Morton's Foot?

[zia]

Just read a book on trigger point therapy and realized I have Morton's Foot -- very long second metatarsal. I immediately followed the book's recommendation and added a light moleskin pad (maybe 2 mm?) beneath the ball of my first metatarsal, on the bottom of my insole. But... I saw in another post that someone with this condition was looking for a pad significantly thicker. Is that just personal preference, or is moleskin too thin?

Secondly, does the padding help? I have a nearly endless list of leg/foot/hip injuries (PF, stress fractures, knee pain, ankle pain, hip pain -- primarily from running, but biking doesn't help) and am curious how much difference this will make...

[snapdragen]

I just saw a podiatrist this week for excruciating foot pain when walking. I don't have the same diagnosis as you, but close. My doc has me using these:

http://www.ourhealthnetwork.com/stor...sp?item_id=377

Only I do not put them on the ball of my foot, but back further, same as your moleskin.

[pfunk12]

A few years ago when I was doing a lot of mileage while training for a marathon, I was experiencing a lot of foot pain. I went to a podiatrist and learned that I had Morton's Foot but the pain I was experiencing was from neuromas - in both feet. The pads that the podiatrist gave me were fairly thick - with holes cut out in the middle. To be honest, they didn't help but that's because the neuromas had gotten too big. I used the pads, got cortisone shots, completed the marathon but eventually had to have surgery to remove the neuromas.

I hope the pads that you end up using help ease any pain you have!

[OakLeaf]

That would be me.

They help incredibly well in my walking-around shoes. Yes in pain and trigger points, but most obviously, in balance in everyday activities. I'm still adapting to them in my running shoes, but once I get the size and placement sorted I'm sure they're going to be great.

Molefoam just wasn't nearly enough for me. What you need to do is put your ankle in neutral, see how high your big toe joint is off the ground, and make your pad that thick (taking into account compression of both your foot flesh and the pad itself). One of the sites selling "proprioceptive" insoles has 3 mm and 6 mm sizes. I'm taping and gluing all kinds of stuff inside my running shoes right now but the mouse pad seemed to be roughly the same thickness as what I have in my walking-around shoes.

[OakLeaf]

You might try experimenting with your walking-around shoes first, as I did. When you're running, the forces just make the chance of injury that much greater if things aren't right, plus you don't really want to stop and make adjustments on your shoes in the middle of a run.

Also, the difference in your ability to balance shows up a lot more in your ADLs than it does when you're moving straight ahead on pavement.

I've found that I want at least some padding under my big toes, in addition to under the joint. Otherwise, it's just too long of a reach for my toe to reach the ground.

I'm definitely giving my body some time for the muscles to re-train themselves, too. I'm not running nearly as short as they tell you to when you're adapting to barefooting, but I haven't done a long run in the pads yet, and unfortunately I think I'm going to have to run next week's half-marathon in my old orthotics.

What have you been using up til now? OTC arch supports, custom ones, or nothing?

[zia]

Thanks, OakLeaf -- this is all very interesting. My walk-around shoes are very uncomfortable, and I walk just about everywhere. I'll have to improve those -- they are an old pair of poorly-fitting running shoes.

This morning, I ran for 2 miles in my newly-configured current running shoes. I put a small, 2-3mm moleskin pad under the insole beneath my big toe. I do wear custom orthotics. They are half-sole, and I'd just cut an old insole in half, leaving 1" of overlap at the midsole (probably very bad) so I put a full, flat insole in the shoe and put my orthotic on top of that. The ball of my right foot almost immediately cramped, but relaxed after a mile. I was definitely aware of the moleskin padding, and things felt... different. "Better" will remain to be seen, especially since I have a 10K race on Monday.

I got my first custom orthotics in 1996 after developing a stress fracture on my second metatarsal. I'm on my third pair and am surprised not a single podiatrist has ever mentioned Morton's Foot -- and that every pair of orthotics has focused exclusively on the heel and arch area of my foot, not the forefoot. I was reading "The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook," and when I got to the Morton's Foot section, I felt like was reading about myself. I have all the classic callus patterns, pain in many of the referral points mentioned, and, of course, a freakishly long second metatarsal!

I have been doing much with the Pose method over the past year, which also made me realize how unbalanced I am in regards to my forefoot -- when I deliberately try to land evenly on all my metatarsals (not easy), I notice an **immediate** decrease in pain.

I have my first trigger point therapy session on Friday and I'm very curious to hear what the therapist says about all my self-research.

Yet one more reason barefoot running might be a complete disaster for me. Oh. Well. Somewhere, out there, there's a secret to pain-free legs...