The New Fake Cure for Metatarsal Head Pain

Today I made the drive up to see a doctor at St. Vincent Sports Performance in Indianapolis.  Although pretty far away (1 hour and 20 minutes from Bloomington), I think it was a worthwhile trip to get a second opinion on my ongoing foot troubles.  Even if I don't get a specific resolution out of this, I won't hesitate to recommend this doctor to friends because:

Diagnostics: Diagnostics of my gait, foot flexibility and particular characteristics of the pain were very thorough.  I also was satisfied with what I felt was a very methodical approach where I finally heard and saw testing being executed to look at specific issues that I recognized from my incessant reading of way too many articles about running related foot disfunction common in the metatarsal head, joint and surrounding area.

Time Spent: I also answered more questions than I can remember, and spent almost a solid two hours in the doctor's office actively being looked at.

Recommendation: Without getting into specifics, I got advice that made sense, was not simplified, and included a reasonably complex but logical approach to solving an injury that is also complex.  As I get into the follow up plan, I'll probably post about it.

Meanwhile, I've discovered a "cure" for metatarsal head pain.  After some new pain last week from stretching my foot a little too far, the joint has been aching just a little bit all week it seems.  This was all while wearing the "boot".  Yesterday, I took off the boot for the last time (after 6 weeks) and started prodding my foot to try and figure out what might still hurt and feel for any roughness in the joint.  I noticed a "creaking" when I gripped the 2nd toe and moved it up and down and the joint still felt like it was aching.

After reading some letsrun.com message boards for crackpot alternative treatments I might try, I settled on contrast baths with some gentle toe yanking with metatarsal pad massage.  I put my foot first in ice water, then after fifteen minutes stuck my foot in scalding hot water for another ten minutes.  While my foot was in the water, I massaged the bottom of my foot trying to circulate and hopefully rid the bottom of my foot of some built up tissue.  It did seem later that my foot was no longer any "thicker soled" than my left foot.

After my foot was nice and heated up, I began pulling my second toe out as if trying to pull it out of the socket.  I repeated this a few times (not too hard as I'm not an expert) and then tried moving the toe manually through the full range of motion in the metatarsal joint again.  I felt no pain that I could identify, and felt no creak or roughness of any kind.

Finally, I sat and relaxed with a pen over the second toe and under the big toe and third toe for a while, thus pushing the toe down.

Did this actually do anything to help me get over this problem?  Probably not.  But it felt good, so I think I'm going to try this new alternative therapy and toe yanking every day on the off chance it might help in some odd way.

Next up, I need to get my hands on some KT tape, this seems like another good candidate for an "alternative treatment".  I say this only because I stumbled on a video, and I haven't heard anyone else suggest this yet.

This is the continued desperation of the injured runner.  Send me any other ideas that sound safe and I'll try them.