r/sesamoid

Just finding out what I've got and what I may be in for.

I got injured from squatting down while being up on my toes to remove deck screws. I was trying to avoid kneeling since I didn't have knee pads, and I basically ended up putting a lot of weight on my toes for several hours while they were in a hyper-extended position. I was basically in a catchers position shifting weight from foot to foot. I had mild pain after that, and then a couple of days later I went skateboarding and now my sesamoids ache constantly and have for 4 weeks straight.

I hope its just hyper-extension and not a fracture and this only lasts a few months and not years. But it could very easily be both.

I can only use barefoot shoes right now, anything other than zero drop is too painful.

I don't know what else to say really. I just needed somewhere to post this after realizing this is most likely a long term injury.

I’ve been wearing oofos in the shower at the advice of a doctor for about 6 months now. I will also wear them as I get ready for bed and get ready in the morning so I’m never barefoot.

However, I’ve been noticing that the tops of my feet get really red wherever they touch the strap of the Oofos shoes. I noticed it even happens when I wear socks. Oofos are apparently latex free (I had a childhood latex allergy), so I have no idea why my feet are reacting.

Are there any other cushioned sandal brands I can wear as shower shoes that are more hypoallergenic? I also have severe fat pad atrophy in addition to all the sesamoid problems, so I need very cushioned shoes.

thanks!

For close to 3 years I have been dealing with sesamoiditis in my right toe. I am college student and don't have a driver's license, so that probably contributed to the stubbornness of this injury. The inflammation is not under control despite everything I am doing to get it to a manageable level.

List of things I do:

-Stretching and strengthening exercises(ankle, foot, legs)

-icing the sesamoid area at least 1 time every day

-NSAID gel 1% everyday for over a year( was the only thing that kept a nerve decompressed)

-Oral NSAIDS: ibuprofen did nothing and meloxacam gave me hives

-I wore a walking boot for 4 weeks during the 1st year of injury

-off the shelf orthodic inserts with dancer pads added onto it

-custom orthotics with relief area

I feel at a lost for any other conservative treatment that is affordable and manageable while I am on campus. Is there anything I have not tried yet that I could do to get the inflammation down and stop compressing a nerve in the sesamoid area?

(Sorry for any spelling errors, I am dyslexic and spell check is not my friend sometimes)

April 2025 i developed sesamoiditis. Not sure who, how or when but i developed pain in my left sesamoid. After 4 weeks i made a DR appt and she had me come to her office twice a week to do iodine foot baths and some electronic thing. By beginning of june the pain was on and off sometimes it would be really bad and other times i thought i was healed. One of those times i wore heels which i think led to a fracture. I bought Hokas in june and was solely wearing those. Then August i saw 2 more doctors. I went with the dr who ordered me a MRI. My mri showed a fracture and inflammation. So I then was in a boot from august - october 1st. Every other night i used a red light therapy foot mask that was heated, i think because of the heat i felt the blood actually circulate to my sesamoid. My dr made me custom orthotics and mid october i started PT. I was in PT from oct-jan, honestly the only thing they showed me was different stretches but i didnt feel i got a lot out of it. i only wore my hokas and orthotics till May 2026 when i realized i didn’t have pain anymore but i had such bad ptsd from this whole thing i was scared to wear other shoes so i started wearing flat sneakers, then loafers, flip flops, and now i can be in heels (which before all of this i use to wear heels every day). i don’t do lunges yet and run. but i feel normal, so biggest advice i can give is get an mri early on and take your time healing. also make sure your getting blood flow to your foot.

But take your time. Last thing i want to do is rush into something, i still get aches and soreness sometimes but it goes away quick. Feel free to ask me any questions but please know it is possible to heal a fracture months after getting one.

Edit:
This is what i used on my foot that i feel made the biggest difference and actually helped heal my foot.

https://a.co/d/00uOOXPe

Healing while still having some pain?

Did anyone progressively heal over time even as they had some pain?

I’ve been in a boot for 12 weeks now and have no pain sometimes, some pain sometimes. It really feels random and intermittent, not activity dependent (for example, I walked 5000 steps in boot Tuesday and it felt fine that day and the next. I sat around all day Thursday on Zooms and it acted up a bit more Friday).

I have tried some very short shoe trials and had some delayed pain after.

I have met with two PTs and they have differing opinions on pain. One says I will not leave the boot until I’m entirely pain free for 5-7 days, while continuing to do some ankle mobility work and basic foot work (toe yoga, mostly).

The other says that at this point, as long as the pain is below 3-4, I need to get back in shoes so if I’m progressing with shoe trials and the pain doesn’t go above 3-4, I need to keep going. She also suggests doing more PT exercises, like short foot and pressing my big toe down with a band trying to pull it up to start loading the toe a bit. She also wants me standing in soft Birkenstocks (not walking) for several minutes a day, like in the shower, to start getting my foot used to load on the foot. None of these things hurt WHILE doing them, though I continue to have intermittent weird pain at random times while walking in boot, and she thinks that’s just going to be what it is.

