All posts by : Synchro

As many of you have noticed, there has been a drastic drop in temperature lately. We have all pulled out our winter coats, scarves and mittens; and that goes the same about our boots and shoes too! We cannot neglect our feet, and the weather determines what we walk around in.

Keeping your feet nice and toasty!

Layers, layers, layers! That’s what you need to keep in mind when dressing for this chilly weather! You can start by avoiding open-toed shoes such as sandals, wedges or even those peep toe booties. Wearing thicker socks with your shoes will help keep out the winter weather, and leg warmers are a great idea for your lower legs! ‘Tis the season when the emergency room fills up with all sorts of winter related injuries, such as frostbite on fingers and toes! The extreme cold or exposure to this cold weather for a long period of time can cause you to get frost bite. This occurs when there isn’t enough blood and oxygen pulsing through an organ due to the severe temperatures. This is a serious emergency, if your affected body part isn’t re-vascularized properly, amputation might occur.

Giving you stability through the cooler seasons!

Now is the time to pull out your fashion-friendly and foot-friendly boots. Both men and women, young and old can wear nice boots- autumn through winter! Boots are nice because they usually are made of sturdy materials which keep out the elements such as rain, sleet and snow! The height of the boot can also give you a nice added ankle support. And, if you still feel unbalanced in your shoes when walking around, we can perform a risk fall assessment and recommend a special type of brace for your foot type and gait. If you have any uneasiness about your stability when walking, now is the time to get assessed and fitted for a bracing device, to avoid strains, sprains and fractures, which can be very inconvenient, especially during the holidays!

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about weather changes and the effect on our feet, come into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at any of our 3 offices in Frederick, MD and Urbana, MD.

Party Time!

We are proud to announce that we have successfully opened our 3rd location of Frederick Foot & Ankle! I am sure if you have taken a stroll down Thomas Johnson Drive you have seen the new office. But you can’t see much from just a drive by… So we thought we would host a Grand Opening Party, at the new location to invite all of our current and possible new patient to visit and take a tour of our new diggs! The Grand Opening this Saturday, November 15, 2014, from 11 am – 4 pm at 141 Thomas Johnson Drive Suite 170 Frederick Md 21702! Key 103 will be on site providing music. There will be games and prizes and one lucky attendee with win a new ipad!

If you are new to our podiatric practice don’t worry we don’t bite, come on out to meet our fantastic doctors and learn about what we treat, from warts, plantar fasciitis to ankle sprains.

Plantar Warts

Plantar Warts are very common in the summer time and in children. Plantar warts are caused by a virus and can spread easily from person to person; or even one area of the body to another area. For example, if you had a plantar wart on your foot and you touch it with your finger, your finger might show some signs and symptoms of an early stage wart, sooner than later! Gross huh?! We have plenty of treatment options to take away your plantar wart woes!

Plantar Fasciitis

Plantar Fasciitis is equally as common in males and females in our adult patient population. It might come from change it exercise routine, daily activities or even weight loss or weight gain. This pesky problem of plantar faciitis is that it is a cyclic disease process, if you don’t cure the underlying causes and just treat the symptoms this will be a life long problem! That’s why at FFA we try to nip it in the bud, and treat early with a multitude of treatment options from stretching, icing regiment, physical therapy, temporarily bracing, to orthotics!

Ankle Sprains

Ankle sprains are common all year round, most often occurring in our athlete patient population.Most ankle sprains are from some sort of sporting injury, chronic or acute. If you constantly are spraining your ankles as a child athlete, that could lead to ankle instability, in adulthood. You can either sprain the medial or lateral aspects of your ankle, meaning you can damage the different ligaments that help stabilize your foot and ankle together during stance and gait. We like to treat our ankle sprains in with a multitude of treatment options ranging from taking away the soft tissue swelling with icing and manual modalities, then we would like to add supportive bracing with strengthen exercises. And with this regiment and some other treatment options your ankles can feel as good as new!

From the whole FFA family we hope to see you on Saturday, November 15, from 11- 4pm!

