Foot Pain: Possibly FHL Tendon?

I've gotten all kinds of "recommendations" from people with names of doctors or physical therapists or massage therapists who they KNOW will be able to fix me. I've followed up on none of those. But I had a conversation with a "fit mom" from my gym that gave me a bit of hope.

She's one of what I lovingly call "the crossfit moms" at my gym. There's a group of fit moms who do a lot of olympic lifts and crossfit-like workouts. I've heard more than one of them complain about being sick for a few days and losing too much weight. (One of them joked about her butt getting too small and losing too much muscle in her butt after being sick.) What I'm trying to get across is that they are MY KIND of fit women - lifting weights and being strong and not aiming to just be skinny.

Anyway, I bumped into 2 of them dropping of their kids as I was dropping off my boys at the "kids care" before working out on Monday (Presidents Day, so lots of kids were there with their parents). Jennie asked about my boot and scooter.

Long story short: we got to chat about how she had the exact same pain 2 years ago! That's the first face-to-face chat I've had with someone who (we believe) had the same UNNAMED issues that I'm having. When it was really bad (on days I stood WAY too long in Aug and Sept last year), I would say describe it as "not really a 'tearing,' but it's like HOT and feels like something's happening in there." I didn't tell Jennie about that, but she mentioned the "burning" sensation, and THAT'S WHAT I WAS FEELING TOO. She nailed it. I think my eyes lit up.

We talked about how an MRI didn't (and wouldn't) show anything. We talked about pain while just standing.

She said she had it diagnosed as an issue with her FHL tendon in her foot (flexor hallucis longus).

Image source.

That image shows the 3 common "restrictions" of the FHL. My pain has usually been right under the star, and I often have tightness (not really "pain") at the triangle.

"SO WHAT WORKED FOR YOU?!?!..." I desperately asked. She mentioned cross-friction massage. One other friend had been mentioning something like that as well. When I realized rest really wasn't helping, I asked my Doc about that like 10 days ago (it's a thought that's been on my mind for months). But he wanted to try the boot a bit more before going that route. But I've been saying since about Nov that I figure it needs COMPLETE rest (and the boot and scooter aren't doing much), or it needs to be WORKED LIKE HELL. I think I'll be a good patient and keep the boot on for another 10 days leading up to my next Doc's appointment, and then I'll suggest going nuts with massage.

Jennie also said that Traumeel gel has helped a lot. And that iontophoresis helped her (it didn't for me). And she's been doing some specific stretches from PT, and she also described some "exercises" where she picks up a towel with her toes. "Is that anything like 'toe yoga'? Cause it kinda sounds like something I was doing a month ago..." I told her. It was MUCH like toe yoga she said! (I think she was surprised that I knew what toe yoga was [but I've only been aware of that for the last few months].) That shows that PT Jessie was on the right track when she had me doing those exercises.

When I started researching this myself, it wasn't a huge "light bulb" moment, but there were a lot of things that resonated with me. That image above seems totally spot on. This link talks about FHL tendinopathy in dancers, but it also mentions "in rare cases, immobilization for several weeks in a weight-bearing cast or walking boot may be required," but that's not helping me at all. (It also notes that "In cases where surgery is required, the dancer may be out for up to 12 weeks." I've been out for 27 weeks [yes, over 6 months now], so SIGN ME UP FOR THAT SURGERY!) It also noted that firm shoes help, which might explain why my haflinger slippers felt good to wear early on.

Anyway, it's still not perfect in Jennie, but she's doing MUCH better. I'm not 100% convinced that it's what I have, but it's BY FAR the most promising lead I've had since August. So that's a bright spot!