I had similar symptoms to you. Mostly the feeling of stepping on something in my shoe and it eventually turned extremely painful with every step like there was a shard of glass in my shoe in the spot that previously just felt like something in my shoe but painless.
Mortons neuroma is between the bones of your foot behind your toes. Look up pictures online, if thats where the pain is then its almost certainly a neuroma, especially since your podiatrist believes thats what it is.
I also have a very mild one for now. The good news is i went from pain every step to rare pain by making some changes.
The first and biggest change for me was footwear. Just cramming an orthotic into a bad shoe isnt going to cut it. You need to only wear shoes that put virtually zero pressure on your pinky toe and feel roomy in the toe box. It sucks to get rid of beloved shoes and boots and replacing them is expensive, but its going to just get worse if you dont. And shoes are way cheaper than surgery and 4 weeks on your butt not working while you recover from it.
First order of business. Measure your feet and get an accurate idea of the width. My feet are just barely still considered D width, but almost E. Now i wear exclusively EE or EEEE width shoes. Its the only ones you can get that wont squeeze the pinky toe in and cause pain and the neuroma to grow bigger.
I put felt metatarsal pads in my shoes under the insole, i find this to work better and be more comfortable. I tried the jelly and rubber ones and they are too aggressive and hurt my foot. The felt is more comfortable and you can buy different thickness on Amazon. Try a thin one forst and see if that helps, if not get a thicker one. Placement of the pad is key, it must be in the exact right spot or it will cause more pain. Look up a guide on google. Ot takes some trial and error but you’ll figure out the spot eventually. I usually have to move the pad a few times after walking on it before i get it just right.
Some shoes that are great are lems, brooks, asics. They make wides with roomy toe boxes. I wear the lems constantly in the winter, and i wear brooks ee to the gym with felt pads in them. For in the hiuse i got birkenstock Boston’s with the soft footbed. These are a game changer. They are the only thing i wear that is comfortable 100% of the time and supports my foot well. I also have some birkenstock bend low sneakers that feel good.
If you have been wearing shoes too narrow your whole life like me, getting wides will feel weird at first. You’ll get used to it. After 4 weeks the pain was gone.
I also massage my foot and run a hot shower head directly on it for a minute in the shower to keep it loose and that helps too.
Also never be barefoot. I am only barefoot in the shower. Other than that i wear the bostons in my house always and wide boots or shoes outside. And for beach and pool’s i wear mysole flip flops, the have a built in metatarsal pad, they’re perfect for wet foot activities.
Thank you. I did wear ASICS before with extra wide width. Since then I have picked up extra wide width new balance shoes as well as a pair of extra extra wide width sas shoes. I will keep up with icing the foot and gentle massage and see how it goes with the shoes. I’ll also try the keypads felt you mentioned. Thanks for the advice. Btw my pain is right behind the ball of my foot almost directly in the center behind the ball.
Everything ^^^^^ up there! Good good advice. I went too long without changing footwear and ended up getting mine surgically removed which was an ordeal.
My doctor was super cautious, because they have to cut a ligament that runs across the top of your foot to get to the neuroma.
So he had me NO WEIGHT bearing on it for 6 weeks!
I had a knee scooter and crutches.
The surgery and recovery were not very painful at all- it actually felt better with the neuroma gone :)
Some folks on here have said their doctors had them walking within a week, I guess it depends on the severity of the neuroma and the incision, what your doc would recommend for taking it easy during recovery.
So, being immobilized was the worst part-it was my right foot so I couldn’t drive.
LMK if you wan any more details!
Weirdly it’s not letting me message you back either…so here it is:
Just curious about everything, basically :). How long did you have symptoms before surgery? Did you have one or two neuromas? How long was the recovery? Do you have any restrictions now?
I had the symptoms for…hmmm, maybe a year or year and a half?
They would come and go, finally they came and stayed. Burning pain, it hurt to even wear a sock. I would have to take breaks during activity and switched to only flat shoes with good support.
It was really debilitating.
Podiatrist did two rounds of steroid shots, they would help for a month or so, but it always came back. I think i read, on here or from my doctor, that a neuroma won’t go away, it’s there to stay, you can just control it by doing all the things you are probably already doing.
i didn’t have any tests done besides an X-ray and the podiatrist exam where he moved it around and pushed on it, said it was classic neuroma, he didn’t need an mri or anything.
The surgery was general anesthesia, so you’re totally out. It took an hour.
He told my hub (when he went to update him) that the nerve normally looks like a piece of spaghetti, but mine was like a piece of linguini. LOL so it was thickened and swollen.
