Burning and freezing pain in my weak foot since month three. GP says the nerves will settle. Will they?

#1stevo71(Joined Oct 2026 · 3 posts)October 12, 2026, 10:47 pm

Stroke last April, left side. Walking with a stick, arm coming on, generally doing OK by the standards of this place.

Since about June I've had this pain in my left foot and up the shin. Hard to describe. Burning, like standing on a hot pavement, but the foot also feels cold and sort of numb at the same time, which makes no sense. Worse at night. The duvet touching it makes it jump. Cold weather has started and it's getting worse.

GP checked the foot, pulses fine, nothing wrong with it, sugar fine. Said it's probably the nerves settling after the stroke and gave me painkillers that do nothing at all. Physio says it's not the ankle.

Anyone else had this? Does it settle? Because I'm starting to dread bedtime.

#2davew1966(Joined Oct 2025 · 24 posts)October 13, 2026, 7:55 am

Not had it myself, sorry, my arm has done every other trick in the book but not that one. But a bloke at my stroke club described almost exactly this, the hot and cold at the same time, and it took him ages to get anyone to take it seriously. Push for it. Don't just wait.

#3mattw_tbi(Joined Jun 2025 · 19 posts)October 14, 2026, 9:12 pm

The duvet thing caught my eye. Ask whether it's nerve pain from the brain injury itself rather than from the foot. I had a different version after mine and the normal painkillers did nothing either, it needed a different kind of medicine altogether. I'm not saying what, because it's your doctor's call, but there IS a different category of treatment.

#4Dr Paul HutchinsClinical moderator(Joined Nov 2024 · 64 posts)October 19, 2026, 9:40 am

Stevo, what you describe has the features of central post-stroke pain, so it is worth asking your GP directly about that possibility, by name. I cannot diagnose you from a post, but burning with coldness and numbness in the same area, pain set off by light touch like the duvet, worse in the cold and at night, starting a couple of months after the stroke, on the affected side, with a normal foot on examination, is very close to the classic description.

The key point is where the pain comes from. In central pain the problem is not in the foot. The stroke has disrupted the brain's own pathways for pain and temperature, so the signal is being generated or misread centrally. That is why the foot examines normally, and why ordinary painkillers, which work on tissue damage and inflammation, usually help so little. It most often starts within 1 to 3 months of a stroke, which fits your timing.

Will it settle? For some people it eases over time, and for many it becomes something managed rather than cured. Treatment usually means medicines that act on nerve pain, which your doctor would choose and adjust around your other tablets, plus practical measures such as keeping the foot warm, protecting sleep, and paying attention to mood, because chronic pain and low mood feed each other. If first steps do not help, a referral to a pain clinic or back to the stroke team is reasonable.

The site has just published a piece on central post-stroke pain that sets out what it is and how it is usually treated, and shoulder pain after stroke covers the more common joint pain it gets confused with. Take your own description, the one in your post, to the GP. It is a very good one.

#5stevo71(Joined Oct 2026 · 3 posts)October 20, 2026, 8:33 pm

Dr Paul Hutchins said:

Take your own description, the one in your post, to the GP.

Thank you. I've printed my own post, which feels mad, and I've got an appointment Thursday. Just having a name for it has helped. I'd started wondering if I was making it up because the foot looks so normal.

#6stevo71(Joined Oct 2026 · 3 posts)November 1, 2026, 9:15 pm

Update for anyone who lands here. GP read the printout, said "that does sound central" and started me on one of the nerve pain medicines, low and slow, with a review in a month. Also referred me to the pain clinic as a back up. Too early to say if the tablet works, but I've had three nights in a row where I slept past four, which hasn't happened since summer.

Also bought a bed cradle thing so the duvet doesn't touch the foot. Should have done that months ago.