View Full Version : Surgery for Morton's Neuroma
I'm scheduling this for mid-January. Has anyone out there done this and been worse off as a result?
Camping Dave
12-17-2011, 11:15
Yes. Many people.
See Fixing Your Feet, by John Vonhof
Nitrojoe
12-17-2011, 12:17
I know of one thru hiker who has had the surgery done and just finished the CDT this year, his name is Gadget. I read all of his trail journals and he seems to have had no serious side effects so far. He did complain once about his feet hurting and was thinking about getting off the trail, but was able to sit it out a few days and continue on. I have sufferd with Mortons for years. I went to a Podiotrist and they will do the surgery but there could be draw backs. I went on line and read the pros and cons about post surgery from Mortons and the cons scared me. I changed my shoe size and width and a thinner sock and now my feet can expand and not put pressure on my foot and the pain has gone away.
Yup, Gadget here, and overall the surgery was a good thing to do, but of course somewhat of a PITA too. I'll always have a bit of numbness now around the littler toes and ball of foot area on that foot. Not really a 'bad thing', just ... a thing.
After the surgery they sent the inch or so of nerve they cut out to the pathology lab, and I was assured as a result that the nerve really was damaged and was never going to heal on its own. I had the surgery just before Thanksgiving of 2009, and I started hiking the AT almost exactly 3 months later (Feb 25th 2010). This was pushing it, as I had not much 'training time' and started the AT somewhat plump and out of shape, but it worked out fine. You can read my "how I felt then" thoughts about the surgery starting here: http://postholer.com/journal/viewJournal.php?sid=925a6070003439bfb561b601473554 c9&entry_id=12275
The one thing I'd suggest is to talk to your surgeon about the specific way that s/he does the surgery. My foot guy told me that in some cases the nerve literally tries to grow back and that the result can be very painful --- BUT that over years of doing this procedure he personally has never had a patient where this has happened, and he's convinced that it's because of the way that he stretches the nerve before he cuts it, or something to that effect.
Now after finishing the CDT last month I'm somewhat sidelined again, this time with pain in about the same area on the other foot --- but best guess is that this is a "bone bruise" and hopefully nothing more serious (TBD, feet are just really complicated devices). Still has me off my feet and getting fat all too quickly!
Best of luck, Marta, and please do report back and tell us how things work out for you.
Thanks for reporting the personal experience. My MN started towards the end of my AT thru-hike in 2006. I've learned how to manage it, mostly by wearing sandals, but I'm tired of messing with it. The doctor I'm going to is part of a Foot and Ankle orthopedic practice. He personally is a hiker who hopes to have a thru-hike in his future. When we've talked about options he has always been straight about the possible long-term effects on my ability to hike. For instance he said that one of the potential side effects of the steroid shots that are one treatment for MN is the destruction of the fat pad on the ball of the foot--not something a hiker would welcome.
In many ways it does seem nuts for a healthy person to submit to elective surgery, and that is definitely not my normal style. Hopefully it will work out for me as well as it did for you, Gadget.
And best wishes for a speedy recovery from your current foot malady!
Marta - I hope things go well for you - one thing I was wondering about however - at one time there was some indication that injecting an ~7% alcohol solution into the nerves of the foot could be used as a treatment - was this ever considered or has it been devalued as a treatment these days? As you know I also am having some nerve pain in my small toes that is related to the same issue as you are having. I my case I went with the custom footbed approach but while I think it helped some I still get the pain after putting in some miles.
The doctor said that was only effective if done early on. By the time I started seeing treatment I was a couple years into the problem and it was, I nhis opinion, much too late for the alcohol injections. I also tried custom orthotics and metatarsal lifts, as well as various home remedies. The most effective thing for me has been wearing sandals and, in cold weather, very wide boots and thin socks. The problem is that if I guess wrong, I end up either wearing sandals in the snow (not fun) or with the foot pain because I wore shoes and it was warmer than I was expecting.
SouthMark
12-17-2011, 16:11
Marta, is your surgery scheduled before SORUCK or after? I too suffer from MN now in both feet. Like you I have tried almost everything. I cannot take the steroid injections and have been thinking strongly about the surgery.
The day after. In case it's icy, I don't want to be limping at the Ruck. That is, limping more than normal...
I had, if I recall correctly, more than one alcohol injection before resorting to surgery; it is, or at least relatively recently was indeed something that's tried. I think the doctor said that how effective this is will vary on a case by case basis (?).
What my ortho MD told me is that the alcohol injections can be effective fairly early on, before the nerve gets very large. Once it gets its growth spurt going, though, he said the alcohol injections don't work. That is also what I was told by the podiatrist I consulted about a year after my thru-hike, when the problem was really starting to annoy me. My conclusion is that if I had sought medical treatment before I actually had much of a problem--back when there was just a little tingling in the foot--the injections might have worked. I didn't do that.
Blissful
12-18-2011, 20:39
Hope everything goes well with the surgery, Marta!