Hi, I'm new here. Every morning when i get up and try to walk, I notice pain and a lump in the arch of my foot. When I touch the area I find a hard oval shaped lump in the middle of my arch in the foot. The lump feels like a big hard marble. When l lay down I notice no pain.

I massage this lump or the surounding hard, swollen, inflamed tissue every morning by putting a lot of pressure on the lump and after many attempts the lump does squidsh back a little bit up into the foot or flattens out a little. At least I'm able to walk for half day or if I'm real lucky for one day, as long as the tissue remains soft and flexable.

If I don't do the massage the lump or nodule stays or gets hard again and I feel like I'm walking on a marble or a small ball. Walking for more than half hour is almost impossible because the surounding tissue gets so inflamed that I have to limp.
I saw my physician when this first happend but he thinks it is nothing serious and advised me to take Ibuprofen, use Ice and buy a good pair of shoes. The problem persisted and I called my physician back, he then sent me to a potiatrist. He, also thought it is nothing serious and sent me home with exersice for plantar fascitis. 4 weeks later I saw him again because I didn't improve, he found a lump and he X rayed my foot but the X ray was normal. He put my foot in a boot because he thought I have a torn fascia. After 6 weeks in the boot and no improvement I went back for an MRI. The lump didn't showed up, only the inflamation. The Radiologist thinks it is a neuroma, the potiatrist thinks that I have something torn and the lump could be scar tissue and when I want to study this further on my own to look under plantar fibromatosis. He said this is not crippling or disabling but only difficult to walk. I can not walk, not stand and sometimes when the surounding tissue is very swollen and inflamed not even sit without pain. My Question, does anyone know how I can I get a firm diagnosis so I know what I'm dealing with? I'm so confused because I'm not sure if I need to keep pressure off or put pressure on by massage and stretching the fascia. Can I re-injure the fascia in case it is still torn by stretching exersice or vigorous massage? Can I re-injure the fascia by flexing my toes? I ask my Potiatrist but he is not responding anymore. His nurse called and said, I should go and see my family doctor again who has referred my to him to him in the first place. My potiatrist also said one time during my visit he has a plan if I don't improve with physical therapy and orthotics and when I called to ask what his plan was, the nurse called me back and said, I should see my family doctor again and he will tell my about his plan. This is so confusing. I have this problem since January of this year and this thing has changed my hole life and I'm getting very stessed out over this.
Baroque

For years I was able to keep my Morbus Ledderhose under the radar because of massage, orthodics, and stretching. Doctors I saw always thought it was something else and told me to keep doing what I was doing. Pain would come and go; nodules would shrink and grow. I never new about the connection to Dupuytren’s; a disease I don’t show signs of currently, but does affect almost every male in my family, so I never mentioned it.

Long story short, it took a doctor who had Dupuytren’s to notice my feet during a physical to send me to a specialist with knowledge of this ailment. I’d seen 3 different podiatrists in 3 areas of the country and not one even mentioned Morbus Ledderhose as a possibility. Since diagnosis, we are looking at different therapies; at only 38, surgery is not an option because of the risk.

I now go to a massage therapist once a week for an hour specifically for my feet and it helps a lot. Nodules have diminished in size and nothing new seems to be growing. I can now hike for hours without pain. I used to guffaw at acupuncture, but that too has helped tremendously and my medical plan of action now is to wait and see. Now that I know what I’m up against and being more proactive, things at least don’t seem to be progressing and although I’m not 100% pain free, it is very manageable. To me it’s a reminder to take care of myself.

All this because of dumb luck with a doctor; my advise is don’t stop until you find a doctor that has a solution that works, Ledderhose of not.