For your eventual recovery after whenever you do get the surgery, or for anyone else reading this who's suffering from sesamoiditis, here's my protocol for the condition. I'm sure this will save someone hours of research and weeks or months of pain and hassle.
Like most people, until my foot actually started to hurt there I had no idea that there were even two little tiny kneecap-style bones right under my big toe joint. It would seem like the absolute worst place to put two little bones, with all the impact the ball of the foot takes. My wake-up call came when one day in early September I was doing single-leg calf raises with a weighted vest and 120lbs dumbbell. I was moving slow and using good form, but felt something pop under my foot. It was a little sore but figured it for wear and tear of moving heavy weight that we all get subjected to and heal from. The next day I did weighted incline pushups with a weight vest plus a backpack on with a couple of plates in it - my feet were up on a solid metal box, with my big toes fully stretched in that elevated position. After two days straight of such abuse, on the 3rd day I had really bad pain bending the toe, and the inside of the ball of my foot burned with each step.
PHASE 1 (Weeks 1-2): For the first 2 weeks I pretty much did nothing. I figured these aches and pains usually clear up if you stop aggravating them and avoid doing things that cause the pain. To this end I started walking more on the outside edge of my foot. I walked with a limp but who cares, I figured it was only for a few days. I also cut out planks, pushups, calf raises, and anything that put stress on the big toe joint and ball of the foot. I also used Voltaren Extra Strength (I think it's called Voltarol in the US), a topical pain reliever cream (taking oral NSAIDS can hurt your gainz). I also took my usual joint ache combo of time-released Vitamin C 1g twice a day, and MSM 1g 3 times a day. This combo kept things from getting worse, and when the Voltarol was working pain was slightly reduced, but there was still no real improvement.
PHASE 2 (Weeks 3-4): When I realized after two weeks that the problem was NOT going away, I realized I needed to get serious. I realized that the longer I kept a modified walking gait, the greater the chances I would develop ankle, knee, or hip problems in my left leg. So I needed to seriously research what was going on and find a way to heal fast. What I learned wasn't good! It seems for most folks that once you get Sesamoiditis that you never fully recover, and the condition can linger for years if you don't get off the foot and let things heal. In practice this meant about a month in a boot that freezes your ankle and big toe joint. The Flexor Hallucis Longus tendon (FHL) goes from your big toe joint to your sesamoids to the back of your heel, and connects at the back of your foreleg, so that entire area needs to be immobilized for proper healing. This would be very difficult for me, as I have a busy family life, a job that requires me to walk, run, and jump, and I go stir crazy sitting in a chair. I looked at different foot pads online for taking pressure off the sasamoids, and ordered a few different designs to try out. Some made the rest of my foot hurt, while some worked well for keeping pressure off of my sesamoids, but none fixed the core problem: I had tendinopathy around the sesamoids, specifically the one closest to the inside of my foot, and it was bending the toe upwards/lenghthening the tendon that was killing me. For those with a fracture however, the gel pads may be a godsend - I recommend Jill's Gels dancer pads, as they really keep the pressure off of the sesamoid area.
PHASE 3 (Weeks 5-6): This is when I really went berserker mode on my sesamoiditis. I'd probably spent a good 20 hours Googling everything in desperation during week 4, and stumbled upon a treatment for sesamoiditis in horses. Yes, HORSES. Apparently these animals frequently get sesamoiditis, and with owners paying a fortune to maintain them and keep them healthy they'll try anything. As I was also ready to try anything, I went for it and used Bragg organic apple cider vinegar. I mixed two tablespoons of the stuff in 2 cups of cold water and chugged it back 3 times a day. DO NOT take it straight, and be careful to rinse your mouth with regular water right after drinking the water-ACV mixture, as the acid in it can rot your teeth. Despite the rinsing my back teeth are killing me after 2 weeks on this stuff, and I've been resorting to brushing with Sensodyne to cut the ache.
The result: I noticed an immediate drop in pain after 2 days on this protocol. By the end of day 3 I could put my big toe against a wall and very carefully stretch it to the full "up" position without excruciating pain. I would say that after 3 days the pain was at about 50% of what it was when I started on ACV. Don't ask me what the mechanism of action is for this improvement, all I know is that it worked!
I have to say that I also started using Cissus at 2g a day at around the same time I started downing the ACV. I avoided taking it up til then because I've always found that Cissus slows down my bodybuilding progress (I think because it raises E), but I was willing to try anything. It usually takes about 2 weeks for Cissus to start affecting anything in my experience, so I'm certain that it was the ACV that caused this huge improvement.
In week two of this phase of declaring war on these two little twerps, I started on BPC-157. Again, this turned out to be a miracle treatment. With two subcutaneous injections of 400mcg into the fat pad just near the sesamoids, by the end of Day 2 of treatment my pain had drastically reduced again. After 7 days on the injections and 14 days on the ACV, my recovery is INSANE. I still have a little bit of pain in my sesamoids area, but a good deal of it is actually from the pin-cushion effect of 14 injections in 7 days into the area!
I'm going to start some strengthening exercises for the FHL tomorrow (Google "Towel Crunches"), and work on maintaining the range of motion (as it still stiffens up when I don't stretch it), but I'm sure in another 7 days, after 14 more BPC-157 injections and some exercise, I'll be good to go.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go get ready to walk my kid around for a couple of hours of trick-or-treating (WITHOUT major foot pain!)
Coles Notes/TLDR:
-Offload as much as possible while recovering
-Use organic Apple Cider Vinegar - 2 tablespoons in 2 cups of water, 3 times a day
-Inject with BPC-157 near the sesamoid area (fat pad on inner ball of foot) 400mcg, 2 times a day
-Use Voltaren/Voltarol to dull some pain if you MUST to do something on your feet
-When pain begins to subside, gently stretch the big toe upward against a wall or furniture (don't overdo it) and build the FHL tendon up with some gentle strength work.