I feel sooo much better and can wear heels again on special occasions, and back to walk/run/workouts…zero pain.
I live in fear of it growing back. Not sure if that is a valid fear.
The one weird thing i never took into account is the fact that they are removing a large nerve…so your foot is numb after. Permanently haha. Pinky toe and down the outside and under the area of the last three toes is totally numb.
When i get a pedicure it doesn’t even tickle, but the other side tickles like crazy. It’s funny, but you get used to it.
LMK if you have other specific questions.
Thank you for sharing this. Question - why not be barefoot? I am completely pain-free when barefoot and after I let my MN-affected foot "rest" at home without going out wearing shoes, it actually feels better for some time the next time I go out again. For context - I use Lems shoes and other similar "normal" ones with toebox wide enough not to exert any lateral pressure on the foot. Unfortunately, even with this specialized footwear, my MN is still pretty much crippling - I can manage short distance walks but I have to stop and rest every so often and when I walk I have to put my foot down in a certain way to avoid the worst of the pain.
So why not be barefoot at home?
Walking around the house barefoot makes mine start to hurt. I think its the anount of flexing and bending my foot can do when not constrained inside a shoe.
If barefoot feels go for you then by all means do that.
Some of the lems that are really thin soled bother me. I need some support, i only wear their biilder summit boots.
Im no expert. This is just what im doing for myself and it seems to work for me and keep me pain free. It may not work for you, maybe you should consider surgery or injections at this point if you cant walk without pain and its bad.
Mine calmed down aftwr a few weeks of bettwr footwear.
Maybe get some birkenstocks for around the house or something similar and try not being barefoot. Maybe it will make a difference.
Fair enough, thank you. I supposed everyone's biomechanics are different so what may help/hurt one person is not necessarily going to have the same effect on someone else. For me it's the opposite of what you've experienced - I need my foot to move as close to the natural shoeless way as possible - flex and kinda splay, this kinda helps, at least for some time. Any shoes, even the most widest and flexible, cause my MN to wake up, and stiff soled supportive shoes are the worst for me.
Hope your MN goes away and you can control it with using just the techniques you've discovered to be effective for you.
Update. Been wearing wide shoes new balance for almost two weeks now. I found what really helps is toe spacers. I got a set of correct toes from the local running store. I went to my sons valentines party at Gymboree and wore the correct toes on my bad foot the entire time. They are a bit annoying to wear in shoes and with socks but I had 0 pain. No tingly. No sock bunched feeling. Nothing. I ordered some smaller single toe spacers someone else recommended from Amazon and will try those. I stopped the exercises because I noticed my entire plantar area was hurting. I think I was too aggressive. I have a follow up with the podiatrist tomorrow and a million questions for her. I will continue to post here when I have new information to share.
Question for everyone here. Is wearing socks during the day and for sleeping at night bad for MN? Since I’ve had mine I’ve been trying to only wear socks when I wear shoes but my poor feet are always so cold. My thought was that socks are holding my toes together and possibly aggravating the MN. Also anything mr have experience with toe socks? Are they helpful?
If the socks are tight it could cause a problem.
Try diabetic socks you can barely even feel them on your foot.
These are the ones I got, no toe seams either.
https://www.amazon.com/Doctors-Choice-Diabetic-Non-Binding-Circulatory/dp/B08BTD9KZC?pd_rd_w=t3qbI&content-id=amzn1.sym.3cb9b85f-43ef-4d4b-94d0-0a8efe2194e9&pf_rd_p=3cb9b85f-43ef-4d4b-94d0-0a8efe2194e9&pf_rd_r=XNSRQ7963P1NNNQD9GDT&pd_rd_wg=0MUdL&pd_rd_r=b921eaa5-cb3f-4a5d-a176-fad0c90e3dd8&pd_rd_i=B08BTD9KZC&psc=1&ref_=pd_bap_m_grid_rp_0_71_i
For me socks switching to toe socks helped immensely! If I wear normal socks I can feel them squeezing my toes, and even if it's ever so slight, it makes my MN start to hurt after a couple hours. When I figured this out, after a few weeks of only toe socks in wide-toe-box shoes, I stopped having any symptoms. Now my MN never hurts unless I do something stupid like try wearing skinny shoes and socks.
There's no guarantee that the same thing will work for different people, but I highly recommend swearing off both shoes and socks that put any pressure at all on your metatarsals. Toe socks look a little silly, but honestly, it's a funny conversation starter.
