A friend of mine had an incident of very cold and painful feet after a cold weather team ride about a month ago. She was riding with four other women and they all had sore feet after the ride, but this one woman had particularly cold and sore feet. It was about 35 degrees and she was wearing shoe covers. Since that time her toes swell up whenever she rides in cold weather.

She showed me her toes last weekend after a ride and they looked to be saturated with fluid--- Basically the toes has swollen up to the point where the skin on each toe was tight. Frankly, each toe looked like a little erection.

I have never seen anything like this before. I suspect she may have had some sort of tissue damage over that first ride that is causing her current problems. I am going to recommend she see a doctor, but I am not sure a typical doctor would offer her much help, because she has no symptoms when she is not biking in cold weather. I did some Internet research on frostbite, frostnip, and chilblains but did not see a good match between the symptoms of those injuries and the swollen toes my friend is experiencing. (Of course, online searches can provide sketchy information so I am not ruling out frostnip.) I also looked at her shoes and they seemed to fit fine, although I think she had been tightening her velcro straps a little bit too much.

Has anyone experienced this? Any suggested treatments or preventive measures?