A letter from Nicole who is a dancer and has a broken Sesamoid bone

From: Nicole Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2016 Hi Greg, I bought your book because I share this horrible foot issue of Sesamoiditis. This all happened to me living and dancing in Spain. I picked up Latin dance and dancing in high heeled shoes as soon as I got here. One day six months into dancing, I was working at school (I'm a teacher during the day, dancers at night) I felt this horrible shooting pain in the ball of my foot. I remember regretting wearing thin socks with boots. I didn't find out it was a break over a week later. My first broken bone! He described it as a stress fracture, as if you would bend something back and forth until it breaks. I went to several doctors here in Madrid but they never gave me a plan to heal. Some even said that it wasn't actually a break and that I was born with my bone that way, which upset me even more because I know it was a break. They just told me to stay off of it and that's all- no special boot or anything special. So I think it healed incorrectly. Of course dance is my passion and after a month or two I started dancing again little by little. Well here I am a year and a half later with pain continuing and now occurring in my other foot. I've tried many of your recommended therapies but nothing has cured my issue. When reading your book about the steps to healing, it says steps to take for non fractures. Well, what about fractures? Do you think I should follow those steps or do you recommend other steps? I'd love to hear your experience and advice if you have time. I'm actually waiting to see a foot specialist as I type. Thanks so much, Nicole From: Greg Unger Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2016 There is no easy way to tell if it's a break versus the way you were born. It's a pea-sized bone with 2 halves. People are born with the shape of the bone looking just like others who have broken the bone. The doctors would have needed to see an x-ray of your specific sesamoid "before" the break (to get a baseline) to know if it was truly broken or if you were born that way. Because of medical insurance plans, doctors will not go the extra mile to figure out if it's a true break or not. Really, it only matters if it's a break with regard to setting healing time expectation. i.e. Break = Much longer time to heal than non-break and if broken definitely stay off of it! If it is a break, you must stay off it completely. And Im going to have to re-write my book because Im sure you (and no one else I talked to) didn't do the one thing I said you "REALLY NEED" to do which is to go see a Pedorthist and have a shoe made specifically to take ALL pressure off the ball of your foot. You will be wearing it for the next 2 years minimum. If you think its broken then you can do 3 things to help speed healing and nothing else: 1) Take calcium supplements (Don't go overboard) 2) Acupuncture - 3 days a week 3) Ice water bucket for foot - Morning, Noon, Night - 20 minutes per time max. 4) Special shoe so no pressure is put on front of foot. *** If its broken and you are putting any pressure on the ball of your foot, nothing in my book is going to work. Also, understand that you will never really know when the break heals. Even if you get another X-ray in 6 months, it might not look any different than it did on the last x-ray. You have to go by PAIN. While a "broken sesamoid" must heal before you can do anything active (dance), your only chance of even walking on that foot is to get a custom shoe. Make sure you goto a "Sports Pedorthist" so he can really customize the shoe. You must have ZERO pressure on the ball of your foot when you walk otherwise you should not walk on it. You will go into the Pedorthist office and once he has made your shoe, you will walk on it. If you feel pressure still, you give him the shoe back and he adjusts the shoe and you try again. You keep doing this until there is no pressure left on the ball of your foot. You should feel a WORLD of difference getting the new shoes. (Make sure they are comfortable walking shoes) Good luck and I hope it heals fast.