How healthy are your arteries?

Do you ever experience extremely painful muscle cramping in your hips, buttock, thighs or calves when walking or exercising? Does this pain stop after a few minutes after you stop walking or exercising? If you answered yes, to these questions you might be at risk for PAD.

What is PAD?

It’s estimated that Peripheral arterial disease affects approximately 8.5 million Americans. This cramping pain that you feel is called intermittent claudication. This is basically when your muscles are alarming the rest of your body that it needs more blood, in order to keep walking or exercising. Sometimes blockages in your arteries, due to plaques, won’t allow enough blood to get to the muscles that it is demanding. The older you are the more at risk you are for having PAD.

How can you diagnose PAD?

PAD can be diagnosed through a series of non- invasive vascular test, such as ABIs (Ankle Brachial index). This is an exam where you compare the blood pressure of your ankles to the blood pressure to your arms, this determines how well your blood is flowing.

We simple place blood pressure cuffs on your arms, thighs, calves and ankles and take your blood pressure at each level. This is a painless test that is quick and easy to perform in our office. If you think you might need a test please don’t hesitate we will be glad to perform the exam and review your results.

If you or someone you know might be interest in discussing more about PAD signs and symptoms, come into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at any of our 3 offices in Frederick, MD or Urbana, MD.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, so show your pink pride to support Breast Cancer Awareness and wear some pink. This month we aim to raise awareness of this devastating disease. While many people are aware of breast cancer in general, however we strive to educate people about early detection. With all cancers, but especially breast cancer, the treatment options have better prognosis and outcomes with earlier detection and diagnosis.

Social Media: In October the National Breast Cancer Foundation takes the social medial world by storm. They have their own Facebook, Twitter and even their own YouTube channel! With all this promotion over social media they can spread the word about their amazing community reach out programs. From “Early Detection Plan” to “Beyond the Shock” to their generous fundraisers.

The “Early Detection Plan” aims to preemptively fight Breast Cancer, in the best way we know how… by having a plan that help you detect this disease sooner than later. If you go on the National Breast Cancer Foundation you can customize a calendar so that you can receive reminders to do a self-breast exam at home and to have scheduled mammograms. The time period between your mammograms, differs from person to person, because it is based on your age and/or your family’s health history.

The “Beyond the Shock” program aims to help recent diagnosed people or family member better understand the disease; from staging to the different treatment options. If you go to the official website for the National Breast Cancer Foundation there is a Beyond the Shock, link that leads you into a comprehensive online guide to all the ins and outs of breast cancer as a disease. Funding: October is a huge month not only for raising awareness, it is also a big month for fundraising opportunities. The National Breast Cancer Foundation holds fundraisers to help provide mammograms for women in need. Also, the Susan G. Komen walk is held in October. One of our Frederick Foot and Ankle team members has volunteered, at the medical tent for the “Race for the Cure” in Philadelphia for the past 2 years. “It’s amazing to hear their stories and to be able to give back is a wonderful experience. Its touching how each and every one of the race participants is a fighter, whether they are a survivor themselves or a friend or family member.”

On a Saturday recently SoldierFit hosted a tournament called Mission Submission, which included different disciplines of Martial Arts to showcase their abilities. They are known to be the Greatest Grappling Tournament in the DMV area!

Common Injuries of Grappling?

Overtime the constant jamming or micro-trauma to the big toe joint (1st metatarsalphalangeal joint (1st MPJ)) can turn into Turf Toe, yes even though grappling usually occurs on mats. The term Turf Toe originated from football players wearing their flexible cleats, allowing their big toe to jam into their 1st metatarsal head, at each push off for a tackle or a sprint. With each hyperextension of their 1st MPJ it causes micro-trauma to the joint, resulting in chronic painful movement down the line.