Did anyone progress in a positive direction without getting pain down to almost zero after initial immobilization period?

I have severe sesamoiditis, multiple opinions say no fractures despite bone marrow edema.

I developed sesamoiditis at the end of March 2026, so it’s been about 4 months now. I’ve seen both a podiatrist and an orthopedist, but frankly neither have been much help.

The podiatrist did:
- An X-ray (nothing on it)
- Custom orthotics (targeted my flat feet, but didn’t offload the sesamoid at all)

The orthopedist did:
- An MRI (revealed mild medial sesamoiditis)
- Prescribed prednisone and meloxicam (marginal effect, temporary)
- Technically prescribed PT but they never called me

I bought Hoka Bondi 9s and Hoka recovery slides, which are very comfortable, but I still don’t seem to be getting any better. I’m using dancer’s pads too, which are comfortable, but again, I’m still not healing. I’m also trying to do PT at home, but to be honest, without professional guidance, I’m skeptical that this is actually doing anything.

When I first got symptoms, it was just the feeling of a tendon in my first MTP snapping to the side, then I inflamed it and it was painful for 2 weeks, and I’ve been painless ever since. About 3 months. But that tendon is still snapping to the side and the MRI still showed marrow edema. So in a nutshell, I haven’t actually gotten any better since I first developed symptoms. Zip. Nada.

I’ve been out of play (fencing) for about 3 months. And at this rate, it’s starting to look like my sesamoid will never heal past being “mild”. Online, they claim it takes a few months to heal, but this seems pretty fake to me considering I’ve had absolutely zero improvement in that time. So yeah, is there actually any hope for me to go back to fencing soon? I can’t and won’t wait a year.

And no, I can’t get a sesamoidectomy. It’s incompatible with fencing.

Trying to transition out of the boot and absolutely no shoe combo is working. Tried every athletic shoe mentioned on here.

Just to try to be out of boot some does anyone have any opinions on oofos or hoka recovery slides as the fresh out the boot shoe?

Since nothing is working inside a normal shoe, absolutely no combo of pads and insoles, I’m wondering if anyone has found that they could tolerate the slide type shoes on their own better than athletic shoes and dancer pad combos.

Boot is giving me mad knee pain.

Oh and did anyone who could tolerate these shoes better than athletic shoes — did this eventually help you continue to heal and get to regular shoes better or anything? Or did you then just get stuck in oofos lol

I run and walk a lot and have had off-and-on sesamoiditis-like pain in my left toe since early June. An MRI showed “subacute to chronic appearing tear of the intersesamoidal ligament of the great toe” (thankfully no fracture), but my sports ortho wasn’t alarmed or even slightly concerned by it and said exercise likely wouldn’t make it worse. I’m still starting PT later this month and am wearing a dancer’s pad at all times.

Twice since the pain flared up, it has subsided to the point where I thought the pain was gone for good. But it’s come back, seemingly unprovoked. Strangely, running has never aggravated it, likely because I land on my mid foot. Walking has been more painful.

Still, I’ve cut my running back. Today, I joined a masters swim team for practice, thinking that swimming would be a great low-impact cross-training exercise.

I was worried I wouldn’t be able to push off the wall, but I was able to do that without pain. Swimming freestyle wasn’t painful. What was actually painful was kicking with a kickboard. I assume because I was kicking harder. And now, hours later, the big toe pain is back.

Has this happened to anyone else who’s tried swimming? I can understand not being able to push off. But just regular kicking? I was so excited to get back into swimming. It’s so frustrating.

Pleased to find some solidarity here in this thread.

Been battling the pain of a broken up sesamoid in my left foot for ~3 years now, I am 34 now. I used to love long hikes, running, walks for my mental health - I can’t do any of these things now. I feel left out when my family can go and explore beautiful places and they don’t bother to even invite me anymore - because I will have to say no.

I am on the waiting list for my first steroid injection (UK - NHS). I’m hoping for some change.

Feeling so disheartened and tired of it all. Foot is in a lot of pain tonight and swollen, so physically and mentally done!

Doc gave me a stiff sole shoe but tbh I want to maximize my chance of healing this thing. Would a boot be overkill? I’m not a huge fan of the idea of removing. He also said only give it 8 weeks then remove it. I feel like that’s too short a time frame?

I’m curious if anyone with sesamoiditis or a sesamoid fracture has experienced their 2nd toe clawing/curling during gait particularly during push-off. I’ve noticed my big toe feels weak and my 2nd toe tends to claw/mallet when I walk, and I also have a pretty significant callus underneath the 2nd toe.

I’m wondering if this could be from shifting weight away from the sesamoid and relying more on the 2nd toe during push-off. Has anyone experienced something similar?