u/Hey_internet

Help I have to make a decision about shoes over the next week or two so I can get fitted for my orthotics. My pedorthist makes them in house while I wait using a combination of a scanning machine and modifications . So she needs to know what shoe I am going to use. I don’t want her to make them for my current shoe, which is a Hoka Bondi, as I’ve developed sesamoiditis on my second foot and I think the Bondi having stuff that pushes aggressively into the ball of my foot is part of why.

My ultimate goal is Altra Olympus.
I found Altra FWD Via was actually a bit tight on the widest part of my forefoot (where a tailors bunion and bunion/medial sesamoid would hit on edges) but I’ve heard Olympus is a little less snug

I cannot immediately go zero drop though because I have peroneal tendonitis and calf pain right now so hoping to use a similarly shaped shoe with some drop and then transition my orthotics into it later OR do people find their orthotics give some heel drop even in zero drop shoes?

Obviously some things I’d like are stiff forefoot, rocker, wide toe box and really wide mid forefoot, maybe higher step to fit orthotic without pressure, cushion is tricky for me as I find that the Bondi cushion feels unstable

I have bilateral sesamoiditis.

The shoes I have seen as possible pros and negatives :

Hoka Bondi
+ rigid and high stack/roomy for my high arch + insoles
- basically everything else — too tight on forefoot, feels unstable, does weird things to my ankles (my ankles roll out majorly in the bondi idk why)

Topo Atmos
+ wide forefoot
+ I think they’re cute
+ less cushion than Bondi so maybe a little more stable feeling
- less aggressive rocker (idk how ppl feel about that)
- seems to have REALLY aggressive toe spring. Looks like your toes are always pulled up. This is my biggest concern since stretch hurts my new foot

New balance fresh foam
Don’t know much about this but seems to have very high heel drop?

Brooks Ghost Max
+ seems wider in forefoot
+ seems to have less of the toe lift/spring
- not sure if it has as useful a rocker
- slightly higher heel drop than Bondi and Topo but I want to eventually move to very low or no drop

Xelero Genesis (off table for me now as drop too high)
+ super rigid basically has plate inside it
+ seems to accommodate foot + orthotics
+ rocker
- very very high heel toe (I read 11mm!)
- looks like extreme toe spring

Altra Olympus (off the table for me right now but would like them eventually)
+ roomy forefoot
+ rocker
- seems bendier / less stiff
- zero drop (can’t do for now but I know many say this is the best!)

OTHER SHOES JUST PUTTING THESE OUT THERE FOR THE HOUSE

FitFlop
—not sure but honestly if I could get away with these more than running shoes I’d give it go any input? For early healing or late healing?

Birkenstocks
+ low or no drop
+ don’t bend much
+ no toe spring
+ very roomy forefoot
- a sandal so idk if good for early on (first few months, fresh from boot)

Anyone have any input experience on the list and pros/cons I provided above?

——

Also I don’t think we should offer medical advice via a sub wiki but I’d love to get a shoe guide since everyone seems to need something a little different and shoe choices seem CLUTCH. What do we think of that? Mods? Maybe a sticky post just about shoes and everyone goes to same post weekly with their shoe requests lol

Recommendations for custom orthotics in the area? I have a complicated foot issue (sesamoiditis and big toe arthritis and bursitis) and need someone who’s really attentive, ideally pedorthist.

Anyone have experience with Marcia Graddon and team at Orthopedic Foot & Ankle in Arlington/Falls Church? Or Alan Ryder in DC?

Or another recommendation?

Oh and if anyone has ever suffered from sesamoid issues, any other recs you have for specialists in the area would be great 😅 It’s pretty rare so I know this is a long shot request

Recommendations for custom orthotics in the area. I have a complicated foot issue (sesamoiditis and big toe arthritis and bursitis) and need someone who’s really attentive, ideally pedorthist who makes their own orthotics.

