r/sesamoid

I apologize for two posts in two days! I'm just trying to make some decisions.

I posted my MRI results yesterday. Here are my symptoms:

• It started two-ish weeks ago with sharpish but quick (zappy) ball of foot pains on toe-off (2/10 pain - initially only pain on toe off and no pain underfoot) one day after a weird feeling in my foot during an activity. Upon first zap, I went into offload mode (this ain't my first rodeo with big toe crap)
• After 4 days, the pinching resolved, no pain on toe off in Birks, but it started to become more of a squishy bruise feeling slightly above (above = toward the toes) the lateral sesamoid. When I feel it underfoot (not always), it feels closer to the second toe than it is, and it doesn't seem worse on toe off - it's just kind of there, hanging out on the far lateral side. Maybe 1-2/10 pain on walking when I feel it, 2-3/10 pain if I press into it with my thumb. I can also make it go away by touching it. It doesn't make me need to stop walking or make me limp.

I met with an orthopedic surgeon (as a second opinion from a doc who ordered the MRI last week) to go over the MRI today. The results sounded really bad on the radiologist's report, but the orthopedic surgeon said the radiologist added a bit more dramatic interpretation than he would. The doctor visit:

• Yes, I have a bit of bone marrow edema in both my sesamoids on the right foot, but only one is symptomatic, and it's the one that's not as bad on the MRI. He thinks my pain is actually from the cartilage issue at lateral sesamoid, not the bone itself. He said we treat what's symptomatic, not everything the MRI says. (He is also of the belief that BME does not equate to stress fracture, automatically.)
• He pulled my toe back really far and pushed all around and under my sesamoids and could not recreate any pain. Like not even a bit of pressure, which was actually embarrassing because I have definitely had some transient pain! just not directly over the sesamoid bones... but he even pressed hard into where I have transient pain, and nada.
• He had me walk across the floor barefoot - no pain. He had me go up onto my toes on only one foot - no pain.
• I left his office with somehow zero pain, despite having a slightly squishy bruise feeling under my foot before the appointment. My foot has not felt worse since the appointment than it did before, despite all that pokey-doking, the barefoot walking, and the one-legged heel raise.
• His recommendation - keep wearing the cork Birkenstocks I'm wearing or go back to the carbon fiber plate I used in my shoes one year ago (for turf toe) and aim for 6 weeks of not aggravating it, and go from there. He said the minor aggravation I feel now is OK, and he expects it would improve if I continue as I have been and take it really easy.
• He said I could start sesamoiditis-specific PT whenever because my symptoms are very mild, the sesamoids themselves aren't painful to the touch, and I could do a heel raise and walk barefoot and have no standing pain. He said I am where many are when they come out of a boot.
• I got a little teary eyed and asked him what we will do if it's worse or keeping me from living a full life in 2 years, and he said, "we will cut it out." I said, "the one that hurts, or the worse one on the MRI?" He said, "the one that hurts." I said he seems confident that surgery would be an option for me even though I'm scared it's not because the MRI doesn't match the pain and he said, "I am confident. Your lateral sesamoid is being aggravated by the cartilage issues, and I would cut it out if it can't heal."

I'm feeling a bit stuck because I intentionally chose a doctor who has real experience with sesamoiditis/sesamoids -- he was mentioned multiple times on a local forum when people asked about sesamoids and he regularly performs sesamoidectomies. I asked how often he treats sesamoiditis, and he said regularly, and with pro athletes (this is true -- he works with local DC teams and ballet).

However, he also didn't suggest any of the super conservative things this sub seems quite confident about, so I find myself in this awkward space of "do I listen to the doctor, or do I take things into my own hands and put myself in a boot for 6 weeks or go NWB? Bone marrow edema seems very bad!"

It may seem like a "why not, just to be safe," thing, but I've been so anxious for the past 2.5 weeks that I already have compensation pain in the other foot (I'd actually say the other foot is more symptomatic right now, especially at the top of the big toe and along the side) and my entire body already hurts from being so... stiff. So going into a boot or using crutches feels risky to me, too, in other ways.

(P.S. - why can't I pull a Jordan Peterson and get put into a medically induced coma for 8 weeks while someone comes and manually exercises all parts of my body for me?)

