The physio trip was interesting. He spent a lot of time poking my ankles and said he was confused. Apparently, when I’m standing up normally, I tend quite strongly towards supination (underpronation). He said that usually when people are like this, their ankles lack the mobility to overpronate so that’s not their issue. But with me, the movement is there, and I have a strong callous on the inside of my big toe which suggests I am overpronating. He seemed to think it was a bit unusual.
He did all the poking and pressing based diagnostic tests for a neuroma, but couldn’t get any of them to be positive. This matches my experience with the podiatrist years ago – he did all the tests, they were negative, and then goes “well, I still think you have a neuroma”. The physio was less sure. It’s not really that important unless someone is proposing cutting into me, though maybe at some point I should go to the GP and see if I can get some imaging done on it.
Anyway, the outcome is that he wants me to 1) Stretch my calves a lot, because he thought they were resisting even at a neutral foot angle. He said the lack of movement in the calf could be compensated for by my metatarsals and my ankle (i.e. pronation). And 2) get some insoles to support my foot more. He put me on a pair of insoles and seemed to think that everything aligned better when I was stood. I was a bit worried he was going to try to sell me some ridiculously expensive insoles, but he actually just gave me the name of some and said “you can buy these online for about £10”. So I have.
I’m still getting numbness though. Even after having a few very easy weeks, which in previous flareups was always enough to settle it down.
Rambles 