If you've had this condition for over two decades may I ask why you have not sought a surgical solution? That is a very long time to deal with chronic pain.
Thank you! I am desperate for my sesmoiditis to go away and therefore willing to listen and try lol.
I have been dealing with this issue for 3.5 years. Year one - thought it was a plantar wart - could feel like a marble on and off and it would come and go. Finally - it just stayed and became more and more uncomfortable. Went to the dr. and was sent to a podiatrist - she didn't really help me - just said it was sesmoiditis and taped my big toe. Went back to dr. and was sent to surgeon. Was in air cast forever with no improvement. He would not take me off of work (I'm on my feet all day). I then asked to be referred to a foot surgeon. I finally got a wonderful lady but after about 7 months - she moved to Vancouver - so had to wait again to see the new guy. She had me off my feet - using a night splint at bedtime to stretch the calf muscle. By this time - it's been 2.5 years. My hip and knee - well my whole body is out of whack. My right leg is week and small now...I see the new guy and he is fabulous. I just had surgery jan.6 and he removed the fractured the sesmoid - said it was really bad - some pieces were like dust! Still can't put any pressure on foot - long road ahead for sure.
I had foot surgery October 6, 2015 to remove golf ball sized mass. No mass was there but extensive scar tissue from 3 previous foot surgeries. He also elongated the tendon on my second toe as it was in a state of motion (flux). This was all done on my left foot. I had severe pain after 3 weeks and had another MRI with contrast and they diagnosed me with Sesamoiditis. I have had severe pain and swelling on left foot for 3 months (almost) now! Physical therapy not working, ibuprofen not working, got off it for 10 days and stopped all impact. Just left the 2nd opinion orthopaedic's office last week and he claims that he thinks if I didn't have sesamoiditis before my surgery, that it SHOULD go away and 10 days off it is not enough. (That's what first doctor said, my surgeon) So he ordered 6 weeks off my foot and it is still super painful and swelling not responding to ice either! He asked me how I felt about fusing the bones. He also offered a cortisone shot. I didn't do the shot as I heard cortisone slows healing, however I also heard it can help stubborn swelling, 3 months!!! He also said we could take affected sesamoid out but that its too soon for another surgery. I see zero improvement, so contemplating the shot and made appointment February 19, 2016 with surgeon who did my surgery (unrelated, but same foot) last October. I am beyond sad and frustrated and in a lot of pain! Cannot work! Any suggestions? Physical therapist did Graston Technique and it did nothing for 3 weeks! Thank you! (P.S.) I have expensive orthotics, but ordered to use knee scooter or crutches for 6 weeks, no foot touching the floor! ~ Tammy lynn
I have had sesamoiditis in my foot for 18 months. From what I can tell it does heal, just very very slowly, it was 16 months before I noticed any real change in pain. This is with PT, strengthening, stretching, graston, icing, on and off ibuprofen and 2 cortisone shots. And most importantly for me was taping. But if I stayed with it and kept my shoes properly padded to offload the bone, it did get much much better. it just took forever! Hope this helps.
I'm so sorry that you have been having such a stressful experience. I hope that it will resolve soon. Is it possible that you are having sesamoid pain as a result of compensating extra weight onto that area as a result of the surgery? Be careful with your decision to take all weight off of your foot. The foot muscles will greatly atrophy as they are meant to carry weight. What may happen is once they atrophy they will be more prone to injury because that protective muscle will be gone. Rest your foot like you feel necessary, and keep treating it as you see fit. But be careful about rehabilitating it.
I'm so sorry that you have been having such a stressful experience. I hope that it will resolve soon. Is it possible that you are having sesamoid pain as a result of compensating extra weight onto that area as a result of the surgery? Be careful with your decision to take all weight off of your foot. The foot muscles will greatly atrophy as they are meant to carry weight. What may happen is once they atrophy they will be more prone to injury because that protective muscle will be gone. Rest your foot like you feel necessary, and keep treating it as you see fit. But be careful about rehabilitating it.
