8 months into sesamoid injury and still getting conflicting diagnoses
Hi everyone,
I’m honestly exhausted and mentally drained by this sesamoid injury (as all of us) and would really appreciate opinions from people who went through something similar or may have acquired good medical knowledge through their own experience.
I still don’t really know if this thing is healing, became a chronic non-union fracture, or what I can really do now as I received contradictory advices and diagnostics...
Timeline:
November 2025
- I had sudden and acute pain at night after playing tennis.
- For 1 month, the first doctor said it was just fasciitis.
- After visiting an orthopedist, he sent me for my first MRI.
- MRI showed a suspicious medial sesamoid stress fracture.
- The orthopedist was honestly not competent (sorry but that’s clear). He basically only told me to try to walk less, without any advice about offloading or anything.
- So I ended up doing my own research: I adapted my shoes (Hoka), tried a carbon fiber plate and ordered dancer pads (didn’t like to use both of them), used several orthopedic insoles and finally found one that may help.
- After a few months I started to get better with good shoes/good insoles and by highly reducing my activities (no more sports, very little walking every day).
March 2026 MRI
- In March I went to check my foot because despite being much better, I still had residual pain.
- So I had a new MRI.
- Doctor/radiologist thought it was healing and said there was no more visible fracture line on MRI.
- He mentioned residual sesamoiditis/inflammation but said I was lucky not to have a non-union and things should get back in order with a bit more time.
- Symptoms were improving slowly.
May 2026 MRI
- In May, as I was about to go back to Europe (during this all time I am in SEA for work..) I went to see a new/third orthopedist/clinic because the first one stopped working.
- My symptoms were still improving and I almost no longer felt pain while walking (still really little 15-20min per day max) but the foot still didn’t feel normal in terms of sensation, kinda weak and weird.
- I wanted to be sure it was healed before getting back to sports because I don’t want to destroy all the hard-fought progress of the last months.
- I was thinking about getting a CT scan because I read it is better than MRI for analyzing bone healing, but he insisted on another MRI.
- The new MRI still described remaining bone edema (sesamoiditis), but now also a bipartite sesamoid with corticated margins between the 2 parts.
- He said he thinks I now clearly have a non-union fracture that hasn’t fusion well.
- He also said it is now too late for recovery because it has already been 8+ months and said the only real solution would now be surgery.
- He added that I probably wouldn’t find a surgeon willing to perform it in this country, so I could try my luck in Europe (lol).
I am struggling to make sense of all of this now, so after spending time reading medical literature, I only see 3 possibilities:
- Healing stress fracture with chronic inflammation, still slowly healing (the last doctor is wrong, but he sounds very confident...)
- Chronic non-union after my fracture with residual inflammation (the March doctors were wrong)
- A congenital bipartite sesamoid on which I had either sesamoiditis or a fracture that later disappeared (all of them are kinda wrong...)
So I would really appreciate opinions from people who experienced similar chronic sesamoid injuries:
- What diagnosis does this evolution sound the most like to you?
- Did your symptoms continue improving after 8-12 months?
- Were you eventually able to get back to sports even without bone union?
On a side note, even on the first MRI they said they were not absolutely sure it was a fracture. I really wonder why they keep ordering the same exam if they can't get a real answer from it...
Thanks your reading me, my fellow broken sesamoid friends 🙏