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In January 2015, Melissa Curley Bogner began to experience an unusual warmth in her feet. Since she’d suffered an allergic reaction in 2000, she was used to feeling numbness in her extremities – but this was different.
Not only did her feet feel warm, but the second toe of her right foot looked inflamed. A few weeks later, it grew into a blister. Bogner, however, chose not to go to the doctor because it didn’t otherwise hurt.
It was only in April that Bogner consulted a doctor about her foot. The doctor thought it was a fungal infection and advised her to get an over-the-counter cream.
This was when things began to go downhill.
The cream only made Bogner’s symptoms worse. Her toe became irritated and the redness was beginning to spread to her third toe. Still, Bogner didn’t pay her foot much attention; other health problems were more pressing at the time.
By the end of May, Bogner’s foot was bothering her so much, she looked for every opportunity to take her shoes off for relief. She sought out her primary care doctor as her symptoms progressively got worse, but he also diagnosed her condition as a fungal infection.
The corticosteroid cream he prescribed – similar to the previous cream Bogner used – only worsened her symptoms. The blister swelled into a cyst, prompting Bogner to seek out the advice of a podiatrist.
At this point, three of the toes on her right foot were affected and her left foot was developing similar symptoms. The podiatrist took a slightly different approach and conducted tests to diagnose Bogner’s condition, but none of them teased out any conclusions.
Bogner was desperate for relief at this point, and just took to Google herself, typing in variations of “burning red feet.” The results led Bogner to figure that she either had small fiber neuropathy or erythromelalgia (EM).
Unable to reach further conclusions by herself, Bogner called the National Organization for Rare Disorders. It was here that Bogner finally met neurologist Dr. Ahmed Kafaji who – after sending Bogner to yet another doctor to complete blood tests – finally diagnosed Bogner with erythromelalgia.
Although Bogner was relieved be diagnosed, the news sent her into a fresh wave of panic. The rarity of EM makes it incredibly difficult to treat, and the limited number of cases that have appeared over the years doesn’t provide doctors much prior data to move forward in developing new treatment methods.
EM cases have improved or disappeared in the past – but this is very uncommon.
