Tingling numb feet/recently dx'd with mortons neuroma in both feet

Forgot to mention that the podiatrist is recommending cryotherapy if conservative attempts don't work

I have same sensation . Was at podiatrist office last week .

He could not diagnose .

His conjecture was nerve impingement emanating from the lower back .

I am in no pain but the sensation is constant .

Diabetes was ruled out too .

Frustrating .

Sorry pod. I hope you get answers soon!!!,,,

I have had Morton's, or so diagnosed, but it was nothing like what you are describing. My pain is/was more of a dull/blunt pain mainly at the base of my second toe and more toward the sole of my foot.

My symptoms get the worst when I fly, assuming something to do with the pressure.

In the winter, while running, it also gets/got bad. I used to get Adrenaline ASR's and duct-tape over the mesh. It seemed that keeping my feet very warm kept them less bothered. Now I have Hoka's and man are my feet happy in those during the winter. I think the combination of a softer sole (most normal running shoes get quite hard and stiff in the cold and so does the ground) and the preserved flexibility keep my feet SO much warmer and my Morton's at bay. They also seems to have good traction, side bonus. One reason Mukluks are so warm is they are much more flexible that typical boots, which keeps blood moving.

A stretch that has helped me with lower back/nerve issues is to sit on my butt, legs extended, throw a belt around one foot, pull in the belt and tuck my chin to my chest, all while keeping my back straight...don't slouch.

Stupid voodoo thing I tried, which seemed to have helped, was rub the area that is irritated with an ultrasonic toothbrush. It was my homebrew theraputic ultrasound, and you can buy extra heads so you don't get athlete's foot in your mouth.

Hahaha !!!

That's great !

Gonna try it .

Hope both of you get well too !

Thanks for the info!

I will try anything at this point!

What happened to your previous thread on this topic? I posted several treatments that have worked for me, but that thread has disappeared.

Here's my previous post on Morton's neuroma. Since you have it on both feet, it's even more obvious that this is the problem and the solution(s).

If you don't understand the rationale or some of these steps, ask me for a more detailed explanation on the part you don't understand.

FIsky. Thank you for taking the time to post/repost. I am in the process of trying different shoes and I have changed the lacing on my shoes. The tingling/burning persists although at times it doesn't.

I am at a loss for how to rehab this injury. I think I might talk to my POD about some PT. I'm afraid to make this worse but I am just about to crawl out of my skin because of zero physical activity. I am hoping that between the shoe changes(been about a week now) and the custom orthotics (3 days of breaking them thus far)that everything calms down.

I had this when I was in college, but I think it was more along the lines of compartment syndrome (exactly the same symptoms as you).

What helped me:

started to wear racing flats instead of trainers (w/ wide toe box)

made sure to do a dynamic warmup before all runs, even easy ones

Thanks try this! I will mention this too my doctor when I see him next week.

Hi Sophie,

You saw my comments in the other thread. I don't really have much to add, but I will elaborate on one element. I think taking time off is pretty crucial. Neuromas never go away, but they do recede and settle down a lot. It can take time, though.

Looking back on mine, I mostly took time off for about a year. But that was 'mostly' taking time off. I kept trying to get back to running or would do too much. In hind sight, with the sharp pings and buzzes of the neuroma still going, I should have shut down all activity that bothered it for a good 6 months.

From other responses, clearly not all neuromas are created equal. I think mine was more problematic than most. Hopefully yours is not, but from what you are reporting, it does not look like an easy case.

Not running is pretty much always the worse thing. If mine came roaring back right now, I would probably just decide to devote 6 months to a new activity so I had something to concentrate on. Maybe I'd join a yoga studio or take up a martial art or something. Anything that I could train (barefoot, as that was best for me) and just focus on and get better/stronger at.

Best of luck to you.

Thank you again Igotone. Taking time off seems like my best option at this point. Hopefully, I can push through the fears I have about this and also end my pity party and at least do some strength training and stretching. I know my abs could use some attention lol

I hope to be posting some time next year with some positive news! The best to you as well!

