I screwed up.
I started having discomfort in my flexor hallucis longus tendon (or one of the other ones that go across the first MTP) at the end of March 2026. I saw a podiatrist about it in mid April. An X-ray showed nothing abnormal except growing arthritis in both first MTPs (and I’m only 24! Yay genetics!) but it was worse on my good side and unlikely to be causing the issue. So he more or less blew me off when I brought up sesamoiditis, but put in an order for custom orthotics anyways. Fast forward to now, and the orthotics still haven’t come in yet.
During this time without access to orthotics, I wore a boot for a week, stopping when it started causing severe knee pain (another fucked up joint I have), and my recovery plateaued. I also kept fencing, my sport of choice, during this time though I severely limited how much I did. I think it was slowly, but surely, getting better. Or at least not getting any worse. But when I woke up today, the discomfort had gone from, well, discomfort, to outright pain with seemingly no trigger. The consensus on here seems to be that if you don’t let sesamoiditis heal the first time around, you have it forever, and it seems like I just majorly fucked up.
I should have stopped fencing, I should have kept the boot on, I should have just bought the expensive orthotics while I wait for my custom ones, but I didn’t. And now my chance for recovery has passed.
So, those of you who had to give up a sport or activity you were hopelessly in love with because of this disease, how do you cope? Is there ever a time you’ll stop missing it?