during the week so I figured I was having issues from holding my camera and editing on my computer daily). My Dr. told me to let her know if my hands started up again and that she would test me for RA. So now that this is happening with my feet I am terrified beyond belief. Im hoping there is another explanation. Everything I have read online about RA sounds terrible and basically says that it is crippling and it ruins your ability to lead a normal life.
[|AI|]  Hi, thank you for providing the brief history of you. A thorough neuromuscular assessment is advised. As mentioned by you the brief history I do not feel you have an RA issue. As per me, I feel you need to get assessed your neck and lower back region for any soft tissue Injury. As one of the thing which triggered me to think this is the symptoms of radiation. What I can say is over here it is repetitive stress injury which has got wide based of a combination of symptoms. Also, when there is nerve impingement there symptoms can occur into the distal joints and feels like something else could be there, but the actual cause will be in the root of the nerve. Once traced by a clinical neuromuscular assessment and with the help of an MRI of lumbar spine one should be able to guide you better with it. Also, exercise is a wide subject to mention here but undergoing a proper physical therapy for your problem should solve your pain and aches to the maximum. Physical therapy is a non invade way of getting treated with no side effects. In my clinical practice patient come with similar complaints and have prescription on which it mentioned something else. But the root cause is the spinal nerve root. As human body lands into the degenerative phase depending upon the metabolism of each individual and lifestyle as well. As per my personal Hanson in clinic I feel you should get an MRI of lumbar spine done and see the soft tissue status. Also, a physical therapist will be of help to you. RegardsJay In Chat Doctor.