Chronic Foot Pain for Over a Year

Foot care
1

I have been experiencing foot pain for over a year. I am a collegiate basketball referee. It started one day when I couldn’t walk because my second toe hurt. The bottom of my foot swelled up around that toe. I don’t remember doing anything jarring to hurt it. Went to podiatrist and got a shot that helped the swelling go down and I was able to walk again.

About a week later the second toe was good and the 4th interspace started to hurt. Was diagnosed with a Morton’s Neuroma. Prescribe orthotics. Wasn’t getting any better but I was still running on it. X-rays and MRI come back clean so doesn’t show Neuroma. I was told neuromas are hard to see on MRI.

Covid happens and I stop officiating. It’s been a year of no running. Now my 4th interspace feels better but now my second toe is hurting again in the same spot, where the toe and ball of foot meet. Went to another doc. Got x-rays and MRI again and it comes back clean again. See another doctor and he thinks it’s not a Neuroma but metatarsalgia.

Pain is still only in second toe. It hurts to curl my toes. When I squeeze my toes together I get pain in my second toe. I cannot sit crossed legged because the pressure from my leg pushes my toes together. I don’t do activities that put me on the ball of my foot. I don’t walk alot anymore cause I dont want to inflame it. I wear orthotics. Taken antiinflammatories, ice you name it. Something is going on with my foot and even with a year of rest it’s not getting better.

I don’t know what to do. I have seen a neurologist cause I thought maybe it was my nerves in my foot and came up empty. All the podiatrist I have seen hasn’t been able to really diagnose it. I need my feet because I run for a living. Can anyone tell me what they think it is or what to do. I am frustrated and have exhausted what I can do. Please help!!!

2

hello,
First I want to say. I’m sorry you are experiencing this.
I can’t speak to your specific problem but I can relate in a way, except with my hand. I had been having pain in the index finger of my right hand. At first it felt like I had dislocated my finger or broken it. Even though I hadn’t. After a while I could no longer use my index finger. Gripping anything was just impossible. I especially could not open jars/bottles/etc. There seemed to be no reason for the pain.
I have muscle damage in my right shoulder and was scheduled to go to physiotherapy to prevent another frozen shoulder episode and deal with a muscle that was not working properly. I spoke to my physiotherapist about my finger and she said it didn’t seem to be related to my shoulder. I was ready to just give up and live with being unable to use my hand properly.
It wasn’t until after my 3rd or 4th session that I noticed the pain in my finger was less. At my next appointment I told my physiotherapist about it. She seemed surprised but still seemed to doubt that it was related to my shoulder. By the time I was done with my therapy sessions I had not only almost full use of my shoulder and full use of my finger.
During one of the sessions we also found out that my headaches were caused by a knot in the muscle that wasn’t working properly.

I know this may seem unrelated to your situation but what I’m trying to say is that your pain may be caused by something somewhere else. because it’s in your foot I’d guess your knee or hip.

I hope you figure out what is wrong and get better.