Anyone have experience with Marcia Graddon and team at Orthopedic Foot & Ankle in Arlington/Falls Church? Or Alan Ryder in DC?

Or another recommendation?

Recommendations for custom orthotics in the area?? I have a complicated foot issue (sesamoiditis and big toe arthritis and bursitis) and need someone who’s really attentive, ideally pedorthist.

Closest once I’ve heard anything about are in DC -/ Marcia Graddon and team at Orthopedic Foot & Ankle in Arlington/Falls Church and Alan Ryder in dc

Or another recommendation?

Recommendations for custom orthotics in the area. I have a complicated foot issue (sesamoiditis and big toe arthritis and bursitis) and need someone who’s really attentive, ideally pedorthist.

Anyone have experience with Marcia Graddon and team at Orthopedic Foot & Ankle in Arlington/Falls Church?

Or another recommendation?

Background: bone marrow edema and arthritis in right foot with soft tissue edema (basically the whole joint lol), pain sort of diffuse

With a combo of meloxicam and 95% non weight bearing where every day I stood in a sandal just to stand for about 10-15 seconds and rested my foot on the ground once that was mostly painless a couple weeks ago, I got to no soft tissue palpation pain (which was my biggest symptom before), so I’m now in a boot bc my sciatica was getting bad on the scooter.

I ordered thick insoles to cut for the boot and they’ll arrive soon, but I walked out of the doctor’s office and one whole block and rode in the car for 1 hour without pain with no additional offloading and with my foot flat against the boot. I’m hoping this is a good sign. Will see how tomorrow morning feels.

I have a Hoka Bondi with a carbon fiber plate on the other foot — it seems to keep my hips pretty even, though I’m sure there’s a slight discrepancy. Not sure whether to get an even up if I got them pretty close — unsure how minute of adjustments an even up can make or if it adds other weird gait things??

I plan to stay in the boot for about 4-5 weeks (I was NWB for 3.5 weeks).

Any tips for transitioning from non weight bearing to boot without angering my body? Did anyone find that they could use a stationary bike while in the boot just for some movement? Steps per day suggestion? Safe amount of pain or discomfort in the boot without calling it a setback?

Thanks as always for the community lifting since the doctors sure don’t do it :)

Thanks & next

Thanks to everyone who answered my questions about boot and non weight bearing experiences one week ago. It left me with much to consider. I have been non-weight bearing for a few days now because I could not find a comfortable offloading method even with chopping off a big chunk of an insole go float the whole metatarsal head. Still increase in pain, swelling and tissue anger later

I have sesamoiditis in both bones of one foot after years of foot issues that I thought were normal (like really hot feet at night getting randomly red and swollen lol). Imaging showed bone marrow edema in both with some degenerative changes / arthritis cartilage involvement / sclerosis which means this is probably done over time, not an acute injury. This is on my slightly larger foot. My doctor and radiologist do not think I have any fractures. Unclear if both are symptomatic (I don’t have a ton of pain and the pain is in one area but not hyper-focal so who knows).

I have now seen three doctors, all with pretty noncommittal explanations of what to do, and all happy to do fusion if it comes to that (lol). But let’s not let it come to that!

If you were starting from scratch and had bone marrow edema without clear fracture and degenerative issues , what would you do? What would your first 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 weeks look like? When would you introduce PT and injections or shockwave?

How long would you wait before considering surgery (it seems for me it would be double sesamoidectomy)

How long did you boot?

Weight or non weight bearing?

While in boot, what did your daily life look like? Did you leave your house, go to a job, walk around for just chores? Exercise in other ways that didn’t use your boot?

Did you sleep in your boot? Watch tv in your boot?

How did you shower?

Did you wear the boot every time you walked or did you have some sort of oofas, recovery slides, or Birkenstocks you wore for some things like bathroom trips?

Did you do anything to help maintain the health of the other foot/ the rest of your body?

If your offloading stage was not with a boot (if you just wore shoes with dancer pad or something else), please tell me same general things about yours.