Hallux Limitus/Hallus Rigidus

Turf Toe official term is Hallux Limitus/Hallus Rigidus (HL/HR). You might start complaining of a painful big toe, with a constant aching, dull, and/or throbbing pain. This pain could result from some acute trauma or a repetitive micro-trauma, such as pushing off the mat while preparing for Mission Submission grappling tourney. You might experience decrease range of motion (up and down motion) in your big toe joint.

Treatment Options

Conservative treatment options for hallux limitus/hallux rigidus are orthotics, rocker bottom soled shoes, NSAIDs or intra-articular corticosteroid injections. There are also multiple surgical options for HL/HR that can be discussed and scheduled with anyone of your wonderful doctors.

If you or someone you know might be interest in discussing more about your hallux limitus or hallux rigidus, come into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at any of our 3 offices in Frederick, MD or Urbana, MD.

What is Sever’s disease?

Sever’s disease is also known as calcaneal apophysitis. It is not as severe as its name may lead you to think. Sever’s disease is an inflammation (swelling) of the growth plate in the calcaneus bone, or the heel bone. SD is very common in active growing kids, effecting boys more than girls. SD usually occurs during a growth spurt around the age ranges of 8-13 years old in females and 10-15 years old in males. Kids often complain about certain shoes or cleats hurting them during practices, games, or even at recess. You will notice a decrease in physical activity in your child. Certain extreme foot types can exacerbate their symptoms, such as a flat feet or high arches. SD is also common in overweight children.

How is it treated?

Sever’s disease, or childhood heel pain, is often treated similarly to adult heel pain (plantar fasciitis). Stretching exercises are usually the first line of defense. You really need to help release all these tight posterior compartment muscles in your lower leg, i.e. your calf muscles. Your local podiatrist should have more information and can properly train your child on how to do these exercises. There’s also RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. The RICE treatment is used to relieve some of the swelling at the heel bone. Also heel cups and inserts can be worn in shoes, such as sneakers and cleats, to help the posterior calf muscles pull less on the heel bone. If the pain isn’t relieved by the above listed treatments, maybe an oral anti-inflammatory medication would help relieve some symptoms. However, oral anti-inflammatory medicines will only help with symptom relief and won’t be treating the underlying cause. To treat the root cause, one must loosen up the posterior calf muscles and allow the heel bone to rest. This is the main source of treatment for Sever’s disease.

If you or someone you know might be interest in discussing more about your child’s heel pain, come into the office of Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment for you, at any of our 3 offices in Frederick, MD and Urbana, MD.

How to prepare your kids feet for the busy start of a new school year?

Everybody looks forward to the new school year; whether it’s the kids growing tired of the summer camps and preseason and missing their school friends, or parent’s anxiousness to get the kids out of the house again. So many focus on all the brand new supplies and fresh clothes that each new school year brings, but you also must have those final health checkups to start the year off right. There is a pull in the healthcare community for more preventative medicine to help patients be made aware of possible future health issues; opposed to having to treat something that could have been avoided all together. So before you send your kids on their way to a new school year, make sure that you visit your podiatrist to check up on their foot and ankle health.

What do you need to have checked up on?

Kids are constantly growing and developing, especially in the early years of life. You hear of the astonishing stories that some kids grow up to 6 inches in a summer, but no one really talks about how that growth spurt can affect their feet. Not only can their feet get bigger and require larger shoes, but it can also mean major changes in their foot type, rectus, flat foot (no arch), or even cavus foot (high arches).

How important is having a proper foot check?

It is vital that we keep an eye on our little ones feet as they are growing; some conditions they can naturally grow out of, for example, toe walking or a pigeon-toed gate pattern. However, more severe pediatric conditions need further evaluation and treatment.

If you or someone you know might be interest in discussing more about your “back to school feet”, come into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at any of our 3 offices in Frederick, MD or Urbana, MD.

Hey all you FFA bloggers! Do you ever have a tingling feeling in your feet and legs after you start an afternoon walk or evening run? Does it ever feel like you are stepping on pins and needles during or after your exercise? Do these pains ever keep you from your exercise routine? If so you might want to consider coming into our office to discuss your symptoms.

