Mystery Big Toe/Foot Pain - Nothing on MRI Scan

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Hi,

I am a 38 year old female fell runner (or mountain runner if you are reading from outside the UK) and a few months back I started to get pain in and around my left big toe.

The pain started off very sporadic though and 99% of the time I was pain free. I would just get a very sharp pain in the joint of my big toe on odd ocassions, usually when running up hill and pushing off on my toes. The pain would take me by surprise and make me yelp but would last only a second and then be fine again. It may do it once during a run, it may do it a few times during a run, or it may not do it at all.

After a while, it did start to get a little worse and when walking first thing in a morning, I could feel a more dull pain in my big toe and in the ball of my foot underneath my big toe. As it had got worse, I saw a physiotherapist who treated the area and taped it up. I saw him for eight sessions and it did seem to relieve it.

However, it has recently started to return. Again, it doesn't actually hurt to run but I would get the occasional sharp pain when running uphill. Fed up with not knowing what it was and it interfering with my running (which is my whole life!), I went to see my GP. He didn't know what it was and so sent me for an MRI but said that as long as I didn't have any pain whilst running, it was fine to continue doing this but to stop if I did get pain.

I went for the scan a week last Wednesday.

On Saturday, I went to the Lake District to do a 22 mile run with a friend. My foot was absolutely fine and at about 15 miles in I was commenting to my friend that I felt like I had wasted everyone's time having the MRI scan as my foot had been pretty pain free all week.

However, about three miles from the end of our run, my foot gradually began to hurt. Then it really hurt so I had to hobble back to my van. When I got to the van and stopped walking altogether it became excruciatingly painful. I had to use my hands to move my leg because the pain was radiating all the way up it. It was making me feel sick and dizzy and I couldn't drive my van home because pressing the clutch pedal was too difficult and painful. My friend had to drive my van all the way back home for me.

I was then convinced that it was a stress fracture, as some friends had said it might be.

It stayed painful all night and swelled up. I put some ice on it and took Ibuprofen and it did ease up a little but kept on throbbing. The next day it was still throbbing but it has since eased off and today it is fine to walk on but I do still feel pain in the ball of my foot under my big toe when I stand up and occasionally at other, non-specific times.

Today, I ran my GP surgery to see if they had my scan results and the receptionist said that they had come back saying 'no further action needed'. This should have made me happy but it hasn't because I really want to know what's wrong with it so I can fix it. I have booked an appointment with my GP but can't get in until a week today so thought I'd see if anyone on here had any thoughts on this mystery pain.

For completeness, other problems I have had with this foot which may or may not be related are:

- I have a bunion, albeit it is not very large. I have bunions on both feet.
- A couple of years ago I was running for a long time with my shoe too tight and this caused pain and a 'creaking' sensation on the top of my foot, possibly tendon related.
- I damaged the outer sole of my foot last year when wearing boots which were very narrow and had high heels. This caused me pain when walking but, with physio and kinseology taping, was fine within a month.

Another point I should make is that the running shoes I wear have incredibly flexible soles and I'm not sure whether this could have caused a problem. Since Saturday, I have been wearing very stiff soled shoes and they seem to have helped a lot.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I realise I have gone on a bit but I just wanted to give as much information as possible.