What is Frieberg's Disease?!
Question:
What is Frieberg's Disease?
I am an active, track-running thirteen year old girl. In April I started having moderate to severe pain in my second metatarsal on my left foot. Today (its July now) I finally saw a pediatrist. He took one look at my X-rays and immediately diagnosed me with Frieberg's Disease. I sort of understand what it is, but.....
-What exactly IS it?
-Will I have it my whole life or just until I reach skeletal maturity?
-Will it get worse?
-Will it get better?
-Will I be able to run without making it worse? (i love running so much I could never give it up!)
-Is there any treatment besides surgery or an orthotic?
Please just tell me anything and everything you know about this rare disease!!! Thank you
Answers:
This young woman had it at 14 and this is what she did:
When I was 14 years old I was diagnosed with Freiberg's infractions disease. At that time both of my feet hurt me really, really bad. I could not even stand to have a sheet across my feet.somehow I ended up at one extremely good doctor who diagnosed Freiberg’s!
He told my mom to have every one of my shoes fitted with a metatarsel bar across the bottom and that really helped me a lot. Later, the pain came back but it was less severe. Anyway I had to quit all sports and any running or jumping to repair the damage. I think that is the best advice I can give to anyone diagnosed is to reduce her sports activity (if she has any) and should wear fitted shoes.
Other people with the disease and athletes talk about their experiences here (such as surgery):
http://www.steadyhealth.com/freibergs_di...
The explaination of your syndrome is here:
http://arthritis-symptom.com/d-g/freiber...
I have arthritis but am in my 30s so I feel so bad you are going through this at such a young age. It can be very serious and I know you are a dedicated runner but you do not want to increase your pain levels. Have you thought of swimming? It takes the weight and pounding off of your feet and you can do running in the water.
I wish you lots of luck and some relief!