Anyway, this is a really long post about not wanting to have any regrets, be it throwing everything and the kitchen sink at this and going insane in the meantime, or causing a new issue in my other foot, or missing an opportunity to really get ahead of this.

I'm thinking these are my options. Keep in mind that I can stay home 95% of the time, if I want, because it's summer and I'm a teacher:

a. Continue to take it easy at home in the Birkenstocks for 3-4 weeks. If all stays calm, start PT. But keep steps pretty low and progress to more walking in Hokas or Altras after the 4 weeks.

b. Continue to take it easy at home in Birkenstocks and Hoka Bondi (I've already found my Altra, without a dancer pad, is too flexible to feel safe right now, despite much preferring its toe box width), for 3-4 weeks before starting PT.

c. Try my Hokas with carbon fiber plates again, reliving summer 2025. So awkward. So stiff. Back to walking like Frankenstein. (Hokas are a little narrow for my toe box)

d. Cut holes in my plastic Birkenstocks to offload the sesamoids and mostly use those. Start PT in 3-4 weeks if it goes well.

e. Go NWB or booted for 6-8 weeks and pray the other foot and my knees don't get any worse than they already are with just stiff, careful walking. Start PT after transitioning back into a shoe?

**Note 1: For all options, I'd do a little heel biking (if in Hokas, maybe with plates) and chair cardio and upper body weights for exercise. After the end of the period I discuss, I would not return to regular exercise etc! I'd add a few minutes a day of protected walking for a while, continue PT, etc like I did with my plantar plate tear, but even slower.

Note 2: you do not see Hoka/Altra + dancer pad on this list. I have, much to my anxiety, tried and failed the dancer pad experiment. While I can walk in them, and they do seem to do something, it seems they also to press into the lateral sesamoid/lateral edge region after a while (or press some edema into that area - when I remove them, there's squishiness built up at the edge of them where they're offloading), but putting it any further off to the side doesn't seem to be offloading anymore. The bruisy squishy feeling only increased after a couple days I tried the dancer pad. Maybe I don't have it out far enough, but it just generally bothers my foot while maybe reducing the bruisy walking feeling briefly. I would love for that to be the solution, but alas! I need dancer pad-free or improved options.

This is officially the longest post I've made on Reddit. Thank you for reading it! I hope to figure something out that makes me feel confident enough to commit to it, stop frantically reading the entire internet, and move forward with some semblance of a plan.

Hello, everyone. Long time, no post! Apologies for the long post, but I'm a bit stuck.

Background: Exactly one year ago, I suffered a small plantar plate tear at the level of the medial sesamoid. However, all of my pain then was at the lateral sesamoid side of the joint. I let the plantar plate tear heal and did PT, and all was good for many months. I returned to running, jumping, and lifting, and unlimited walking. I had zero pain after around month 1.5-2 of my initial treatment, though I was very conservative with returning to shoes without carbon fiber plates and taping. Thing seemed back to good!

Three weeks ago - now: My foot suddenly felt odd during an activity, so I stopped the activity. The next day, I had a sharp pinch on toe-off. After a few days, I was able to stop the pinch with my old tricks: Birkenstock shoes, taping. The pinch became replaced with swelling and general soreness on the area. Sometimes it hurt to press, other times it did not. The soreness has increased over these days, especially after a doctor's visit where he poked very hard but did not produce any pain on either sesamoid bone. I can walk with only some transient pressure pain when offloading with a dancer pad and/or in Birkenstocks (although the Birkenstock seems to be helping less than the dancer pad at this moment). All of my pain is at the lateral side, a bit closer to the toes to where the lateral sesamoid bone is, but in that same area. This is the same area as my pain last year.

