jgilber5
Lil-Rokslider
Figured I'd share my experience here as going in to this injury I honestly couldn't find a lot of stories out there, and most were pretty doom and gloom. Thanks to some folks on rockslide that gave me some tips and suggestions to look into.
If you aren't familiar with Mortons Neuroma, it's a thickening of tissue around the nerve, usually between your third and fourth metatarsal bones (think behind your toes in your forefoot) that starts to kill the nerve and build up more and more scar tissue which snowballs the effect. It starts as feeling like you have a rock in your shoe, but by the time I considered surgery, it was a constant intense burning/stinging nerve pain radiating through my forefoot. What finally put me over the top was my 2022 elk pack out. That night, the pain was so bad I couldn't sleep until 6 ibuprofen kicked in, and couldn't walk in close toed shoes for a week.
I'm a pretty healthy and active individual. Skied and ran in high school and college, and continue to train for marathons. Day to day, the pain isn't terrible, but what really kicks it into high gear is tighter stiff shoes, and steep inclines. Makes going more than 2 miles on rough terrain very difficult and very miserable. Dealing with this, especially as a hunter, is pretty darn depressing. Its usually non-reversible if you've tried conservative treatment which I did (footwear changes, cortisone injections), and isn't something you can rehab or train to compensate for. Going into it was a lot of doom and gloom from folks that have had the surgery before, but it does sound like the techniques have come a long ways.
I had the surgery in March, and they went in through the top (apparently this is better healing wise). Not terribly painful. 3 weeks non-weight bearing and then about a month before I could really do a ton on the foot. Now in June back to running 10 miles at a time and virtually no pain other than some incision site healing twinges. The only real side effect is losing feeling in the 3rd and 4th toes, but a small price to pay for no pain. If you're considering getting the surgery, I am certainly glad I did, and wish I did it sooner. Feel free to PM if you're having similar considerations and I can give my 2 cents.
If you aren't familiar with Mortons Neuroma, it's a thickening of tissue around the nerve, usually between your third and fourth metatarsal bones (think behind your toes in your forefoot) that starts to kill the nerve and build up more and more scar tissue which snowballs the effect. It starts as feeling like you have a rock in your shoe, but by the time I considered surgery, it was a constant intense burning/stinging nerve pain radiating through my forefoot. What finally put me over the top was my 2022 elk pack out. That night, the pain was so bad I couldn't sleep until 6 ibuprofen kicked in, and couldn't walk in close toed shoes for a week.
I'm a pretty healthy and active individual. Skied and ran in high school and college, and continue to train for marathons. Day to day, the pain isn't terrible, but what really kicks it into high gear is tighter stiff shoes, and steep inclines. Makes going more than 2 miles on rough terrain very difficult and very miserable. Dealing with this, especially as a hunter, is pretty darn depressing. Its usually non-reversible if you've tried conservative treatment which I did (footwear changes, cortisone injections), and isn't something you can rehab or train to compensate for. Going into it was a lot of doom and gloom from folks that have had the surgery before, but it does sound like the techniques have come a long ways.
I had the surgery in March, and they went in through the top (apparently this is better healing wise). Not terribly painful. 3 weeks non-weight bearing and then about a month before I could really do a ton on the foot. Now in June back to running 10 miles at a time and virtually no pain other than some incision site healing twinges. The only real side effect is losing feeling in the 3rd and 4th toes, but a small price to pay for no pain. If you're considering getting the surgery, I am certainly glad I did, and wish I did it sooner. Feel free to PM if you're having similar considerations and I can give my 2 cents.
