Do I have morton's feet?

nck

Barefooters
Sep 30, 2017
27
14
3
Spain
Hello, I'm not really a barefoot runner at all, but I've been wearing minimalist shoes for three years. For the last two years I've used only merrel vapor glove 2 for absolutely everything.

I used to walk a lot, at least 5-10km daily to the university, work, gym... and I used to do a lot of hikes with them.

At the end of august I did a long hike backpacking of around 300km and at the end of the way I had a pretty bad sharp pain over the top of the feet in the right and some pain on the left. I only had around 20km left for the goal so I went to a Physiotherapist and after an hour massaging around the posterior tibialis I had some relief and I could walk 10 of the 20km's.

After finishing that trip I went to my parents home to rest, always barefoot and not walking. The pain didn't go away. After 20 days I went to a doctor and after having X-ray I saw that I broke the 3rd metatarsal in half and it was starting to heal, not completely straight, but there were some soft callouses forming around it.

He didn't put me in a boot or anything, he just told me to not move much... I had to return to were I live and basically I've not walked more than 2-3km/s to go grocery shopping every two or three days and even a whole week just staying at home but I've developed more pain over the top of the other foot, (not the fractured one).

After reading a lot here, specially the one of the mortons toe fellowship (or something like that) I ended up with the conclusion that I actually have a mortons toe, because I used to have callouses under the second met. Am I wrong? Here are some photos:
Right foot:
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Left foot:
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W0SBIwS.jpg


I don't know if I draw those lines how it's supposed to be (and I'd be lucky...) or I did it wrong and it's a mortons foot.

I tried the quick patch of putting a pad, or as the books mentioned in the other post says, a coin under the 1st met and it seems like I gain a lot of stability in the feet and less TOFP... Sorry that my feet was too dirty:
sh139qN.jpg


Does it confirm that I'll always have to wear such and orthotic for everything? Is a "natural" way to bring down the 1st met?

When I read a lot of the people talking about this, they say they just have to put the pad to run, but in my case I just want to walk in my daily life not in pain and do some backpacking...

I don't know if it helps for anything, but I'm 22 years old. I'd appreciate any advice, thank's a lot.
 
Regarding mortons toe, it refers to a first toe that is shorter than the second, forcing you to spring off the second and third. Sounds like you had a stress fracture and a stress reaction may still be occuring, which may be why you are in pain. Stress reactions usually are not seen without MRI and are precursors.

Regarding the barefoot, orthotic, shod, non shod thing, it is an individual problem. Maybe you will do better with an orhotic since it will lift your arch and prevent toeing out. Not sure why it fractured but it takes 6 weeks.

Regarding orthotics, I often recommend off the shelf first unless someone is so severely on the ground. Custom can be a good option however, at least half of the ones that come in my office are done poorly and either are non corrective or worse, distort the patients hips further (Crazy, no).

Stay away from Dr. Scholls, they do not work. Maybe start with a green superfeet which can do ok, are inexpensive but corrective enough and see you you feel.

Usually these problems from a mortons toe cause mortons neuromas, so I am guessing this may not be the reason. There are likely other biomechanical issues that resulted in this
 
Dr. William, I understand that Morton's Toe is identified as the first metatarsal being shorter than the second metatarsal and doesn't have much to do with overall "toe" length, right?

From hosting Morton's Neuroma Talk for over five years, and corresponding with numerous people with the condition. I have learned that you can have MT and never develop MN, or you can develop MN and not have MT; they're not necessarily related.

As you know, MN is a nerve entrapment disorder that develops from having too-narrow interspacing between the metatarsals, which causes the nerve sheath to become scarred. This scarring was incorrectly identified as a neuroma (since it's not a true tumor) a long time ago. Some doctors are trying to change its name, since also, Morton wasn't the first to identify the condition; Durlacher, a chiropodist, was.

Oh, and to add... Shoes (shoes with tight toe boxes and shoes with heels) are the number one cause of MN. Shoes with tight toe boxes compress on the nerves as they run through the narrow spacing between our metatarsals (some of us are born with, like me) causing scarring to develop, and shoes with heels force us to place our weight over our forefeet, again leading to more compression. If we had stayed barefoot from birth, we would never have developed this condition.

Just some fun history for the readers. :pompus:
 
Thank you for the answers. I'll wait a couple of weeks to see how it goes. And I'll try first to see if with some weeks or months of toe stretching i'm able to toe off with the big toe before depending on orthotics, that idea really scares me :(.

I also though that mortons toe and mortons foot is the same, both referring to the shorter 1st met:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton's_toe
Morton's toe (or Morton's foot, Greek foot, "Royal toe", "Turkey toe", "LaMay toe", "hallicusbradymetatarsalgia" "Sheppard's toe", "Viking toe", Morton's syndrome,[1] long toe, boss toe) is the condition of a shortened first metatarsal in relation to the second metatarsal. It is a type of brachymetatarsia.[1]
 
Thank you for the answers. I'll wait a couple of weeks to see how it goes. And I'll try first to see if with some weeks or months of toe stretching i'm able to toe off with the big toe before depending on orthotics, that idea really scares me :(.

I also though that mortons toe and mortons foot is the same, both referring to the shorter 1st met:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton's_toe
Morton's Foot/Morton's Toe has nothing to do with Morton's Neuroma...as I explained.

Perhaps Dr. William will have some foot/toe exercises you can do to help.
 
As you know, MN is a nerve entrapment disorder that develops from having too-narrow interspacing between the metatarsals, which causes the nerve sheath to become scarred. This scarring was incorrectly identified as a neuroma (since it's not a true tumor) a long time ago. Some doctors are trying to change its name, since also, Morton wasn't the first to identify the condition; Durlacher, a chiropodist, was.

This is exactly what my pain feels like in the second and third toe on the right foot. Coincidentally, I got a hairline fracture in my right big toe ten years ago in a car accident. Might that be the reason for this stinging in the bottom of my second and third right toes?
 
Morton's Toe and Morton's Neuroma aren't related. You can have one and not have the other.

I don't see how breaking your big toe 10 years ago could cause MN.

MT is classified as the metatarsal on the second toe being longer than the metatarsal on the first toe. The third toe has nothing to do with this classification.

You can tell if you have MT by bending your first two toes downward and looking to see where the first knuckles in those toes actually start.
 
You can tell by looking at the X-ray that the second met is longer than the first ... so, yes, you have Morton's Toe. If he were not deceased, he might want it back. :)
 

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