MRI results: a new, local doctor ordered a 3T MRI to check the plantar plate, and these are the findings:

• FINDINGS: Field-of-view is focused on the forefoot and midfoot where a marker was placed on the plantar aspect at the level of the first metatarsophalangeal joint and hallux sesamoid complex.
• The visualized bone marrow signal demonstrates no evidence of an acute fracture, discrete contusion or periosteal reaction.
• Subchondral bone marrow edema and sclerosis are now identified involving the medial sesamoid bone at the articulation with the first metatarsal bone, new when compared to the prior study. This is also present to a lesser degree involving the lateral sesamoid bone.
• No evidence of high-grade chondromalacia involving the metatarsophalangeal joints or the visualized tarsometatarsal articulations.
• No evidence of acute pathology involving the plantar plates with specific attention to the hallux sesamoid compact on the current examination.
• Ill-defined soft tissue edema is again identified within the plantar soft tissues at the second metatarsal head, similar in appearance to the prior study, best seen on images 19-22 of series 4 with very subtle enhancement suggested.
• There is mild intermetatarsal bursitis now identified in the first through third interspaces.
• IMPRESSION:
  1. Interval development of high-grade chondromalacia involving the hallux sesamoid articulation, greater involving the medial sesamoid bone without evidence of acute pathology involving the plantar plate on the current examination.
• 2. Findings against concerning for a Morton neuroma within the plantar soft tissues of the second metatarsal head, similar in appearance to the prior study with subtle enhancement suggested on this examination. (Note from OP: this was considered incidental last time; so it's still there)
• 3. Mild intermetatarsal bursitis now identified involving the first through third interspaces. (Note from OP: No pain here)

This doctor really shrugged off the radiologist's report, saying that he thinks she's over-reading the arthritis. I only went to this doc hoping to get a quick MRI (which I did), so I'll get a second opinion.

I have NO pain when palpating the medial sesamoid bone, though the MRI says that's where the issue is. I have no idea what this MRI is saying, how bad things look, etc. I know I want a second opinion, but in the meantime, anyone have any thoughts on this MRI?

Oh, and new doc gave me a prescription anti-inflammatory. Unsure whether to take it.

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?

For sesamoiditis with no bone marrow edema or fracture

confused about boot. Many with sesamoiditis have flares after boot and then recover, but say they are glad they did the boot early on.

If you flare after wearing the boot, how is that different from the original sesamoiditis? If you still have pain after the boot, how was the boot a success? How can you move on from there without a boot but could not move on without a boot before?

If you don’t start PT when in pain at the start of this, how can you start PT while still in pain later? How to know when it’s time for PT?

Maybe my question is really just why aren’t people in and out of boot all the time and instead do boot then do not do boot and move forward with loading, PT, etc to heal.

I see so many stories of “I did boot then things were really up and down and now I’m doing much better.”

Also, how long for boot? How long for nonweightbearing before weightbearing?

The above is for sesamoiditis only. Below is for all:

How can you prevent sesamoidITIS on the other foot in a boot? Would wearing a dancer pad preventively help?

It’s looking like I’m going to be in a boot, if that isn’t clear, but I don’t really know why when the answers to the questions above are so elusive to me. I’ll do it, but I’m just like “what if I only feel better while in boot”

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 🙏

I am SO SCARED AND STRESSED AND READING THIS WHOLE SUB AND DEPRESSED but I DONT know if I’m just crazy. Please help me.

had an injury a while back that required PT and a long healing process so I’m not basing this on absolutely nothing but I do worry I may be, well, losing it.

During some ball lacrosse ball passing with my nephew a couple weeks ago I noticed the bottom of my foot on the big toe area felt a little weird but not quite painful. Because of my last injury, I immediately decided to stop what I was doing. I am really gunshy about my foot and injury now.

Next day barefoot walking near the ball of my foot or maybe on the ball of my foot felt like a tiny trampoline trying to stretch under foot, and I knew something was weird, so I put my old Birks on in a panic. Still felt it some for rest of day, almost like a stretching out feeling at the ball. Over the day it progressed to an 1.5-2/10 super quick pinch on toe off. Very noticable but didn’t make me limp.

Switch to Hokas for grocery store — felt the pinch on some steps but not all. It was definitely in the big toe area. Went to store next day in Hokas — fewer pinches, but still there.