There are many reasons that might cause you to have this type of pain. However, most of the time people complain about burning, pins and needle pain; they have some sort of nerve conduction disorder.

You might be asking yourself what in the world is a nerve conduction disorder? Nerves are what allow us to feel different sensations. They also sends signals to our muscles to move. Even though you might have good muscle strength, you might be suffering from a nerve problem. This type of nerve disorder might be from damage, previous trauma, including micro trauma, or other disorders. Basically, there is a disconnect from one nerve ending to another nerve ending creating misfire of the electrical impulses, thus causing you to feel pins and needles in your lower legs and feet. There are many tests and procedures that your local podiatrist can do to help you and your nerve disorder.

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about the pins and needles you get when exercising with me or another one of our knowledgeable podiatrists, come on into the office of Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at either of our locations in Frederick, MD or Urbana, MD. We can set you up the proper evaluation and treatment plan to help you relieve your foot and ankle concerns; don’t hesitate visiting your local podiatrists! Don’t waste your time come on in to avoid any summertime sadness.

Hey all you FFA bloggers! I hope you have been enjoying your summer so far! This hot and sultry weather has taken Frederick polar opposite from this past winter. I love it here in Maryland! Maryland gives its residents the opportunity to experience all the four seasons in each extreme. Even though humidity is the worst, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

If you follow our Facebook and Twitter accounts you already know that we sent a FFA running team to participate in the Baltimore 10 Miler and the Fairfield, CT Half-marathon. The half-marathon was in a cute little beach town right up I-95, from MD to CT. The course had many more hills than what you would expect for a beach course to have.

At both of these races we noticed a few participants running without shoes. That’s right, I repeat, they were running without shoes, socks, nada! And what was so disturbing was that they were running faster than me! Believe me when I say that I was keeping up a good pace throughout the races. When I was abruptly passed by a group of barefoot runners, I was thinking to myself, “Wow! They must have trained themselves to withstand harsh jagged rocks and the scorching hot pavement.” However, after the race I found this mysterious group of barefoot runners and here they were tending to their fresh foot wounds and limping around like they were in old age. And I, myself, was walking around like I could do round 2 with ease! So I wouldn’t recommend to anyone to run barefoot, especially on long distance races!

If you or someone you know might be interested in discussing more about what shoes would best fit your particular foot type with me or another one of our knowledgeable podiatrists, come on into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at either of our locations in Frederick, MD or Urbana, MD. We can set you up the proper evaluation and treatment plan to help you relieve your foot and ankle concerns; don’t hesitate visiting your local podiatrists! Don’t waste your time come on in to avoid any summertime sadness.

Hey all you FFA bloggers! Are you guys ready for the summertime? This past weekend was gorgeous; I hope many of you got to enjoy some family time outside, whether if it’s swimming, biking, or hiking! But if you have had some unsteadiness walking you must get checked out by your local podiatrist. Make sure that you are getting in to see your podiatrist for your fall risk assessment.

This fall risk assessment is something we do in the office to rate the amount of risk that you have of falling. Your unsteadiness might come from weak muscles, bones, unclear eyesight, or even your perception of the ground being altered. We take all of these risk factors and give you a score. Depending of this score you may need some anti-fall braces.

Anti-fall braces are lightweight and custom molded to fit each patient perfectly! They easily slip into your shoes and are comfortable to wear during any of your normal day-to-day activities. Anti-fall braces provide you with an equal balance of comfort and stability that you need when you are active and independent!

If you or someone you know has an unsteady gait (or walking pattern) and might be interested in discussing more about your foot and ankle health, a fall risk assessment, and anti-fall braces with me or another one of our knowledgeable podiatrists, come on into our office Frederick Foot & Ankle. We would be more than happy to schedule an appointment, at either of our locations in Frederick, MD or Urbana, MD. We can set you up the proper evaluation and treatment plan to help you relieve your foot and ankle concerns; don’t hesitate visiting your local podiatrists! Don’t waste any time this season and come on in to avoid any summertime sadness.