Injury frustration - Metatarsalgia anyone?

[E27M14]

After smashing my 5k Pb at the weekend I haven’t been able to run since, in fact I have had trouble walking! With the help of dr google I think it’s a combined of my slight bunion and new trainers causing Metatarsalgia. It’s been a niggley pain in the ball of my foot on off for years, although never seemed to be directly related to running before. Anyway, with the help of some KT tape and lots of sitting about doing nothing it is finally starting to feel better today. I’m going to try to be sensible and not run for at least a few more days. Anyone had any experience of Metatarsalgia? What can I do to stop it happening again in the future?

[Dowat Graduate10]

I’ve no experience of what you’re suffering with but it sounds very painful indeed. I hope your recovery is speedy. Take the time you need though and go carefully. All the best.

[Grannyhugs Graduate10]

Poor you, hope you get some relief soon

[ForbiddenPlanet Graduate10]

Sounds horrible, though unfortunately I know nothing about your condition, I wish you the best for a speedy recovery.

[Deals1 Graduate10]

Sounds painful. Take care and bend quick

[mrrun Graduate10]

Never google injuries, you may end up somewhere completely different. Sports physio is paid to figure it out. Otherwise you may end up wasting your time and reading totally irrelevant things. Like believing all you read from Wikipedia. Lol

[Equi-geek Graduate10]

Oh no! You were so ‘on it’ too 😩 I had plantar fasciitis but nothing else (touch wood) foot related except a bunion of my own I need to watch out for. Mend up and I hope you are back out there soon 🤗

[ktsok]

Oh dear E. I hope you are feeling a little better now? X

[E27M14 Graduate10]

Thanks everyone. I am back on it! I did a little run this evening, a little over 2k to see how it felt. My foot feels like there is something in my sock under the middle of the ball of the foot, but it was not painful at all and it felt good to be back out running. It was actually really hard to turn off the main path and head for home but I knew it was the right thing to do to not go too mad just yet. On the last little stretch home I got thinking about how things have changed. This time last year I was trying to walk a bit every day and thinking about whether I might be able to run one day when I get a bit fitter, and today I’m running a couple of km and finding it quite easy!

[rawtunaman]

Hi E2 - I'm following up on an old post from you regarding your bout with metatarsalgia 11 months ago. I believe I've suffered the same condition unfortunately. Hopefully you are injury free now! I couldn't help but notice you didn't receive overwhelming support to help you when you were asking for advice about metatarsalgia, so I thought it would be best to seek you out directly. I was hoping to find out what seemed to work for you when you had this condition and about how long did you stay off your feet until starting back up running again? I really am hobbling around a bit on it now - I believe I overdid it on Saturday 10/3/20). Yesterday the pain started in earnest but this morning (Monday) I can barely put any pressure on it so I'm wearing thick rubber sandals that have good squishy support while I'm working from home - trying to stay off it frankly since it does hurt a bit when standing or walking on it. I'm very bummed to have to shut down cardio at this time. Can you recommend any tips to a speedy recovery? Thank you so much! Kind regards, Jeff

[E27M14 Graduate10 in reply to rawtunaman]

Hi, sorry to hear you are having pain! I have a friend who is a radiographer and he suggested there was little point pushing to get an X-ray as it will not show metatarsalgia or stress fracture until a few weeks into the healing process. I bought some soft insoles and some rubber support things that you wear on the ball if your foot. As it happened I got some kind of virus after a few weeks (doctor said it was a “nasty virus going around”) which left me very breathless and unable to run for a while anyway..... hindsight now suggests it may have been more than just a nasty virus !! Anyway, with the foot pain followed by the virus I didn’t run or even walk very much for around six weeks, then had to take it easy for a while as I was still breathless with even a small amount of exercise. I had to start back very slowly but since then all has been well! I know it is really really hard but the best thing really is to rest. Keep off it completely as much as you can.

[rawtunaman]

Thank you, E2! I appreciate your feedback. 6 weeks is quite a long time, but it seems to have worked for you! Hopefully I can avoid a virus on top of the injury... The pain is quite pronounced now and when I have to walk about I feel like I'm "dragging a club foot" which is clearly problematic... did you use ice much or anything else to heal? Thanks again, glad to hear you're back at it now!