A couple days later I had to go to work so I put on a stiff surgery sandal type shoe with a dander pad and tape. I felt the twinge/pinch/tug with many steps earlier in the day and fewer steps later. This was by far the worst day for the pinching. No pain at rest or sleeping

- over the next few days the pinch ceased and became a mild tug or pressure feeling in the ball but very occasionally. My foot often feels totally fine. HOWEVER, I am also babying it. Low step count. Stiff Birkenstocks only. No barefoot.

- one night after doing lots of poking and testing, I did have some night time pain

Some tests I did during the first week:

—heel raise: minor pinch pain during the start of the rise and come down of a heel raise and no pain in a back lunge. Top of heel raise was fine.
—poking it: Was able to find some bruise like pinpoint pain at ball of foot briefly on the fibular side after provoking it in a hot bathtub. pain did not get worse when pulling toe back. Walking right after that was sore in the area but it returned to baseline
-on day 2 or 3 I had some extremely minor pain when standing on the floor barefoot (just standing) that felt sorr of diffuse on the ball of the big toe but it did not feel sharp or like I was stepping on something at all. It was almost more like something tugging while being squished with a little bruise feeling.

Since then, I have had occasional general feelings in the ball of my foot, which are like ghost tugs or a step here and there that feels a little achey or like a dull pinch. Very occasionally. Continuing to walk after that bruised step or set of bruised steps does not increase the feeling in frequency or intensity. It goes away.

Went to an orthopedic foot and ankle doctor today and he took x rays and tried poking it all around the ball and found absolutely nothing. It was a little sore on the ball when walking after that for the next hour or so and now it’s back to not hurting

I am wearing very stiff Birkenstocks and have been at all times for the past 10 days. I don’t stand barefoot in the shower but if I stand barefoot on the floor I don’t know if I have no consistent symptoms because there’s nothing wrong with me or because I’m being so careful.

No barefoot walking

Much of the time I’m convinced I’m actually insane. My foot does not hurt the majority of the time. It occasionally does something weird and previously got a semi consistent pinch. I’m scared to test it more. I’m compensating on the other foot and taht one is starting to hurt. I’m starting to tell people that I’m in the long haul for a scary foot injury that may or may not heal. I don’t know what to do.

My orthopedic doctor suggested I get into therapy (like brain therapy) immediately. But I know that I felt pinches when walking. I know that I have had pressure pain and a small amount of swelling. I know that when I rub my feet together by accident at night I feel something like pain (but then when I touch I don’t feel it). I know there’s tightness. I know I had a previous injury that took a long time to heal

I just don’t know if I should be scared and of what — the start of this foot thing or my own brain.

Please help me.

Everyone here says treat sesamoiditis immediately. I’m not sure if I’m being extreme but I kind of wished the doctor gave me a boot for 6 weeks. But with the other foot already hurting, how do I move forward? I’ve never been so scared in my life and I don’t want to ignore this and just start regular therapy to convince myself I’m not crazy if maybe I SHOULD be doing something about this. Maybe I should be getting a boot and taking charge of this myself.

Hello,

I am a 27 YO female and have had sesamoid osteonecrosis for several years. The diagnosis was confirmed through an xray. Mine is in my left foot, inner sesamoid. It's gotten to the point that the bone is large and irregularly shaped and collapsing. I have tried different types of shoes (Brooks, Hoka, etc) and custom orthotics per my podiatrist's recommendation. Injections have helped a little, but I don't like the long term side effects. Walking is painful no matter what I do, and as a result of this, I have also developed Achilles tendinitis from trying to avoid pain. The right side of my body is also taking a beating from the weight shift. My doctor refuses to do surgery on me because of my age and the aftermath could be worse off due to the big toe not being able to be anchored down properly. I plan on making another appointment, but does anyone have anything that could help me? I really hate this 😔

I’ve heard of folks cutting up their insoles in order to offload the sesamoid. If you’ve done this, can you please share a pic so I can get a sense of how this is done?

Also, did you cut up the insole that came with the shoe, or did you buy a separate insole to cut/insert?

Many thanks in advance!

Just got diagnosed with a medial sesamoid stress fracture. Has anyone tried BPC-157 for recovery? I’m needing to speed up this process

Looking for people’s experiences with running long-term. I made a post a few weeks ago on r/sesamoid about running with sesamoiditis, and the responses weren’t exactly encouraging! Has this been a “career-ending” injury for anyone or is recovery possible? I would appreciate any input.

