MRI of The Foot

This one is a little personal:
I have been experiencing some extreme foot pain near the ball of my left foot for about a month now. Having been diagnosed with arthritis in my thumb this past year, I assumed that was what it was in my foot as well.

Lucky for me, I am the MRI technologist at an Orthopaedic Surgeon's clinic and I was able to get right in to my favorite surgeon - Dr. Owen Higgs.

He reached down to my foot to investigate my issues and the next thing he did, or rather, the way I reacted told him everything he needed to know. When he grabbed my foot from the sides and gave a good squeeze, I screamed and jumped higher than I thought possible from an exam table.

Dr. Higg's looked at me and said "I think what you have here is a Morton's Neuroma"!

What? No Arthritis? I have done hundreds of scans on patients over the past 15 years in MRI for that very problem. Morton's Neuroma. I can't believe I didn't think of it first!

Here is what it is:
It is a type of nerve compression syndrome which involves the common digital nerves of the lesser toes: most often 3rd (80-85 %) and less often the 2nd (15-20 %) interspace;
- interdigital neuromas do not occur in the 1st and 4th web space:
- the occurance of two interdigital neuromas is also very rare;
- occurs most often in middle aged women (78 % are women);
- patients complain of burning and tingling down the interspace of the involved toes;
- pain is usually made worse by walking in high-heeled shoes w/ narrow toe box and is relieved by rest and by removing the shoe;
- the interdigital nerve may become compressed by the intermetatarsal ligament;
- in this situation, there is compression of the common digital nerve by the edge of the transverse metatarsal ligament as the nerve passes dorsally from under the ligament to bifurcate into the toes;
- in some cases the pain will radiate to the toes or vague pains may radiate up towards the knee.

And here are some of my options:
The initial treatment of Morton neuromas consists of conservative methods that include shoe modifications and steroid injections.

Eighty-two patients with Morton neuromas were randomly assigned to receive either footwear modification with orthoses or steroid injections as initial treatment. Outcomes were evaluated at 1 month, 6 months, and 12 months

Patient satisfaction was significantly better in the group treated with steroid injections than those treated with shoe modifications at all three followup intervals.

At 12-month followup, 82% of those treated with steroid injections had complete or partial relief of pain compared to 63% of those treated with footwear modifications alone.

Steroid injections as initial treatment and shoe modifications with steroid injections at 6 months appear to give better results in Morton neuromas than shoe modifications alone, but the difference in the two groups were not statistically significant at one year followup.

I am interested in hearing personal stories if anyone reading this has had a Morton's Neruoma and if so, what treatment did you seek and lastly, was your chosen treatment successful?

I would love to hear from anyone with thoughts on this one. Thanks.