Mysterious Foot Pain - Need answers after 5 years of nothing

About 5 years ago, I started experiencing sharp painful spasms right below my left ankle on the exterior side. It primarily happened in the evenings close to bedtime. I dealt with it for about 3 years and considered it a nuisance until about 2 years ago when it got worse. At that point, it was keeping me up at night and I even started experiencing similar pain when turning or twisting my ankle while doing things like putting on boots or socks. I’ve spent those last 2 years seeing an unending list of doctors and specialists who have not been able to make any diagnosis or progress on my issue. Below is a summary, in order, of who I’ve seen and what they’ve done:

Chiropractor – first person I brought it up to after visiting them with an unrelated issue (sore back). They also specialized in sports medicine. He thought maybe I had injured it so he took X-rays and said nothing looked wrong. He then asked me to put it in ice water first, which did nothing but trigger the painful spasms. He then immobilized my ankle for 3 days and that didn’t do anything either, so I moved on to my normal family PA.

Physicians Assistant – they thought the painful spasms could potentially be related to a nerve issue, so they ordered me a nerve conduction study. That ended up coming back negative, and they said maybe it had to do with nerves so small the test didn’t pick it up. As a result, she sent me to a podiatrist. The podiatrist injected the nerve right below the ankle with a numbing agent and had me come back after a few days. At no point did the spasms or pain subside after the injection, so I returned to the PA. Next, she sent me to a foot and ankle orthopedist who ordered me an MRI. The only finding on the MRI according to the orthopedist was a small amount of bruising on the bottom of my cuboid bone. He didn’t elaborate beyond that and gave me no additional information. When I returned to the PA her last idea was having me see one more foot and ankle specialist, who I drove quite far to see. He was also perplexed, took additional x-rays, found nothing, and said we would proceed with a two step plan. The first was to wear an insole, which I’ve been doing ever since (about 1 year now) and if that didn’t work he would potentially consider exploratory surgery.

So I never returned to this doctor. Like before I’ve just dealt with it, but now it has progressed once again to where instead of it being painful spasms primarily at night and a few during the day, it’s now developed into it being very dull and achy at all times with increasing severity at night. I’ve had to take Advil every single night for the past few years just to fall asleep, sometimes waking up when it wears off in the middle of the night and having to take more before I can fall asleep again.

So here are some key facts on the history of this issue

1.Never has their been any noticeable swelling, discoloration or physical deformities of the area

2.Almost all physical examinations by doctors don’t result in any significant “pain points” especially when the issue was originally just confined to the spasms at night. However, in the past month it’s essentially now to where I can push on certain areas to replicate the pain at any time as well as certain orientations of the foot always triggering the pain

3.The pain itself when I both push on the area or roll it/step wrong is identical to the pain you feel when you press on a good sized bruise.

While I can deal with the pain, it troubles me to lose sleep and also take as much Advil as I do, which I know can’t be healthy. I usually get through the night with one pill, but when you multiply that by a few years it’s very concerning. I am not even 30 yet and I can't stand the thought of dealing with this for another 40+ years!

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