I'm not on the bench for running anymore, but I still have mild foot pain nearly every day. I had a 2nd MRI which was clear except for a little bit of swelling, not related to any specific problems. I saw the doctor again yesterday (my 4th specialist) and he is out of ideas too. He told me that if I can live with it and still run I should because most of the time if you try to operate and remove the nerves that are transmitting pain in an unknown nerve problem the patient ends up worse off than before. I told him that running doesn't bother me at all, and if I keep up with the warm epsom salt soaks a few days a week the pain is mild most of the time. The problem is with biking. Since the bike clip is right under where the most nerve painis located I can only bike for about 30 minutes before being in excruciating pain. I like biking as cross training and it sucks that I'm not able to go very far on it. I used to drive out to the Everglades and ride around for hours, but I can't do that anymore and only being able to go 10 miles really takes the joy out of biking for me. I'm bummed that I basically won't be able to do any more triathlons until this gets cleared up (if it ever does) cause I just can't train for the biking part. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be off of the running bench. It just sucks that this may be a chronic pain situation for life when I am only 25. Just thought I'd share my update. How is everyone else doing?

Yikes! Sorry about the nerve pain while biking - that really sucks. I'd have to say that if it was me, I would want to be conservative regarding nerve surgery. I don't know about biking - but can you do it without the bike clip? If you alter your foot position during the ride, maybe you could be out there longer? I know that wouldn't be effective for a triathalon - but maybe you could still bike for cross training.

Yeah, I pretty much once to reserve surgery as a last resort if I can't even walk without pain anymore. Hopefully it will never come to that. I can't ride my road bike without clips, but can occasionally ride my mountain bike for some cross training. The thing I miss the most is spinning, I can't do that without intsense pain anymore, and I love that class- it was great X-training and cardio endurance. I'm glad to hear your stress fracture is doing good, but not about battling other stuff. I've been having on and off knee problems since starting to run again. It sucks that we all love to run but there always seems to be something in the way. I really hope that new shoes solves your problem. I'm holding my milage steady for the next month to see if it makes a difference on my knees, and I'm stretching a lot more which seems to help too. I think I am going to order one of those foam rollers. I use the one at the gym when I go there and though it hurts while doing it, it makes my legs feel much better later. It might be a good addition to the daily stretching.