After being on crutches since the 20th of November, I came off yesterday and immediately found pain in the old area, a tender spot on the bottom of my foot. The side of my foot healed up in the 9 weeks I was off it, but they’ve said I have sesamoiditis and don’t expect that crutches are going to be of much help for the rest of my pain. Resting, ice, ibuprofen, and cortisone seem to be the solution for now.
They gave me a cortisone injection and sent me off to have a MRI performed. A followup appointment will be made in early February assuming nothing odd is found in the MRI.
I had a long struggle with tendinitis in my right elbow back in high school and don’t look forward to a similar struggle with the foot. I pretty much had to stop all activity that bothered it for years until it finally healed. This has been a real bummer for me; at least when it was my arm I could easily take it easy. The feet are a much harder thing to rest.
So it looks like the early part of this year will be spent continuing my one-footed, or at least mostly one-footed climbing. Once the tenderness of the cortisone shot goes down I’ll be able to spend some much needed time at the house finishing up the final projects in order to move in March 1st.
Bummer. Oh well, on the plus side, just think how much you’ll appreciate having healthy feet once this has been resolved. I know it’s a joy for me to dance, hike, or climb, when I think of how bad my knees have been at times in the past and I couldn’t do that.
Ouch, Idea — Would an orthotic insert (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthotics) be an option to explore or a gel Spenco insole (http://www.spenco.com/insoles.shtml)
Great post! Orthotics for sesamoiditis are prescribed specifically to help take weight off of the painful sesamoid and to distribute the force onto the arch or onto the non-painful metatarsal heads. This requires an orthotic that conforms extremely close to the arch of your foot.
Custom functional orthotics, if properly prescribed and fitted, will dramatically reduce pressure on the sesamoids – leading to decreased pain and less chance of the pain returning.