Will sesamoiditis go away or is this forever?

Thank you fortaking the time to reply! I understand your no expert,I will try these with care!
'supported toe lifts' or do you mean heel raises? have you been told to do any eccentric exercises for the foot with a theraband? (i heard that you should do those for any 'itis' problems because they get rid of the scar tissue. doing concentric ones make an 'itis' problem worse, apparently. and that eccentric exercises help greatly. there are some studies on this you can google, it's interesting.)
and have you been rolling your calves with a ball? or just stretching them?

sorry i forgot to ask before, but how many times a day were you told to do these exercises? and everyday or like once every 2 days?
and yes high heels are TERRIBLE for your sesamoids!!!

Hello, I too was diagnosed with this and so I'm going to give you a synopsis of what I've went through and what I think it takes to get over this.

I first got an injury to the ball off my big toe approximately three years ago. It hurt all the time and it started getting a little better when I started wearing work boots. I then switched to a wider toe box work boot called Dakota DuraToe  Later I added correct toes to my healing regime. Through the entire process I used a heating pad and cold foot bathes and mechanical foot massages. I think hand massages aren't good because they flex the foot too much. They might be ok down the line. I also did a few exercises like calf raises and I'd get into a standard push up position, and then flex upward and downward off of my toes. A sort of toe push up. I also take occasional walks in those sole-less shoes.

Here is what would happen. I felt the pain subside after I started using work boots, but then it would flare up again and then go away. Once I got the wide box boots and the inserts it really began to stop hurting. What would happen though is a change to other shoes or walking bare foot would cause a flare up. However, these flare ups starting happen less as time went on. As soon as I put in my correct toes I got a flare up, so I just put them in at night to start. I made the transition to daytime use and started out slowly eventually wearing them more and more.

At this point in time I hope that I'll be completely cured in 6 month to a year. My theory is that it takes a long time to build this area back up after it's become inflamed. You have to both work and rest the muscles, and the difficult thing is finding the right balance. Of course you'll have to experiment because what works for one person wont necessarily work for another.

Good luck

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I've had sesamoiditis for over a year. I am a long distance runner. I've trained for years consecutively and not until I reached extremely high weekly mileage (100+) did my condition become chronic. I've tried multiple avenues to try and heal this condition. I have a bipartite sesamoid bone. This seams critical to me because this is different from a tendinitis presentation. I am writing because I am extremely disciplined and when I have implemented therapy protocols I am extremely diligent in executing them. I am not "cured" and I do not run or participate in any high impact activities. I simply want to write a list of the things that have helped and things that I find to be a waste of time and money. After 8 months of intensive treatment here's what I've found- What helps- Ice - multiple times a day, as soon as you wake up and any time it gets achy throughout the day. Bucket with ice/water mix to put the whole foot in works best. Pads - they helped when the pain was at its worst. Be very careful when experimenting with this... It needs to be thick enough to off load that bone but not high enough that it causes stress on your arch. Stressing your arch can cause plantar fasciitis, happened to me and was a nasty secondary injury. It took a lot of PT and manual therapy to get rid of plantar problems so beware. Balance exercises - strengthen your feet and calves. Eccentric heal drops - to strengthen and lengthen your calves and achilles Towel toe curls Cushy shoes help when pain is very bad Cushy insoles when you need to wear boots or stiff shoes - for me when at work. Supplements - dietary supplemenmts offer support while injured. Daily, hyrafluronic acid, wobenzym, glucosemine, fish oil, turmeric, magnesium, zinc, vitamin d... Pardon my sp. Message - deal with scar tissue and tight muscles and tendons. Graston Technique - offered by chiropractors to help remove scar tissue from surrounding tendons and ligaments. Stuff that didn't offer very much help or the benefits were not permanent. TENS machine - not sure how much it helps healing... Supposedly supports the lymphatic system and helps reset firing nerves. I find it helps reduce the achy pains for a while. I use it daily. Gotta find the right place to put the pads. Walking cast - spent 8 weeks immobilized. Toe pain came back in a week. Within two weeks it was as bad as before the cast. Cortisone shots - I've had two shots into the top of the great toe joint onto the sesamoid. This will take care of the pain for an extended period. About two months. After the shot wore off the pain comes back in abundance as the joint "wakes" back up. If you don't care about treating the problem just the pain it works. The shot is not too painful in the right hands, but the fluid in the joint is not particularly comfortable. If I had known better, I wouldn't do it again. Not cost effective. Undecided outcome - Custom orthotics - they help kinda. Not comfortable in my opinion. I find the rigid arch support very uncomfortable, I've been in them for weeks at a time. The benefits seem very minimal and again not a long term solution. Perhaps a way to "live" with sesamoiditis, but not a fix. Acupuncture - seems to help break a bad inflammation cycle. My results hit a plateau after 3 sessions. Ultrasound - initially felt some relief with this. Admittedly my sessions ended before I was convinced this was working. Had about 12 treatments over the course of a month. Perhaps a cheaper home device could be of benefit. With my presentation walking in bare feet is not painful. Only pushing off when in shoes do I really feel the pain. Or prolonged pressure on the joint sanding in one place too long. So recently I've ditched my shoes at home and am wear flip flops when ever else. My goal is to strengthen my feet as much as possible. As I have a bipartite bone the theory being the bone is separated by cartilage, that cartilage at some point was sprained. This allows the two bones when pushing off the toe, rub and become irritated or worse inflamed. By tightening the great tow tendon I can compensate for the sprain. At this point i don't have much to lose by trying this. As it seems traditional medicine has run it's course. Save the surgery which from anyone who's talked with their doc about knows, it seems a difficult and long recovery and has very real risks. I'll will repost when I feel know more from my current plans. Good luck to anyone dealing with this. It often feels impossible to navigate and get the right information about such a rare condition. It has been a hard journey so far, but I refuse to yield to this condition.

