Hi Lilypad, I have had LD in both feet for more than 40 years. I am now 60. A couple of years back I noticed a thickening of the fascia on the ball of my left foot. It runs across the middle 3 toes.

I don't feel the mass when in my gym shoes but I do feel it in some business shoes and in bare feet. No pain at all so just a nuisance. With LD

I believe that one should not interfere unless absolutely necessary so I am ignoring it.

Thanks to you both for the reply!! I have just picked up on the LD disease in the last few days and feet are achy. I'm hoping this is not rapid progression. I've read it can be active and then settle down. I have a nodule at the base of second toe on both feet and maybe the little toe, not sure. Nothing in the arch YET. Very stressful to say the least!

I also have the thickening of skin in the balls of my feet--and have gone to Dr Davis for hylaronaidaise injections and also realized it was from the achilles and plantar pulling up. Here is what I posted on a new line-but wanted to post it here as well because this helped me so much...
Stretching out the plantar and achilles

After trying stem cell and having terrible results--not so much from the stem cells but from the method, I have been back to Dr Davis 2x and each time got 8 shots of hylaronaidaise--4 in each foot--3 through the top into the balls of my feet and 1 in the arch. The size of the nodules has gone down dramatically especially in the balls of my feet.

However, I am not sure it is so much from the shots as the realization that the plantar and achilles was being pulled up, which I had thought for a long time but it didn't dawn on me that I could do anything about that. So when Dr Davis measured the flexibility of my ankle and realized the pain was possibly as much from this as the actual nodules he prescribed night splints-- like you use for plantar fascia

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&key...sl_5xsfzexjr5_b

Then he also prescribed physical therapy and exercises each day... stretching the achilles and the plantar and said he thought my pain would be much better by Thanksgiving-- AND today I walked through the grocery store, hardware store and baked a pie and was not cringing in pain at the end of it. My pain level has decreased dramatically so if you have pain in your feet or pain in legs or your back. this might help.

In measuring the flexibility of your ankle the angle should be between 10-15 degrees and mine was 2-4. I am working on getting this stretched out and again this is where I have found my answer. Look up exercises for stretching the achilles and plantar online and do those 10x each day for 10 seconds and also wear the night splints. One warning from Dr. Davis, do not tighten up the night splints for 3 weeks or you could get a rebound backlash. You have to "sneak up" on this and gradually work at increasing your ankle angle.