Morton's Foot?

[Bike Chick]

Well this post has been an epiphany! I was diagnosed with a stress fracture a couple weeks ago and the dr described the foot condition to me without calling it Morton's foot. After reading all the posts and checking out the links, this describes my problem to a tee. I bought some moleskin and placed 4 layers under my first metatarcel bone and OH MY GOODNESS what a difference it made! I can walk without pain for the first time in weeks. Forget about walking barefoot anywhere or anyplace because I hobble like an old woman. I still have a copy of my xrays and when I took a look, my second metatarcel bone is a good inch longer than my first.

I have suffered so on the bike with a hot foot on my right foot. I've changed pedals, bought 3 different pair of shoes, then it just got worse when I started running again resulting in a stress fracture. I'm realizing now maybe there's some hope.

Zia and Oakleaf, do you ride with clipless pedals and has it been much of a problem on the bike?

[OakLeaf]

an INCH??? wow.

I don't actually have any trouble on the bike. I've used Look-style pedals, and toe clips before that. Before I learned about all this stuff, I put the intermediate Specialized arch supports in my shoes, just because they were available and I had custom orthotics in all my athletic shoes; but in my first incarnation as a cyclist, I didn't have any arch trouble or arch-related knee trouble. It's likely I still put more weight on the second met head on the bike, but it doesn't seem to cause the kinds of trouble it does for me on the ground. But the difference in length in my metatarsals isn't near what yours is.

Knot, I really want to make barefooting work. I know it won't happen overnight, but I've struggled for almost a year now in Yoga. In all the standing poses, they're talking about "four corners of the feet" and "creating the arch with your big toe mound" and meantime, I can have my ankles in neutral, or I can have my big toe mound on the mat, but not both at the same time, no matter how hard I try. I can't even take my hands and force it down to the ground without my ankle caving, it just doesn't reach. So that's why I asked about stretches.

[Bike Chick]

Well, Oak, your reaction made me go measure the xray........don't have me guess your height or weight because I apparently suck at guesstimates. It was actually between 1/2 and 3/4 of an inch.

Do the custom orthontics help? I'm getting some next week.

[OakLeaf]

Do the custom orthotics help? I'm getting some next week.

As I said in the other thread (or maybe at the top of this one ), they relieved the arch pain and some of the knee pain, but caused all manner of other issues.

I'm transitioning gradually to padding the first metatarsal heads. In the meantime I'm still using the orthotics intermittently. I can't wait to be rid of them! If I didn't have this half-marathon coming up before I've made the full transition, I wouldn't even be using the orthotics at all. I just don't think it's a good idea to do a long race in the pads before my muscles and tendons have had a chance to adjust completely.

If I can then transition to unsupported barefoot, I would really love to do that.

[Bike Chick]

Thanks for the help and good luck on your half!

[zia]

. Do the custom orthontics help? I'm getting some next week.

I developed a stress fracture in my second metatarsal in ~1992. I am now on my third pair of custom orthotics since that time. As I mentioned before, not! one! podiatrist/sports medicine doc/physical therapist ever paid any attention to my feet beyond the arch/ankle area. NONE of those orthotics had any type of forefoot padding. And I have experienced knee pain on pretty much every single run since 1990 (I am good at ignoring it, and it never lasts long) -- until I self-diagnosed Morton's Foot last weekend and added my own little pads. No knee pain!

My arches are horribly flat, and I think the orthotics were good for them at a certain time and place, especially when my knees were at their worst. My mentor has a pair of customs and she successfully off of them (after 10+ years) about a year ago and I would like to do the same!

Now off to go hook my bike up to the trainer and play around with padding in my bike shoes.

[zia]

Zia and Oakleaf, do you ride with clipless pedals and has it been much of a problem on the bike?

I do ride with clipless pedals. I have always struggled with the strange sensation that I'm not transmitting enough power through my feet, and that my cleats were in different positions on each of my shoes. (My MF is significantly more pronounced on the left, where my third metatarsal is also longer than the first.) I've actually taken my shoes off to make sure the cleats were in the same spot!

When I was recently professionally fitted, the fitter had me mark on my shoes where the ball of my foot (aka first metatarsal) was and placed the cleats directly beneath that. They actually had been further forward, and moving them back has felt very strange, and not in a good way -- again, I just feel like I'm not transmitting much power through my feet, if that makes sense. Of course this is so -- all my energy is going through my second metatarsal, not my first! Sooo... I'm going to try padding up my bike shoes (perhaps a little thicker than my running shoes) and see if it makes a difference. Maybe it will make me more balanced. And faster.

OakLeaf, you sound like me at yoga. I am constantly wobbling and crashing. I'd always thought I was just uncoordinated... now, maybe not!

[Bike Chick]

I hear you Zia about wobbling and bobbling! The website's description of Morton's foot says it's like walking on an ice skate. I resemble that remark

[Bike Chick]

Good luck with the padding. Let us know if it helps on the trainer.

Ladies, this is good info to take to the dr next week. I'm going armed with information and questions. Thanks for your help.

[zia]

Took a spin to nowhere with enhanced shoes on the trainer.

Definitely noticed enhanced contact with pedal. Felt like my cleats were equally positioned. Whether that translates into anything meaningful remains to be seen. It's so hard to tell on the trainer...

[KnottedYet]

Let me reiterate: Morton's foot is NOT a "deformity."
(Knot tears hair out and goes to weep alone in the corner)

The pattern of pains and calluses described on various websites are not unique to Morton's foot. Every foot that pronates too much or that has sloppy muscles and a dropped 2nd met head is gonna be just like that. Greek Foot or Egyptian Foot, they will look and feel the same. Pronation and dropped met heads are POSTURAL problems, not STRUCTURAL problems. They happen to us all.

Now, I'm gonna lecture about accommodation vs correction.

Accommodation is allowing a problem to continue, but finding a way to cover for it. It's like if your brother is an alcoholic and keeps getting into trouble for weaving his way home from the bar singing loudly and cussing at the neighbors. So you start stocking your house with lots of booze so he does his drinking at home. No more singing and cussing, no more problem... right?

Correction is fixing the ultimate cause of the problem. You send your brother to AA. No more singing and cussing, no more problem... right?

The result is the same. The question is which fits into your lifestyle better?

The pad under the first met head is an accommodation.
Stretching the tightened structures of the forefoot and strengthening the muscles of the foot (and really all the way up to the hip) is a correction.

Both have their good points and their bad points.