[Guest]

My daughter dances in high school also dances in a dance company. She had basically been dancing 5-6 hs a day. She has had a pain in ball of her foot atleast a year we did nothing about until now (boy a mistake). In Oct I took her to a doctor, x-rays showed she had a fracture of sesamoid it did not appear anything had grown into fracture. doctor told her to stop all dance a pad on her foot, he felt sure it would grow back. did nothing. We went to anor doctor in Nov.2000. He showed break also took x-rays of or foot to make sure it not anything she born . He n put her in a walking boot. She has been in walking boot 4 months, she has been on a bone stimulator 1-1/2 months. We had x-rays taken two weeks ago it showed re not any change even using bone stimulator. We go week assume re will be same results. doctor keeps changing how long se sesamoid bones take to heal. At first he told us 8 weeks now it is 4-6 months n he said possibly 6-8 months. is a reasonable time to heal, because seems to be endless! After appt. doctor has told me if results same (absolutley no signs of trying to heal) he will send her to a foot surgeon She has Not been able to dance 5 months she needs to get back to having a LIFE! Is it common se bones to NEVER grow back? Is removing bone a good idea on a teenager? I'm concerned or foot problems she will have in future. Will it affect her being able to dance will she be able to dance pain free? is normal recover time surgury? She has danced a year on a broken bone, is possibly she should continue to do? We in desperate need of some immation PLEASE, because DANCE IS HER LEFE! Thank Dancer"s Mom

[Guest]

When a sesamoid bone fractures, there is a high chance that it will never heal. Therefore, since this problem has been occurring for many months and even a bone stimulator has not helped, there is a good chance the bone will never heal. In these cases, surgery is often recommended to remove the entire sesamoid or the smaller fragment of the bone. Unfortunately, this is an injury that receives very little attention even though it is quite painful. However, removing the bone is often the best chance of relieving the pain. We apologize for the late reply to your questions.

[Guest]

Hello, I'm a 25 year old woman and also fractured my lateral sesamoid. It is her lateral sesamoid, right? I don't dance--I just used to do a lot of walking and running. I had pain for about 2 years, but thought that it was some kind of tendonitis in my toe referring pain to the ball of my foot. It would go away, come back, etc. I had my sesamoid bone removed Monday because it was dead and was never going to heal. I have to be on crutches for 4 weeks and then I have another 2 weeks of healing. I am worried about future foot problems, also, but I'm willing to tone down my level of activity. I know your daughter is probably very frustrated. I guess the only thing I'm telling you is that I can keep you posted on what it's like, and how my recovery goes. I'm prepared to get orthotics and I'm going to start focusing on more yoga-like activities. This is difficult for me, as I don't feel complete if I don't get a good sweat in at least 4 days a week! But I figure it could be a lot worse. Again, I'd be happy to tell you how my recovery goes. My podiatrist said that he sees a lot of dancers with this problem--and he also said that one dancer was up and dancing within 6 weeks after the surgery (which he said he wouldn't totally recommend such activity so soon...but she did it). I don't know if this helps much--I wish her the best!

[Guest]

A good web site to get information on fractured sesamoid/treatment is: www.physsportsmed.com Sesamoid fractures are somewhat resilient to the healing process. Not what you wanted to hear, I know. There is bad blood flow to the tendon that holds the sesamoid bones. Along with this problem is the fact that this toe joint propels the foot forward. Symptoms can persist for 4-6 months. Depending upon your location, check with a local university's sports training department or dance department for their recommendation on a podiatrist that works on their athletes and dancers.

[Guest]

Thanks for the responses----as to the person who had the sugery, yes I would like to know how it is going. I now have an appt with an orthopedic surgeon that works on the ballet company dancers in our city. We just need a third opinion at this point, or some new ideas, because it is now going into a mental thing......