Pain in foot, any ideas? (Read 670 times)

During my run on Thursday, I developed a pretty bad pain in the ball of my left foot (near the base of my fourth toe, next to my little toe). It was a sharp pain focused in a small area, not a generalized dull throbbing. I haven't been having any pain in this area at all prior to this. I limped through the third mile, cutting short my run. I haven't made an appointment to see a doctor yet. I've been basically limping the last two days, but it seems to be getting better. I have an Exogen bone healing machine at the house, and I've been using it on the area that is hurting. I don't know if it will help or not, but it makes me think I'm doing something to heal it up. I rotate three pairs of shoes, and haven't been running as consistently as I would like. I'm scared that it may be a stress fracture, but I'm hoping its something more benign. Anyone have any thoughts?

Kind of weird that a stress fx would occur on the spot without discomfort previously. Probably is a stress reaction or possibly may have tweaked your fascia where it connects to your toes. The fact that it is getting better is a good sign. I sell the Exogen bone healing system. Certainly will not harm you to use it. Animal studies do show benefits of low intensity pulsed ultrasound for soft tissue injuries but the company (nor do the reps) does not (nor can they) promote these benefits in humans and certainly there is no FDA indication for soft tissue.

Shoes- Gel Landreth III- 174 miles Gel 2120- 124 miles Nike Zoom Skylon- 82 miles Was running in the Landreth's the day of initial pain, Skylon's the day before.

This will sound dumb, but you've carefully checked the bottom of your foot to make sure you don't have a splinter or anything there haven't you?