Sometime a year ago I managed to fracture the medial sesamoid in my right foot. We have 2 sesamoids under each big joint (some folk are born with more or split sesamoids and this is fine). I imagin them as a small chickpea that is to the big toe joint what the kneecap is to the knee, it allows the large tendon, that gives mobility to this extreemly important joint, to articulate with the joint. It allows the tendon to slide happily while we walk and run and as far as I understand has other benefits such as shock absorbing.
To complicate my story, the large joints in both my feet have been osteoarthritic since my teens. I have always managed it well, so much so that my choice of exercise has always been running (5-20km per week usually).
I thus assumed that the pain was a long overdue flareup of the arthritis and slowed down the running but the symptoms persisted and worsened.
In Feb 09 I had an x-ray and was very surprised to discover that I had sesamoids (had never heard of it) and yes, it was fragmented. I assume that in the months of running on the fracture, I had managed to well and truely destroy the medial sesamoid. An MRI followed, confirming the x-ray results and showing an oedema in the bone, bone spurs and perhaps a tear in the cartilage. This would explain the feeling of 'something' stuck in the joint.
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A the time of creating this blog, it is 1 year since the onset of pain in the ball of my right foot, 6 months since diagnosis and 2 weeks prior to foot surgery. I will also cover the non surgical treatments that I have experimented with prior to deciding on surgery.
I just came across this while looking for others with experience with sesamoid injury. It has been 4 years since my initial injury and 1 year since correct diagnosis (MRI). I had a non union fracture of my medial sesamoid on my left foot. February of this year we opted to have half of my sesamoid removed. Now 7 months later I am still not active and in a lot of pain. I was wondering how your recovery has been? And what have you been doing to help your recovery? I have been going to physical therapy...it helps for mobility of my toe (is very rigid), but I am only "walking" half a mile and well shoes are a huge problem. Thank you for your time :)
ReplyDeleteDawn