I'm so sad to read this....my daughter has just been told she has broken her sesamoid bone and she is 13 and an amazing dancer. I just want to cry for you both.
hikingbennette, I bought Vasque hiking boots in preparation for a Grand Canyon hike. They were recommended by REI for hilly hikes because of the stiff bottoms. I haven't taken that hike yet but on the podiatrist's recommendation I've have been wearing the boots everywhere, even in my house, as I cope with various forefoot sprains. I have no pain when I wear the boots.
hello everyone. isuffer 2,5 years from sesamoiditis and now i have necrosis in my 1 bone of right foot. Recently i found the solution to my problem and to yours of course. For everyone who wants a picture from my insoles and share what i do to feel pain free, contact me.
No rest - no depression - just clever walking...
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Hi.. Can you share your exercises please
Greetings, fellow sesamoiditis sufferers.
I'm 40 years old, love running, biking, swimming, boot camp etc. Mine started 10 months ago with new running shoes. I ignored it and kept running. I'm a Chinese Medicine practitioner which may have "helped" me abuse my foot by dampening symptoms that I should have paid attention to. 5 months in I got the diagnosis from a podiatrist. He just gave me a generic Superfeet handout and said to cut down on running. I did, a little. I also own my own clinic and am the sole practitioner. I have a low cost/high volume business model so I work 6 days a week on my feet treating patients. I own a home by myself as well. I can't just take time off of work. There's no fmla and no one to treat my patients or pay my mortgage or my lease for the clinic. In light of all that, I really wish I'd have just stopped running for awhile or ditched those shoes immediately. I tried offloading with a metatarsal pad and kept up my acupuncture routine, applied Dragon's Blood (a Chinese herbology thing), iced, took arnica tabs sublingual and it all helped but wasn't enough to overcome my foot abuse. 8 months in I saw a different orthopedic podiatrist. All films were negative. He said that I had insufficient padding in my feet and he could see from how built up the callouses on the medial edges of my feet were, that I was prone to developing this condition. It probably doesn't help that I am underweight and tend not to eat enough. He said I could try prednisone but I decline to take drugs especially corticosteroids as they violently screw with the body's homeostasis. He modified some Superfeet and 2 weeks into wearing them, my poor foot was far worse. Instead of just having sesamoid/hallux/flexor hallucis tendon swelling and pain, I now had SEVERE swelling and pain all the way across the entire ball of my foot. The swelling was horrible and my foot had burning pain. My toes were freezing and some parts had numbness. He then put me in an Aircast. Which put too much pressure on that whole swollen area! It made it worse. Plus it caused unbearable pain in my heel and ankle. By now my other foot felt like I was developing fascitis. And the heel of my bad foot was severely painful from being walked on. I used crutches at times and bought an iwalk 2.0. My foot was still unhappy in the iwalk and so swollen it felt like it would explode. Plus the iwalk caused me knee pain and strangely gave me a horrible headache. I called the doctor and told him I was getting worse with each treatment and didn't he think I should get an MRI. He agreed and I'll post an update soon. Whether it shows anything or not, I'm facing some time flat on back, my clinic will have to close for awhile.
I'm 40 years old, love running, biking, swimming, boot camp etc. Mine started 10 months ago with new running shoes. I ignored it and kept running. I'm a Chinese Medicine practitioner which may have "helped" me abuse my foot by dampening symptoms that I should have paid attention to. 5 months in I got the diagnosis from a podiatrist. He just gave me a generic Superfeet handout and said to cut down on running. I did, a little. I also own my own clinic and am the sole practitioner. I have a low cost/high volume business model so I work 6 days a week on my feet treating patients. I own a home by myself as well. I can't just take time off of work. There's no fmla and no one to treat my patients or pay my mortgage or my lease for the clinic. In light of all that, I really wish I'd have just stopped running for awhile or ditched those shoes immediately. I tried offloading with a metatarsal pad and kept up my acupuncture routine, applied Dragon's Blood (a Chinese herbology thing), iced, took arnica tabs sublingual and it all helped but wasn't enough to overcome my foot abuse. 8 months in I saw a different orthopedic podiatrist. All films were negative. He said that I had insufficient padding in my feet and he could see from how built up the callouses on the medial edges of my feet were, that I was prone to developing this condition. It probably doesn't help that I am underweight and tend not to eat enough. He said I could try prednisone but I decline to take drugs especially corticosteroids as they violently screw with the body's homeostasis. He modified some Superfeet and 2 weeks into wearing them, my poor foot was far worse. Instead of just having sesamoid/hallux/flexor hallucis tendon swelling and pain, I now had SEVERE swelling and pain all the way across the entire ball of my foot. The swelling was horrible and my foot had burning pain. My toes were freezing and some parts had numbness. He then put me in an Aircast. Which put too much pressure on that whole swollen area! It made it worse. Plus it caused unbearable pain in my heel and ankle. By now my other foot felt like I was developing fascitis. And the heel of my bad foot was severely painful from being walked on. I used crutches at times and bought an iwalk 2.0. My foot was still unhappy in the iwalk and so swollen it felt like it would explode. Plus the iwalk caused me knee pain and strangely gave me a horrible headache. I called the doctor and told him I was getting worse with each treatment and didn't he think I should get an MRI. He agreed and I'll post an update soon. Whether it shows anything or not, I'm facing some time flat on back, my clinic will have to close for awhile.
