sealover

My 2 cortisone injections led to the development of fat pad atrophy on the ball of my foot directly beneith where the cortisone was injected (cortisone was injected in the 1st and 2nd intermetatarsal spaces). What is strange is that when the atrophy was starting, it felt as though something was "eating away" at the ball of my foot in that particular area, and to this day, that strange feeling in my foot has never gone away.

Well, I just had an MRI which shows mild edema on the plantar aspect of the 2nd metatarsal head as well as mild soft tissue edema in the surrounding tissues. I don't know if this is a serious situation or not...I'm still waiting to see my podiatrist to discuss the results of the MRI. My 1st MRI was done last December before any cortisone was injected and no edema appeared on the MRI at that time. I'm worried about the edema, even though it appears as mild on the MRI. I believe these new changes are due to the lack of fat padding over that metatarsal and maybe the cortisone caused some changes in that area other than the fat pad atrophy.

So now I have pain (nerve and bone pain) in the area of the 2nd metatarsal and 2nd toe. I can no longer walk or stand for as long as I used to be able to. If only I hadn't been given those cortisone injections, I'd still have my normal fat padding!

I feel so alone because I don't know anyone else who has fat pad atrophy. I can actually feel the bones in the ball of my foot where the atrophy is located. My arch on this foot seems to have dropped slightly, too, since I had the cortisone injections, and so now I have arch pain.

I just want the pain to go away and I want my foot back the way it was before that podiatrist injected my foot...he never told me there could be side effects from cortisone, and I didn't know then what I know now. I believe that by law a patient should be made aware of the side effects/risks of cortisone before giving his or her consent to have an injection.

Does anyone else suffer from chronic pain in one or more metatarsal bones? Does anyone have thinning of their plantar fat padding and, if so, is the lack of padding causing pain/problems?

I'm simply having a hard time (emotionally & physically) dealing with these foot problems...