I have had this condition for over 20 years and I can tell you the temporary fixes are just that. I would advise all of you to REST and do the cast early on. The boot, be careful as this could cause hip problems for some. Do not wait too long as it may cost you in the end. I am now forced to keep the Dr. Jills Gel Dancers Pads (sesamoid pads) and spend lots of money on shoes design to relieve the pain. This condition, if caught early and treated aggressively, can be remedied. Don't go ol' skool and just deal with it because it will only get worse if untreated.

Has it completely healed?

Hi there, could you elaborate please on what you mean by "treated aggressively"? I almost did the surgery to remove the fibular sesamoid, but have opted out to do more research in hope to find answers in healing without surgery. I've done the boot for 8 weeks, crutches, ultra sound, magnetic therapy, iced, rested... ozone therapy, I'm healthy and can cycle again....cannot, run or hike. I walk with orthotics with special shoes. My hope is to open up better circulation and blood flow to the foot to get the bone to heal... Any thoughts further on this?

Hi there,

Just wanted to say that this post has been the most helpful and inspiring thing I've read so far about this issue and trust me, I've read A LOT. How long was this entire healing process for you, from beginning to end?

HOW I GOT RID OF MY SESAMOIDITIS
****please not my condition was not severe, it was probably minor or a little worse****
This is what worked for me. I did not see any specialist/doctor at all. I just did my own thing after doing lots of research. I am not a doctor/expert/specialist so be careful.


--GET OFF THE INJURED FOOT. Used crutches for almost 4 weeks. You mite need more/less depending on severity of your condition. Why would you keep walking on an injured area? stay off of it! your not going to make it better by aggravating it.
---Roll the bottom of the foot AND all around your calves with a (massage) ball daily, 3x a day or more if you want. This is just as important as the next step!!! do it! You need to break down stiff tissue and loosen the muscles for a better recovery! Just dont touch/roll the immediate around around the injury. If you feel pain, stay away from that area.
--I started doing STRENGTHENING EXERCISES 3 weeks in on crutches. So basically i was doing these exercises but i was still using my crutches. If you feel any pain, stop or use less weight/resistance. Keep doing strengthening exercises for 2 months after your done with crutches. This injury takes a while to heal, its probably common to be doing exercises for this injury for anyone so dont get upset!
---eat well. get enough calcium, and other minerals to help with rebuilding/strengthening. if you eat junk food it will only slow you down.

on a side note......
Why are so people so oblivious about the strengthening aspect of an injury rehab? It blows my mind that people dont even know/think about strengthening an area after its been injured and rested. Thats like the most important thing to do after resting. Don't always rely on orthotics too much, they will make that area weak because its not being used, instead its being supported by orthotics. Kind of like how muscle atrophy happens if your not working out (because your not using your muscles really) or using a boot/crutches for a long time, the muscles get smaller and weaker/tighter. example: a lot of shoes these days have lots of cushion/support--very bad for you. What happens when you start walking bare foot after always wearing shoes outside and slippers at home? you get injured and pain because your tendons and foot muscles were not being used. My calves got smaller on my foot from using crutches but it was the only way to stay off my foot. Just try not to use crutches for too long.
Using a (donut) pad around the sesamoids may help, but remember to strengthen it! I wouldnt use it for too long though. I didnt use it at all because i didnt think it would help me one bit.

exercises to do:
strengthen the CALVES (on both legs). Your calves have a big impact on your foot and its muscles/tendons.
towel crunches
slowly start walking on your toes here and there a few times for a short time each. increase duration as the days/weeks go by.
do eccentric exercises for the foot. bascially the lowering down (most of the time)/decreasing of tension, use a theraband. example: hold one end in hand, other end around your foot while your foot is already pointed forward or pushed away from you as far as possible (plantar flexed), then slowly bring your foot towards you (dorsi flexed)

hope this helps! this recovery plan mite not be for everyone but just remember to do those strengthening exercises! an injured area is much weaker than it was before the injury so why leave it like that? it needs to get back to normal strength, or even stronger for it to function properly again.

How did it get? My daughter is the same way. I hope she got better. If so what helped?

I'm curious how your daughter is doing? My soccer player daughter is dealing with this now.

My 10 year old has it and she is also very active. Not sure what to do for her. She was in a boot all summer and went back to school just fine but now she has started basketball and it's coming back :'(

How is she doing? Have you taken her back to the doctor?

Amy - how is your daughter doing now that it's been over a year?

My 2 cents on this.
I have had sesamoiditis for many years on my right foot. I have high arches and wore all kind of insoles, custom and standard. They do help but do not improve the health and strength of your foot.
Finally i discovered the fivefingers shoes. These have been great, i use them all the time and do sports with them. No more pain on my sesamoides, do not know why. I think my feet have gotten stringer with this shoes. Besides you step more carefully and you a continuos massage on your feet

My solution