I was diagnosed with sesamoiditis about two months ago. I was in so much pain, chronic pain!!!
I could not walk. Weight bearing was excruciating. I was limping which caused my other foot to hurt as well as hips and knees. I saw 3 podiatrists. They all had different ideas. Honestly, don't waste your time or money. All they do is tape or pad your foot which actually made it worse for me...
The last podiatrist said I actually had chronic tendititis not sesamoiditis. After 6-8 weeks it's all better.
You need to get a good pair of shoes that don't squash your toes in. I found walking in socks more comfortable though. I got lots of sun - vitamin D, mega dosed on turmeric capsules, 3, 3 times a day which made it 50% better in a week. As well as vit C, omega 3, magnesium and calcium. Rest and most importantly don't stress which made it so so so much worse. I hope this post can give you all some hope that it will get better. God bless. :-)
I could not walk. Weight bearing was excruciating. I was limping which caused my other foot to hurt as well as hips and knees. I saw 3 podiatrists. They all had different ideas. Honestly, don't waste your time or money. All they do is tape or pad your foot which actually made it worse for me...
The last podiatrist said I actually had chronic tendititis not sesamoiditis. After 6-8 weeks it's all better.
You need to get a good pair of shoes that don't squash your toes in. I found walking in socks more comfortable though. I got lots of sun - vitamin D, mega dosed on turmeric capsules, 3, 3 times a day which made it 50% better in a week. As well as vit C, omega 3, magnesium and calcium. Rest and most importantly don't stress which made it so so so much worse. I hope this post can give you all some hope that it will get better. God bless. :-)
Hi everyone,
I wrote on here before when my sesamoiditis was really bad. It is very manageable now. There is hope. It took me two years to find the right person (a physio with magic hands!), but it happened, and he believes I can go back to running. At the very least I now walk and do regular activities without pain.
I know how dark it can feel, how sad and painful it can be. Please always have hope. I gave up sometimes, but now I am filled with hope again. I've been better for months with no relapse.
The thing I learned about this condition is that it is very nuanced. It's a catch-all term and what might actually be happening for you is very different than others. So take internet research with a grain of salt. What I want to share with you is keep fighting, keep seeking out treatments, therapies, shoes, insoles, exercises, etc and one day you will find the combo that works for you. Have faith.
I wrote on here before when my sesamoiditis was really bad. It is very manageable now. There is hope. It took me two years to find the right person (a physio with magic hands!), but it happened, and he believes I can go back to running. At the very least I now walk and do regular activities without pain.
I know how dark it can feel, how sad and painful it can be. Please always have hope. I gave up sometimes, but now I am filled with hope again. I've been better for months with no relapse.
The thing I learned about this condition is that it is very nuanced. It's a catch-all term and what might actually be happening for you is very different than others. So take internet research with a grain of salt. What I want to share with you is keep fighting, keep seeking out treatments, therapies, shoes, insoles, exercises, etc and one day you will find the combo that works for you. Have faith.
Wow, your story mirrors our now 13 year old to a tee. She has the correct-toes and Lems shoes for every day but now she's getting back into soccer and very difficult to find a pair for this problem. Have you found a brand she likes?