Hello,
I am a 44 year old female runner with pain in the ball and top of my foot for the last year and a half. First they told me it was a morton's neuroma, so I had a succession of cortisone shots that took away some of the pain, but not all of it. Finally the third doctor I saw gave me an MRI and said I had Friedberg's Infarction of the second metatarsal. My understanding is that the top of the metatarsal bone is wearing away due to repeated pounding on that part of the foot.
Has anyone had any experience with this? I've seen two foot/ankle specialists and they both recommend surgery, saying it will not heal on its own. One wants to just clean up the top of the bone, getting rid of the bone fragments and allowing blood to get back to the bone. The other wants to do that along with shortening my second toe so it is in line with the third (spreading out the area that takes the pounding) and a gastrocnemius release of the calf muscle. He says that my calf is so tight that it is not allowing my foot to flex like it should when I run, not allowing for full distribution of the pounding along my whole foot.
I'm not sure what to do....the second surgery seems like so much, however he tells me that just cleaning up the bone won't prevent it from happening again b/c of the length of my toe and tightness of the calf. He says it is too tight for just physical therapy.
I'd really appreciate anyone's thoughts on this! I have been active my whole life and want to make the right decision to continue to be able to run for many more years!
Leslie