Now about my toe's! follow up!

[Brandi]

Ok i had my Dr's appointment today. My x-rays looked great then we got down to it. OMG! the Dr made me sweat! She pushed on parts of my feet that hurt so bad I wanted to punch someone! She honestly thinks i have something called Morton's neuroma. She thinks mine is genetic but you can get it from bad fitted shoes. It causes a burning pain in the ball of the foot. The pain radiates through the toes. it intensifies when active.
It all came together for me. I started seriosly excercising about 12 years ago. But it seemed I had felt it before? But I wasn't sure. She said if I had not been terribly active before that it would have been intermitent. And now that I am always active I notice it a lot more. There is a spot also on my big toe if you press on it lightly it is a shooting awful pain. I thought that was different but it is all related. She has given me a shot of corticosteroid. I am supposed to go for a hike on sunday and see if I can get my toes to hurt and see if it helps the one she gave the shot too. If it does then it is Morton's. She said then she will do the other toes see what happens. I can have a simple operation to relieve it. I would probably just do the one big toe sence that is the worst. But heck why not go for it and live without the pain. And down time after the operation is only a week or two depending how fast I heal. I sure hope this works. We are plannong a big hike for this weekend now. I could just do a bike ride too but hiking really brings it out more then biking.

[KnottedYet]

I have a grumpy neuroma in my left foot, and less grumpy in my right.

Luckily mine behave with shoes with wider toe boxes (or I stretch the toe box with a piece of wood) and Superfeet with metatarsal head pads.

Keep us posted!

(if she gets to discussing surgery, ask her if you will have numbness from the nerve being removed)

[Brandi]

I have a grumpy neuroma in my left foot, and less grumpy in my right.

Luckily mine behave with shoes with wider toe boxes (or I stretch the toe box with a piece of wood) and Superfeet with metatarsal head pads.

Keep us posted!

(if she gets to discussing surgery, ask her if you will have numbness from the nerve being removed)

she said Ii would have numbness. Is that bad?

[bike4ever]

I've had the surgery. It was so nice to not have the burning pain when cycling or driving extended periods of time. Mine was removed between the 3rd and 4th metatarsal. He came in from the top to make recovery quicker. Both of those toes have a different feel to them, but I wouldn't call them numb - hard to describe.

I did try the cortisone shots first. I absolutely hated them.

I also use Superfeet now with a small slight cutout for a dropped met head. I use the Superfeet in my daily and cycling shoes.

[KnottedYet]

If the met head isn't dropped too far, you can get it back into the met arch with exercises. I got one of mine back into place, the other is still a bit low (but not dropped). The low one is the same side as the grumpy neuroma. I need to get to work on that one, I might be able to relieve some of the pressure in that foot. But I'm so darn lazy... and it's not bothering me much... and I'm really lazy...

do as I say, not as I do!

I'm a total chicken about surgery, and I'd do darn near anything to avoid it.

[Brandi]

I am not entirely sure what you are saying. I don't know the lingo? Dropped? I think you mean metatarsal for met?

[bike4ever]

KnottedYet - Please describe the exercise you were able to use to improve your dropped met head. I find I have become extremely picky as to my footwear of late. I am only using my Brooks Ariel for daily shoes with Superfeet and my Sidi Mega wide for cycling. I can use my Chaco's for short periods, but they will push on the dropped one too much.

[KnottedYet]

Oh, sorry! The metatarsals are the "knuckles" of the ball of your foot. If you have a dropped met head, it means the normal arch of your forefoot that goes left to right from big toe to pinky toe is "dropped" at one of the met heads. That particular met head has sunk down a little from the arch the rest of them are trying to hold.

The easiest way to see if you have one is to look at the sole of your foot, at the ball. Often you will get a big ol' callous under a dropped met head (mine was under my 2nd toe knuckle) When that met arch flattens the nerves running through the ball of the foot get sqeezed, there's less room in a flattened met arch.

If you've already got a neuroma, the pressure from a flattened met arch can take it from being an occaisional irritant to being unending misery. (mine did that.) If you don't have a neuroma already, a flattened met arch can give you some of the symptoms of one, but it won't be anything like the level of misery caused by a true neuroma!

[Brandi]

Ok I am going for my big walk tomorrow to see if the shot had any effect on my toe's. I sure hope so then at least I know I am going in the right direction. I don't like the shots though.

[Xrayted]

Good luck with your foot problems. Sounds like you've got a good doc there. I've had an uphill battle here for a long time to get mine fixed.
The 4th MT in my left foot dropped about 10 years ago, probably related to the trauma from a previous accident. I've had unending pain with every step since then. It's almost impossible for me to walk barefoot on hard surfaces. (I love being barefoot) None of my recent orthopods wanted to take care of it. I now have a guy who is willing to not only fix this, but also the fibular misalignment on that leg from previous operations. So, I will eventually have them done at the same time. It was looking like right after my vacation in Mar-Apr but now I'm not so sure. It is so ultra conservative around here, I had to wait for a west coast dude to move here so I can get properly fixed up. What a shame...

[Brandi]

Good luck with your foot problems. Sounds like you've got a good doc there. I've had an uphill battle here for a long time to get mine fixed.
The 4th MT in my left foot dropped about 10 years ago, probably related to the trauma from a previous accident. I've had unending pain with every step since then. It's almost impossible for me to walk barefoot on hard surfaces. (I love being barefoot) None of my recent orthopods wanted to take care of it. I now have a guy who is willing to not only fix this, but also the fibular misalignment on that leg from previous operations. So, I will eventually have them done at the same time. It was looking like right after my vacation in Mar-Apr but now I'm not so sure. It is so ultra conservative around here, I had to wait for a west coast dude to move here so I can get properly fixed up. What a shame...

awwwwwww! Good luck with your foot problem too. I can not imagine having foot pain all the time. You have made me realize I am fortunate and if I had to live with it the rest of my life I could but only cause I don't feel it all the time. Except she did say it would probably just get worse the older I got. So I don't know....... Please keep me up to date on what happens. I will keep my fingers crossed for you!

[Crankin]

Brandi, my husband had surgery on his M.N. in January 2002. His was caused by walking about 40 city blocks in NYC in dress shoes! He would go into unbelievable spasms of pain out of the blue after that. He was down seriously about a week and his foot was numb for a few months, but it does go away. He was cycling by the first of March and did the cycling leg of the Tuckerman's Notch pentathalon in April.
Be careful that you have the right surgery. Some doctors do a partial type of operation. My neighbor's daughter had the less involved surgery and she still is in pain.