Morton’s Neuroma? Surprisingly, stretching helps.
I developed a Morton’s Neuroma as a result of a short ultramarathonning career. After a 100 mile race last November, I lost feeling in a couple of toes and a decent chunk of my right foot. As the nerves started to come back online after a couple of months, they burned. Then it felt like I had a marble under my skin while made it nearly impossible to run. As it turns out, the nerve had become “angry” and swollen and started developing scar tissue around it. You could actually feel the limp with your fingers. A podiatrist gave me B12 injections into the area, but it wasn’t helping much, at least not immediately. So I invested in one of the foot kits with the cork balance beam, and the small roller, and the tow bands, and the spreaders. I’ve been using this setup to stretch for a couple of weeks now, and that, in combination with some wide-toe-box shoes, is really making a significant difference in my life. I was pretty dubious about this at first, but the cost of the gear compared with the cost of a single trip to the podiatrist was fairly compelling, and I’m an “experiment of one” kind of person. I’ll try anything once, pretty much. Anyhow, I’m really pleased. If I had to guess, I think I could be back to running in a month. I wish I had discovered TFC sooner… and, of course, the switch to wide toe-box shoes as well.