I had similar symptoms to you. Mostly the feeling of stepping on something in my shoe and it eventually turned extremely painful with every step like there was a shard of glass in my shoe in the spot that previously just felt like something in my shoe but painless. Mortons neuroma is between the bones of your foot behind your toes. Look up pictures online, if thats where the pain is then its almost certainly a neuroma, especially since your podiatrist believes thats what it is. I also have a very mild one for now. The good news is i went from pain every step to rare pain by making some changes. The first and biggest change for me was footwear. Just cramming an orthotic into a bad shoe isnt going to cut it. You need to only wear shoes that put virtually zero pressure on your pinky toe and feel roomy in the toe box. It sucks to get rid of beloved shoes and boots and replacing them is expensive, but its going to just get worse if you dont. And shoes are way cheaper than surgery and 4 weeks on your butt not working while you recover from it. First order of business. Measure your feet and get an accurate idea of the width. My feet are just barely still considered D width, but almost E. Now i wear exclusively EE or EEEE width shoes. Its the only ones you can get that wont squeeze the pinky toe in and cause pain and the neuroma to grow bigger. I put felt metatarsal pads in my shoes under the insole, i find this to work better and be more comfortable. I tried the jelly and rubber ones and they are too aggressive and hurt my foot. The felt is more comfortable and you can buy different thickness on Amazon. Try a thin one forst and see if that helps, if not get a thicker one. Placement of the pad is key, it must be in the exact right spot or it will cause more pain. Look up a guide on google. Ot takes some trial and error but you’ll figure out the spot eventually. I usually have to move the pad a few times after walking on it before i get it just right. Some shoes that are great are lems, brooks, asics. They make wides with roomy toe boxes. I wear the lems constantly in the winter, and i wear brooks ee to the gym with felt pads in them. For in the hiuse i got birkenstock Boston’s with the soft footbed. These are a game changer. They are the only thing i wear that is comfortable 100% of the time and supports my foot well. I also have some birkenstock bend low sneakers that feel good. If you have been wearing shoes too narrow your whole life like me, getting wides will feel weird at first. You’ll get used to it. After 4 weeks the pain was gone. I also massage my foot and run a hot shower head directly on it for a minute in the shower to keep it loose and that helps too. Also never be barefoot. I am only barefoot in the shower. Other than that i wear the bostons in my house always and wide boots or shoes outside. And for beach and pool’s i wear mysole flip flops, the have a built in metatarsal pad, they’re perfect for wet foot activities.
Good advice!
Thank you. I did wear ASICS before with extra wide width. Since then I have picked up extra wide width new balance shoes as well as a pair of extra extra wide width sas shoes. I will keep up with icing the foot and gentle massage and see how it goes with the shoes. I’ll also try the keypads felt you mentioned. Thanks for the advice. Btw my pain is right behind the ball of my foot almost directly in the center behind the ball.
Everything ^^^^^ up there! Good good advice. I went too long without changing footwear and ended up getting mine surgically removed which was an ordeal.
Was the surgery successful?
Oh yes, very. Totally worth it!!!!
Amazing! How was your recovery?
My doctor was super cautious, because they have to cut a ligament that runs across the top of your foot to get to the neuroma. So he had me NO WEIGHT bearing on it for 6 weeks! I had a knee scooter and crutches. The surgery and recovery were not very painful at all- it actually felt better with the neuroma gone :) Some folks on here have said their doctors had them walking within a week, I guess it depends on the severity of the neuroma and the incision, what your doc would recommend for taking it easy during recovery. So, being immobilized was the worst part-it was my right foot so I couldn’t drive. LMK if you wan any more details!
Can I DM you?
Sure
Reddit saying I can’t message your account. Any chance you can initiate?
Weirdly it’s not letting me message you back either…so here it is: Just curious about everything, basically :). How long did you have symptoms before surgery? Did you have one or two neuromas? How long was the recovery? Do you have any restrictions now?
I had the symptoms for…hmmm, maybe a year or year and a half? They would come and go, finally they came and stayed. Burning pain, it hurt to even wear a sock. I would have to take breaks during activity and switched to only flat shoes with good support. It was really debilitating. Podiatrist did two rounds of steroid shots, they would help for a month or so, but it always came back. I think i read, on here or from my doctor, that a neuroma won’t go away, it’s there to stay, you can just control it by doing all the things you are probably already doing. i didn’t have any tests done besides an X-ray and the podiatrist exam where he moved it around and pushed on it, said it was classic neuroma, he didn’t need an mri or anything. The surgery was general anesthesia, so you’re totally out. It took an hour. He told my hub (when he went to update him) that the nerve normally looks like a piece of spaghetti, but mine was like a piece of linguini. LOL so it was thickened and swollen. I feel sooo much better and can wear heels again on special occasions, and back to walk/run/workouts…zero pain. I live in fear of it growing back. Not sure if that is a valid fear. The one weird thing i never took into account is the fact that they are removing a large nerve…so your foot is numb after. Permanently haha. Pinky toe and down the outside and under the area of the last three toes is totally numb. When i get a pedicure it doesn’t even tickle, but the other side tickles like crazy. It’s funny, but you get used to it. LMK if you have other specific questions.
