Pain in ball of foot?

Factual Questions
1

I have had - I think - plantar fasciitis - which has responded to ‘Superfeet’ inserts in my shoes. I really had a lot of pain in my heels, gone at last. But now the pain has moved to the balls of my feet. You know how your hand feels if someone shakes your hand, and sort of crushes the knuckles together? My foot feels like that if I get any pressure against it from the side (such as if I sit cross-legged on the floor). Then if I stand up after any length of time sitting or otherwise off my feet, the pain’s so intense I can hardly walk for 5-10 steps.

I’m trying to decide, do I need to see an orthopedist? Get orthotics? Try different inserts first, the kind with gel in them? I don’t think it’s arthritis, but I can’t make sense of it.

2

You might try a podiatrist. By the way, I have plantar’s faciitis as well. What the heck are “superfeet”?

3

By the way, with that pain from side pressure, it sounds like you may have a hairline fracture. But IANAD.

4

I had the same thing 20 years ago. First heels and then the balls . Plagued me for a year or two and then totally disappeared. Didn’t get any treatment either.

5

I second the podiatrist idea. In Pilates class, we used to relax the muscles in the feet by standing with one foot on an old tennis ball. It hurt like a bastard, but after a while it felt a lot better. I’d see the doctor before trying it, though.

6

‘Superfeet’ are a shoe insert with good arch support, available at REI. Our family doctor recommended them. Before that, I wore Birkenstocks with the standard Birkie footbed. That’s when I got the heel pain. Now that’s gone, and I have pain in the ball of my foot.

Podiatrist, huh? Bother.

7

I had the same problem with pain in the balls of my feet, though mine was related to ankle mobility issues from an old fracture and associated post-traumatic arthritis. The difference is that mine was corrected by (prescription) orthotics.

I’d see a professional, either a podiatrist or (what I did) an orthopedist. Mine is a genius - I went from not being able to walk more than a few blocks or stand more than, say, 30 minutes, without pain, to near-normal activities except for high-impact stuff like running or jumping (which ain’t gonna happen with all my internal hardware).

A difference of a few degfrees in foot positioning can be huge. My ortho actually said my high arches were part of the issue - they place more pressure on the balls of my feet. They also exacerbated the plantar fascitis. To relieve symptoms, though, try rubbing some Icy-Hot on the bottoms of your feet until you can deal with the root cause.

8

Do a Google search for “Morton’s neuroma.”