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Pain on Top of the Foot after Running

Discussion in 'Ask your questions here' started by NewRunner, Dec 23, 2010.

  1. NewRunner

    NewRunner Guest


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    Hi there -

    I am hoping someone can offer me some suggestions for some new foot pain I have been experiencing lately.

    Issue: I've noticed after my runs on the treadmill, the top of my left foot begins to hurt a few hours after my run is over.

    Details: I stretch before and after my workouts, do a 5 minute warm-up and 10 minute cool-down prior to my runs (which are typically four miles of hills or intervals).

    I'm wearing a stability running shoe and consider myself to have an average/normal arch and be a normal pronator.

    I don't see any swelling or redness and feel I can rule out a Metatarsal fracture (as it doesn't hurt to press on the top of the foot). Oddly enough, the pain dramatically diminishes when I slip on a pair of high heels (two-three inch) for work and it returns as soon as I slip them off.

    Any ideas?
     
  2. Admin

    Admin Administrator Staff Member

  3. Unregistered

    Unregistered Guest

    1. Only rely on the advice of a qualified health care practitioner.

    2. Don't try to self diagnose from reading on the internet. In particular, don't rely on this post.

    3. It could be a navicular stress fracture (possibly combined with other things, such as stress on one or more points on one or more metatarsals). Read up on how this is an "insiduous" injury, with varying degrees of pain manifestation, typcially non-specific tenderness (over the "N" spot") experienced at different times (relating to rest, wrm-up, running at different intensities and post-running).

    This injury or other injuries/ailments would be best assesed/confirmed by MRIs (not Xrays or CT scans). Make sure the "radiographer" is told what is suspected, so various angles are used in the MRI scans (if it is a navicular stress fracture, it can be missed at some angles).

    Ideally, you would get both feet scanned at the same time. A common error is to focus on the one foot with pain, whereas the other foot might also have stress "bruising" of which you are unaware.

    The location and degree of stress fractures or lesser bone injury in both feet will be essential to both (i) tailoring the healing and rehab to you and (ii) analysing the combination of causes relevant to you.

    Beware of health care practitioners who merely go by the numbers and do little more than google your ailment. This shortcoming often leads to incorrect assessments based on assumptions without regard to factual analyis, let alone a decent understanding of the published research on the topic.

    E.g., your reference to the pain and high heel shoes, assuming you are not a a male cross dresser, immediately heightens the possible relevance of your nutritional intake compared with your exercise load (before and during the time the bone injuries developed), the type of running you do (surely not just on the treadmill?) and your biomechanics. There are at least a couple of dozen possible contributing factors to take into account when you are planning your running during and post-rehab.

    PS, the reference to the pain disappearing on wearing high heel shoes suggests that the change removes the compression tension at the site of fracture(s) (a short hand way of a more complicated reference to the change in distribution of forces around the site of inflamation). If you get your ailment properly assessed, could you please post a summary of the analysis, so we can all learn?
     
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