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Morton's Neuroma is caused by an irritated nerve in the forefoot, usually between the 3rd and 4th metatarsal heads. The pain can be felt near the metatarsal heads, or it can radiate, mostly towards the 3rd and 4th toes. I have had good results with the simple fixes described below, and I have had reports of other runners with similar success.
{{DISPLAYTITLE:Mortons Neuroma, symptoms and fixes}}
{| class="wikitable" |- valign="top"|[[File:Mortons.jpg|none|thumb|250px|The is the most common location for the inflamed nerve that causes a Morton’s Neuroma. The nerve gets compressed between the bones in the forefoot.]]|[[File:Mortons2.jpg|none|thumb|250px|The pain is felt in the area highlighted in red. It is often a burning pain that radiates out towards the toes.]]|[[File:Mortonneuroma.jpg|none|thumb|300px|An artist's impression of the inflamed nerve.]] |[[File:NeuromaCrossSection.JPG|none|thumb|450px|Here is a cross section of the foot showing the location of the nerve.]]|}
==Fixing Morton's Neuroma==
I used the overnight stretch sock combined with modifying my shoes to remove the Morton's Neuroma I had. Other runners have tried these two approaches successfully. I believe these approaches are low cost, low risk techniques that are worth trying out before resorting to more intrusive techniques.
===Overnight Stretch Sock===
I found that using [http://www.amazon.com/Foot-Alignment-Socks-Small-Medium/dp/B001U5BGUC "Comfy Toes Foot Alignment Socks"] has provided me with more relief than any of the other treatments I tried. These socks are intended to be used so that they stretch the gap between each toe, as shown below. I wore the socks like this overnight and found it helped quite a bit, but it did trigger quite a bit of pain as the toes were stretched in the night. (You can see the scar tissue on my feet from [[Epidermolysis Bullosa]].)
[[File:ToeStretcherIntended.jpg|none|thumb|250px|This is how the socks are supposed to be used.]]
I changed the usage so that all the stretch was between the toes that have the Mortons Neuroma, as shown below. This increased the stretch quite a bit and relieved the Mortons Neuroma further. It also reduced the pain I experienced overnight from the stretch.
[[File:ToeStretcherUnintended.jpg|none|thumb|250px|This is the way that I found to be most effective.]]
===Changing Shoes===
It is absolutely critical to avoid any footwear that squeezes the forefoot. This will aggravate the nerve, so don't wear any shoe that puts any pressure on the sides of the forefoot. It may help to go up a shoe size, but I cut away the shoe where it touches the sides of the forefoot like this:
* Pain in entire foot (9%)
===In depth information===
The best in-depth information on Morton's Neuroma is from the Google Book's copy of [http://books.google.com/books?id=sG5uN6KaU-8C&lpg=PA231&ots=atnvfRpn5Q&dq=morton's%20neuroma&pg=PA231#v=onepage&q&f=false|McGlamry's comprehensive textbook of foot and ankle surgery, Volume 2]