Anyone have a Morton's neuroma in your foot? If so, did you have the cortisone injection and did it help? These suckers HURT! The injection wasn't so bad, but the aftermath is not pleasant at all. I need to hear some good outcome stories!

I had acupuncture treatments a few years back for Morton's. I have had no pain ever since. The foot doctor wanted to do surgery, but told me my toes would be numb for the rest of my life--I said "no way" and I'm glad I did.

I have not had this, but I was at a support meeting last night and it was brought up. One of the women there had it and got good results with acupuncture. It's been a number of years and she's been doing okay without the surgery.

Good luck with it --
Missy

This is interesting. I know I have a Morton's neuroma in my foot. I haven't had a formal diagnosis but I'm married to a doctor who identified it. It's giving me very little trouble at the moment, although I've heard the nature of them is to flare up and down, and this has certainly been the case in the past. Gracie and Bookworm - did you have a lot of trouble/pain before your respective treatments? I've had incidences where tingling and slight numbness have spread up the foot and lower leg, also a couple of times (in two years) where the foot has been painful, but it hasn't interfered with me doing even extensive walking - hill walking and hiking, etc. In fact walking seems to improve it! At the moment, the sensation has receded back to the toe area and has stayed there quite a long time. I'm so used to it now I hardly notice it.

It's interesting to hear from Bookworm and Missy that acupuncture has been effective. Do you still have any numbness Bookworm, or is the foot completely normal now?

Does anyone know whether there's any hormonal connection with this? Coincidentally it all started for me when I stopped taking HRT abruptly and my estrogen levels plummeted. I got pains in the backs of my hands at the same time but as my hormone levels evened out (eventually) the pains in my hands stopped.

Mine started as pain in the ball of my foot between my 3rd and 4th toes. It got worse with walking, improved with rest. Last Sunday while walking, I got tingling in my 2nd and 3rd toes. Last Monday while walking around at the office, I got electric shocks/zingers of pain shooting from the ball of my foot up into my 3rd and 4th toes. It felt like a pinched nerve, I could hardly walk. My own research, and my doctor, both conclude these are the classic symptoms of Morton's neuroma. She was able to reproduce my pain on exam. I have a classic "mulder's click", which is the noise the inflamed nerve makes when it is squished and moved between the metatarsal bones. There are many different neuro conditions involving the foot. I half wonder if yours might not be tarsal tunnel syndrome or something. I suggest you see a podiatrist. My doc said the earlier it is treated, the more successful the results.

Eeeeeek thanks Gracie!

I no longer have pain in that foot. No numbness at all. If I'd had surgery instead of acupuncture, they would have cut the nerve which would have left my toes numb. As you mentioned, before the acupuncture the pain would come and go until one day it came and never left. That's when I went to the podiatrist who suggested surgery. I thought about it long and hard & decided to get acupuncture. I've never regretted that decision for a minute. If it should ever flare up again, I would certainly go back for acupuncture.

That's really interesting Bookworm. I'll talk to my husband about that. He's a medical doctor but also learnt acupuncture at one stage when he worked in a pain clinic. Thank you for that information. It's something I'll investigate, as well as getting a formal diagnosis.

Acupuncture sounds like a nice alternative to injections and surgery. Where do they put the acupuncture needles and how long did it take for the symptoms to improve?

I've never heard of Morton's Neuroma but I've had recurring foot pain for months now! It's across the top of my foot and it hurts when I have shoes on--even loose ones--and after walking a lot. It is slightly swollen across the top and sometimes it is very hot to the touch.

I went to a podiatrist and he could find nothing in the xrays. He said it could be soft tissue-related. He just told me to buy bigger shoes or shoes that don't go across the top of my foot but those haven't made any difference. He had me take Advil/Motrin/Aleve--whichever I wanted-- for 10 days and while that helped for those 10 days, it's back to hurting again.

Off to do some research...................

It could be a stress fracture. 50% of them do not show up on x-ray at all, and many take several weeks to show up. I would go back to the podiatrist for further evaluation.

Hmmm.......he said there was no sign of any stress fractures--that's what I thought it was, too! Maybe another appointment in a few weeks will show something. Thanks!

As I recall, they put needles in the foot area where the pain was centered, but also up my leg a bit in the shin area. He said it was the "meridian" or something like that. I went back for three treatments.

Thanks for the info!