In May of 2017, I took 1 wrong step while coaching a high school varsity lacrosse practice and immediately knew something was broken. Being a Division 1 Athlete, I am very familiar with how my body handles pain and knew that something wasn’t right. After practice ended, I drove to Patient First. They couldn’t see anything on the x-ray, but they attributed that to the fact the injury had so recently happened that swelling would have caused the x-ray to be tough to read. They put me in a walking boot and suggested I follow up with my podiatrist. The next week, I went to see the podiatrist who I have known and have worked with for years. I told him what had happened, what Patient First had said, and he looked at the walking boot I was wearing, and he said to me verbatim, “Don’t you think you’re being a little dramatic?” He kept insisting that nothing was wrong and that my foot was completely fine. After pleading with him that I knew something was wrong, he sent me on my way and told me everything was normal.
After a few months, my foot continued to get worse, so I went back to my podiatrist in July of 2017. He looked at his initial x-ray, took another x-ray, and told me he saw a crack in the sesamoid bone that he had missed the first time and it had gotten worse. I was also sent for an MRI that revealed a sesamoid bone injury. He put me in a boot for the next few months and told me it would heal. When I went back in the September of 2017, he told me I was good to go. After a few months, I noticed my foot was getting significantly worse, and now my entire foot hurt, not just the ball of my foot. I could barely walk and was in excruciating pain almost daily. It was then I realized I needed a second opinion.
That’s when I went to see Dr. Stewart, in January 2018. He heard my long-winded odyssey about the trials and tribulations I had experienced and got right to work to figure out what was wrong. He discovered the initial small break in my sesamoid bone had turned into a complete fracture. He also noted ligament damage in the side of my foot from overcompensating as well as fluid in my big toe joint. He warned me that there was the possibility that I could require surgery.
Dr. Stewart immediately came up with a plan to heal my foot as best as possible. He explained that the sesamoid bone is a challenging bone to get to heal completely, but he would help me to manage my pain and do everything he could to try to avoid a surgical treatment. He placed me in a cast and crutches for 6 weeks and ordered a bone stimulator. I then went back to a boot for 6 weeks and continued to use the bone stimulator and my foot had improved tremendously. After easing into orthotics for another 6 months, my pain continued to improve. At my follow up in May of 2018, a full year after the initial injury happened, Dr. Stewart was excited to tell me that against all odds, my sesamoid bone had healed and he gave me the go ahead to resume all of my activities as tolerated.
It is now March 2019 and I am back to fully playing lacrosse, running, working out, and even skiing with absolutely no pain! I am so thankful that I found Dr. Stewart because without him, I know my foot would have never healed, and that would have completely altered my life. Thank you to the team at Timonium Foot and Ankle for giving me my life back!
Morgan Lambert
* Results may vary from person to person