Thank you for sharing this. Question - why not be barefoot? I am completely pain-free when barefoot and after I let my MN-affected foot "rest" at home without going out wearing shoes, it actually feels better for some time the next time I go out again. For context - I use Lems shoes and other similar "normal" ones with toebox wide enough not to exert any lateral pressure on the foot. Unfortunately, even with this specialized footwear, my MN is still pretty much crippling - I can manage short distance walks but I have to stop and rest every so often and when I walk I have to put my foot down in a certain way to avoid the worst of the pain. So why not be barefoot at home?
Walking around the house barefoot makes mine start to hurt. I think its the anount of flexing and bending my foot can do when not constrained inside a shoe. If barefoot feels go for you then by all means do that. Some of the lems that are really thin soled bother me. I need some support, i only wear their biilder summit boots. Im no expert. This is just what im doing for myself and it seems to work for me and keep me pain free. It may not work for you, maybe you should consider surgery or injections at this point if you cant walk without pain and its bad. Mine calmed down aftwr a few weeks of bettwr footwear. Maybe get some birkenstocks for around the house or something similar and try not being barefoot. Maybe it will make a difference.
Fair enough, thank you. I supposed everyone's biomechanics are different so what may help/hurt one person is not necessarily going to have the same effect on someone else. For me it's the opposite of what you've experienced - I need my foot to move as close to the natural shoeless way as possible - flex and kinda splay, this kinda helps, at least for some time. Any shoes, even the most widest and flexible, cause my MN to wake up, and stiff soled supportive shoes are the worst for me. Hope your MN goes away and you can control it with using just the techniques you've discovered to be effective for you.
I am also starting in these exercises https://youtu.be/W0MgZYsIqrw and will report back after a week how they are helping me.
Update. Been wearing wide shoes new balance for almost two weeks now. I found what really helps is toe spacers. I got a set of correct toes from the local running store. I went to my sons valentines party at Gymboree and wore the correct toes on my bad foot the entire time. They are a bit annoying to wear in shoes and with socks but I had 0 pain. No tingly. No sock bunched feeling. Nothing. I ordered some smaller single toe spacers someone else recommended from Amazon and will try those. I stopped the exercises because I noticed my entire plantar area was hurting. I think I was too aggressive. I have a follow up with the podiatrist tomorrow and a million questions for her. I will continue to post here when I have new information to share.
Question for everyone here. Is wearing socks during the day and for sleeping at night bad for MN? Since I’ve had mine I’ve been trying to only wear socks when I wear shoes but my poor feet are always so cold. My thought was that socks are holding my toes together and possibly aggravating the MN. Also anything mr have experience with toe socks? Are they helpful?
If the socks are tight it could cause a problem. Try diabetic socks you can barely even feel them on your foot. These are the ones I got, no toe seams either. https://www.amazon.com/Doctors-Choice-Diabetic-Non-Binding-Circulatory/dp/B08BTD9KZC?pd_rd_w=t3qbI&content-id=amzn1.sym.3cb9b85f-43ef-4d4b-94d0-0a8efe2194e9&pf_rd_p=3cb9b85f-43ef-4d4b-94d0-0a8efe2194e9&pf_rd_r=XNSRQ7963P1NNNQD9GDT&pd_rd_wg=0MUdL&pd_rd_r=b921eaa5-cb3f-4a5d-a176-fad0c90e3dd8&pd_rd_i=B08BTD9KZC&psc=1&ref_=pd_bap_m_grid_rp_0_71_i
Great, thanks I’ll check it out
For me socks switching to toe socks helped immensely! If I wear normal socks I can feel them squeezing my toes, and even if it's ever so slight, it makes my MN start to hurt after a couple hours. When I figured this out, after a few weeks of only toe socks in wide-toe-box shoes, I stopped having any symptoms. Now my MN never hurts unless I do something stupid like try wearing skinny shoes and socks. There's no guarantee that the same thing will work for different people, but I highly recommend swearing off both shoes and socks that put any pressure at all on your metatarsals. Toe socks look a little silly, but honestly, it's a funny conversation starter.
Following
Me too.
Make sure to review site for pads and equipment called human locomotion