This patient and I communicated in 2013 over her fractured sesamoid and conservative treatment.
Hi Richard,
You probably won’t remember me – we chatted quite a while back about my sesamoid stress fracture (see below) and you were a huge help to me! I still follow your blog religiously, and noticed someone had contacted you about outcomes from partial sesamoidectomy last week – a relatively new procedure.
After a fair amount of conservative treatment failing me (and some impatience to get back to Ironman racing as well as being able to be on my feet for work 40+ hours a week), I saw one of Australia’s best lower limb surgeons Dr Ben Forster (might as well give him some credit over the internet), who operated. He had planned to bone graft the sesamoid, but the bone fell to pieces once he got in there so he cleaned it up and did a partial sesamoidectomy instead, leaving about 2/3 of the (healthy) bone in tact. He also did a (planned) Dorsiflexion Osteotomy of my 1stMetatarsal at the same time, to decrease future risk of re-injury given my age, injury history and urge to return to long course racing.
Anyway long story short, the surgery was a huge success. The rehab process was LONG (9 months back to running, including 6 weeks in plaster NWB’ing, 8 weeks in a boot, and many, many hours of rehab exercises and patience). I got back to running 8km very comfortably before becoming pregnant, and have been able to maintain running up until 8 months pregnant – even with 11 exra kilos on board! My foot is not my limiting factor and I hardly ever think about it any more, it feels great, so I have full faith in a successful return to racing once the baby arrives.
Anyway I hope that my experience can help you and some of your patients with some hope on the situation.
Thanks again for your help and please never stop doing what you’re doing, your work is amazing!
Hi there,
ReplyDeleteI think that you were responding to my question regarding a partial sesamoidectomy. It is really hard to find people with with procedure done. Thanks for responding. I am now 9 weeks post op. I do deep tissue massage on the scar which is great healing nice. I do toe exercises for strengthening and flexibility. I am in a stiff sole shoes still. I still have tenderness and can't go up on my tip toes or even walk bare foot yet. I was very active before this injury a marathon runner so for me to not to run has been so hard. But it sounds like it took you 9 months my doc told me 6 months but could take up to a year for complete healing. I would love to be able to email you or talk to you further about your procedure since It is so rare and I can connect with someone who has gone though the whole healing process. Please contact me at Kimberlyawolf2001@yahoo.com
Quick question what is plaster NWB’ing?
Thanks Kimberly
plaster NWB’ing
Question to the person having the successful partial sesamoidectomy
ReplyDeleteyou state many hours of rehab exercises Can you tell me what you did in those many hours what type of rehab. I have been doing some exercise on my big toe for strength and flexibility. But for me it hurts so bad that it causes bruising under my big toe wear it flexes. I also get the most pain at night. Another question did you try any acupuncture? Thanks for your help.
Kimberly