Nice. I look forward to hearing about your rock hard abs and return to running!

I have Morton's in one foot. Same symptoms as you. Generally it doesn't show up until I've run about 4 miles, at which point I have to walk it out. But I've run dozens of marathons and ultras up to 100M since the injury with very few problems.

The main fix was custom orthotics WITH a metatarsal pad to spread out the bones and give the nerve room. You could glue in met pads independent of the orthotics, but I like them in the orthotics because the proper placement is vital. A wide toe box helps a lot with allowing the bones to spread. Look into Altra shoes. Trail shoes used to work too, without the orthotics, I think because they are (or at least were) stiffer. I don't know if they still would work for me because I always use the orthotics.

Once in awhile it still flames up. Walking helps, and scrunching up my toes while my foot is up helps a lot somehow. Sometimes I can do a few scrunches while running.

I tried cryosurgery a few years ago when I found out a local guy could do it. It is not very expensive (~$250-300 for me back then), very little risk of adverse effects, but only works about 60% of the time, and I was in the unlucky 40%. Still, it seems worth a shot assuming those things are still generally true.

There are some PT exercises that can help, but nothing really did much for me.

Hope something here helps. Some 10+ years ago I really thought I was relegated to running 4 miles or less. Now I'm running longer and faster than before the injury. The injury, btw, was almost certainly due to stepping on a sharp rock in trail shoes with poor rock protection.

Fisky's advice is terrific. I've occasionally developed what I believe is Morton's Neuroma for precisely the reasons Fisky mentions. It usually shows up about 2/3 of the way through along run, which for me would be around the 9 or 10 mile point in a 14 mile run. It's intermittent; I may not see it for months, and then it starts to happen. In my case, it's always about shoe fit. It's always about my foot having swelled incrementally in the course of the run, so that the lacing/tightness that worked early in the run no longer worked, and the shoe was starting to scrunch those metatarsals together.

Most of the time, the mid-run fix is simply to stop and loosen the laces on that shoes. But the long term fix is to think about sizing--and about how many miles you've put on the current pair of shoes! I just realized that I'd put 800 miles on my current pair. I went out two days ago and bought a new pair, a different make & model--and one-half size larger than my old pair. Bingo! Pefect fit--and, importantly, an easing in the front of the car, so to speak.

Everything I've said is speaking ONLY to the question of Morton's brought on by a too-tight toe box. I'm not sure that that's what you're dealing with.

Good luck! Keep asking questions, and keep on trying different things. You'll figure it out. Live the journey.

Sophie0513 wrote:

I am reaching out once again to anyone who can offer some advice. I developed mortons neuroma in both feet at the end of July. Since this time, I have been having burning pain in the balls of my feet and a numb and tingling sensation in my feet. I have had two steroid injections which I don't think really helped. I am taking Duexis, icing , resting. I just started wearing custom Orthotics on Wednesday and I am wearing only Ultras. I have had X-rays which showed no problems and an inoffice ultrasound which confirmed one of the neuromas. At this point, I am really worried that something else is wrong. Has anyone had these type of symptoms because of neuromas? Should I be consulting an orthopedist at this point?

Thank you

Google: Peripheral Neutopathy

Glad I ran across this thread. i've been having occasional symptoms that sound just like a Morton's neuroma for years but it has not (yet) become chronic or severe.

It started when I got a new pair of hiking boots and found that after an hour or two of hiking I would get a sharp tingly pain at the base of my second and third toes. I finally gave up those boots and went back to hiking in trail running shoes and the problem went away. But then it started to surface occasionally when running, usually only when going both long and hard (e.g. around mile 10 of a half-marathon) or else when I step on something like a small rock with that forefoot. I haven't tried to do anything about it because I didn't know any of the probable causes, but now that I do, I will start paying more attention to giving my toes plenty of room. I plan to run my next half-marathon in a different pair of shoes that have a wider toe box, and hope for the best.