Hi,

I also had this same pain when I first started. After several terrible
doctors visits, I eventually found one who was willing to give me an MRI
and it came back that I had a stress reaction. If you go to doctor and
all he does is an x-ray and then say you are fine, just smile and go find
another doctor. An x-ray is not a good way to see stress fractures or
reactions.

I struggled for months with this pain, mostly because I didn't want to
stop running. I took anti-inflammatories twice a day like I was told, but
in the end, that made things a million times worse. I would take two
weeks off, then go run again, feel fine, and then the pain would be
horrible the next morning. They did an excellent job covering up the
pain, but I don't think they helped the healing at all (maybe even
hindered it). The drugs will only prolong your suffering, in my opinion.

Eventually, I found that by taking about 2 weeks off from running, I
could get the pain to go away. I would also ice my feet every night and
wear my huge annoying support shoes during the 2 weeks. Then for
the next 3 weeks or so, I did not run, but started to walk more barefoot
and in my sandals. The main point is that it takes time to heal, and if
you ignore the pain, it will never go away, and will most likely get
worse, eventually turning into a stress fracture (at least that's what the
doctor said).

Godd luck,

--Nate
--- In RunningBarefoot@yahoogroups.com, Paul L <hewlettp2@...>
wrote:
>
> Hi Kelly,
>
> I had a similar pain last summer about a month after I started running
BF. The
> pain was most noticeable when I dorsiflexed my foot. I had an MRI
done and the
> diagnosis came back as a 'stress reaction' in a couple of the
metatarsals as
> well as the calcaneal bone. From what I understand, that's a term that
sports
> physicians use to describe an inflammation of the bone tissue. This
makes the
> tissue weaker and more susceptible to a fracture. My short term
remedy was to
> switch to wearing shoes for all my running since I was in the middle
of a
> marathon training program and I didn't want to back off significantly
and wait
> for my feet to heal completely. In the mean time, I was doing feet and
ankle
> strengthening exercises similar to the yoga toes exercises that Ken
Bob
> referred to recently. Also, I did quite a bit of barefoot hiking over
rugged
> trails. I highly recommend that. It's the best thing you can do to
strengthen
> the various muscles/tendons/ligaments in your feet as well as all the
auxiliary
> stabilizing structures in the ankles and further up. It also improves
your
> reflexes and awareness, not to mention that it's a lot of fun! Other
hikers
> will think that you're superhuman for doing this even though it's quite
> pleasurable.
>
> In my experience, it takes about 2-3 months of consistent practice for
your
> feet to adapt to the point where you can run BF at about the same
mileage and
> intensity as you're used to with shoes without experiencing any
niggling aches.
> Patience and consistency are the key.
>
> -Paul
>
> --- Kelly Cox <wisc_galoot@...> wrote:
>
> > I'm wondering if any other BF'ers have input on what might be
causing
> > this. I have a pain on the top of my right foot (and a bit on my left)
> > around the area of the 4th metatarsal, about in the middle of my
foot.
> > I didn't run a lot over the summer, but I did wear flip-flops a lot,
> > and I suspect that is the cause.
> >
> > It isn't a stress fracture--I'm able to run 5 miles BF, and it doesn't
> > hurt at all when I run. It does hurt the next day, and I'm wearing my
> > Waldies now to see if that helps. Otherwise, I'm icing and taking
> > naproxen to see if that helps.
> >
> > Barefoot Kelly in Madison
> >
> >
>