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.

I’m confused by sesamoiditis treatment because most posts here seem to be fractures or bipartite sesamoids, not typical sesamoiditis. Especially success stories! I think I’ve seen only a couple sesamoiditis success stories. Which is scary. It seems much worse and then surgery doesn’t seem to be an option for all failed sesamoiditis cases without clear bone involvement like BM edema.

Anyway, that said can anyone help with some questions about sesamoiditis if you’ve experienced it and done the research?

1. INITIAL BOOT NO MATTER THE SEVERITY
2. Why is sesamoiditis often given the same boot treatment as a fracture? Is this just to be safe? I even see this for people who have had it a long time and then get diagnosed — boot.
3. WHY NO BOOT FOR FLARES? WHY CANT INITIAL SESAMOIDITIS BE TREATED LIKE A FLARE?
4. I read about people having flares for weeks or months. What do these flares look like? Are they as bad as the initial sesamoiditis? I don’t understand why each flare doesn’t mean boot like you’re starting over if that’s how you treat it initially, but that’s because this injury makes no sense to my brain.

And then I guess I don’t see why a very minor sesamoiditis that someone can easily control initially with basic offloading doesn’t get better like a flare would.

3. WHY NO INFO ON SESAMOIDITIS ON DR BLAKES HEALING SOLE? There are just a few emails he’s shared from people but no guidance for sesamoiditis and a lot of his material is fracture specific, like exogen bone when the bone may be fine

4. IF SESAMOIDITIS IS MORE COMMON THAN FRACTURE (per studies), WHY IS ALL THE GOOD INFO ON FRACTURES? SHOULD WE JUST TREAT THEM THE SAME?

5. IF YOU HAVE SESAMOIDITIS AND YOU TREATED IT AS SOON AS YOUR SYMPTOMS STARTED DO YOU THINK YOU COULD HAVE HEALED FASTER?

6. WHAT DID YOUR FIRST SESAMOIDITIS SYMPTOMS LOOK LIKE AND HOW IS THAT DIFFERENT FROM A FLARE? how often do you have symptoms now and what does your daily life look like?

7. WHAT ROLE DO YOU THINK PT PLAYS IN SESAMOIDITIS VS FRACTURE TREATMENT? it seems like it would be more important, earlier anyway, since it likely related to mechanics and foot stuff

Maybe I’m being cherry-pick biased because I have “only” sesamoiditis, and it’s just feeling like it’s more hopeless and confusing than fractures because ultimately surgery isn’t always an option, especially if the cause of the sesamoiditis is unknown (which is seems to always be??)

Hi everyone,

STRUGGLING. Feeling extreme despair. Etc etc.

Dancer pad is not working for me. I'm using 1/4" pads and can't figure out why it's not working.

I have FIBULAR/LATERAL sesamoid pain and pain on the lateral edge of the met head. I have a very prominent met head, even without swelling or the sesamoid sticking out from being inflammed.

Can anyone share with me some specific tips for dancer pad placement, or even better.. show me a pic. Especially if it's for fibular but if you think you have a setup that offloads them both, please share.

I've seen various placements in videos.

Also, please give me some textual details too, like how close is it to the edge of the big joint etc

Just looking for some validation and some success stories. I’ve had sesamoid issues in my right foot since December. I didn’t go to a podiatrist about it until February. Doctor gave me dancers pads to wear for a month and said to maintain normal activity, told me she suspected sesamoiditis, but did not tell me much more about the injury or the long term healing process, just said the dancers pads would probably heal it. Pain was worse after another month so she ordered an MRI and yes it was sesamoiditis, she gave me a boot and said to wear it for 4 weeks and ordered custom inserts for me in the mean time. During this time I’ve started doing my own research and have come to understand a lot more about the condition and different people’s healing journeys. Because of this Reddit I found something that did actually help me, which was ordering an insert on Amazon, cutting out the sesamoid area, and wearing that inside the walking boot; that has helped some but surprise surprise I’m at the end of the four weeks and my foot is still in pain, and now the sesamoid area in the other foot has started hurting. I just had a follow up with my doctor today and she said to stop wearing the boot and wear my regular shoes with the inserts now. Told me nothing about what type of shoes to wear and said nothing on physical therapy. In my research on this Reddit and other places online I’ve really only heard about people actually healing by doing physical therapy. I told her this and she looked at me like I was crazy and said she could not see how physical therapy would help but would write a prescription for it if I really wanted to try it. Am I crazy?! Should I be going to another doctor? I feel like I am on my own here trying to do as much research as I can to try to heal, at times it can feel very hopeless but lately I have been feeling more positive knowing there are measures I can take to walk normally again, but am now just feeling confused by my doctor telling me physical therapy won’t do anything.

Hi, I strongly suspect I got sesamoidits. It started exactly 1 month ago around my left bigtoe. It was very painful at first, but the pain reduced gradually after just a few days, which gave me hope that I would fully recover after a week or two.

However, it appears to just be.. stuck now? Over the past 3 weeks, I don't think I have improved one bit. The pain is just always lingering there at about the same level whenever I walk. It's not bad enough that I feel I need to see a doctor just for the pain, but I will if I need to do it to heal faster.

Thanks.

Hi everyone,

Not looking for advice about healing the injury, since I’ve read like every post on here, but looking to hear how disabled you are or were before you fully healed (or mostly healed). I don’t mean during the super acute first few weeks or months but long-term. If you’re now having chronic Sesamoid issues.

What type of sesamoid injury do/did you have and how functional were you day-to-day when it was not resolved but not brand new or during flares. Are/were you able to do chores? Work? Grocery shop? Use a stationary bike or rower? Do daily tasks but not the workouts you enjoy? Have you been unable to walk without a limp or for more than to move around your house for years?

I know long haul is substantial quality of life and depressing but what does that look like on a day to day?

Based on what you see here what’s the typical impact on long termers’ functionality?

I know people are more likely to post if the title resonates with them and it’s dire but please consider replying if your journey sucks/sucked but you have still been mostly functional too.

Just wanted to share my sesamoid story to offer a bit of optimism to others out there who are frustrated.

I first injured my foot in 2024 when warming up for a social doubles match on a slightly frozen court. Thought nothing of it at the time, assuming that I'd stubbed my toe, and stupidly played on for a few hours. The next days and weeks were painful to walk, and when things weren't improving I went to the physio. It initially got misdiagnosed as a medial toe ligament sprain, which wasn't improving despite months of rehab exercises. Eventually got referred for an MRI which confirmed sesamoiditis. Rather than go down the route of steroid injections (which sounded unlikely to fully resolve the issue) or surgery, I decided to attempt to self-manage a gradual return to sports.

Things that I have tried over three past 12 months that haven't really helped:

- Taping to help with toe alignment

- Anti inflammatory medication

- Strengthening exercises, stretching, balance work

- A variety of different insoles, including some specifically for ball of foot pain

Things that have somewhat helped:

- I switched my work shoes and started wearing HOKA Bondi 9s pretty much all the time. It was only when I did this that I realized how much my normal work shoes were aggravating my sesamoiditis.

- I changed tennis shoes from Adidas Barricades (my go to for ~20 years) to K-Swiss Hypercourts, based on positive reviews from elderly players and reading about the increased foam depth on the forefoot.

But the main thing which has almost fully resolved my pain is using a carbon fibre Morton Extension plate underneath my insole (both work and sports footwear). I sort of stumbled across this while mid deep dive into insoles research, but I can't believe how much of a difference it has made. The plate is very thin so still reasonably flexible, but takes a lot of the pressure off your MTP joint during flexion. I also experimented with full foot carbon fibre plates, but this was giving me pain in my outer toes, which the Morton Extension version isn't. They were pretty inexpensive on Amazon, I got a pack of 2 for about £40, and use them underneath Superfeet insoles.

I can now play hours of tennis again with only minimal discomfort, and no more waking up the following day with a throbbing foot.

So good luck to anyone out there who is struggling in their own sesamoid journey, and just know that there is light at the end of the tunnel!

How long were you instructed to lie down and elevate your legs post op? I’m going to go crazy lying around much longer.