numb/painful toes in new boots

A snowHead

Hi,

i hope some of the experts out there might have some advice. I used to have terrible problems with painful feet - agonizing cramps and painful toes. This ruined many ski days.

I bought new boots and custom footbeds a couple of months ago. I had them fitted properly and am very confident that I received good service and the right boots for my awkward wide feet.

I wore the boots about 10 hours at home and in a fridge, before taking them back to be adjusted. I was having slight pain under the 2nd and 3rd toes of one foot. The boot fitter thought it might be a bruised nerve node - he smoothed a ridge out on the footbed, and it felt better. I wore then for 3 hours in the shop with few problems.

I've just skiied 6 days. Day one and two were great, my feet felt better than ever before and my skiing improved. By day 3 I was starting to feel some pain under the same 2 toes. Day 4 this became bad after a few hours and I had to take my boots off a few times during day 4, 5 and 6, with a few occasions of being unable to move for the pain. Since day 4 my toes have felt slightly numb. I've had a day and a half off now, and the numbness is still there, although there's currently no pain.

I am lucky enough to have another week of skiing. I am going to alternate x country and alpine, which will help, but I'd welcome any other suggestions for:
- primarily, what to do in the next week to get rid of the numbness if possible, or at least to stop the pain
- secondly, what could be done when I return to the UK to prevent the problem in the future. The bootfitter is away at the moment himself but I'm sure he'll be helpful at getting the boots adjusted, if there is something which could be done.

Many thanks

A snowHead

sounds like there may be a bit of compression going on either on top of the foot which may affect the feeling to the toes or in width...alternatively it could be that there is a bit too much space in the boot??? the foot would feel well held for the first few days and then as the liner started to pack down and the foot is sliding forward which will cause the widest point of the foot to be squeezed into a narrower part of the toe box of the boot

very difficult to say without seeing the foot, is the pain actually in the toes or in the ball of the foot, a nerve entrapment between the metatarsals would normally result in pain in the toes radiating out but can also be in the ball of the foot between the metatarsals...if you have a nerve neuroma then you will probably need a slight adjustment to the footbed to support behind the ball of the foot and spread the metatarsal bones just a little...this in turn may result in you needing the boot widened a little (although it equally may not need this)

which resort are you in, we may be able to suggest a fitter who can do a fix to resolve the problem

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Thanks for the reply and suggestions.

I'm actually staying with friends in the middle of nowhere in Norway this week, and planning to ski small resorts (Roldal and Sauden), so doubt seeing a bootfitter here is an option. I guess I'm looking at doing whatever I can myself here, and taking your suggestions back to the bootfitter when I return.

It doesn't feel like my toes are compressed at all. The feeling is more like they are being bent back a bit so I'm pressing my weight down on the joint between the main foot and the toe. I don't feel that I'm sliding forwards. However, my boots are Head adapt edge and are currently on the widest setting, so I might try narrowing them up a bit and see if it helps.

The numbness is definitely in the toes. The pain feels more in the ball of my foot near the toes, but radiates out over the toes when it gets bad. The pain does go quite quickly once I take my boot off, after a few seconds in which it sets worse, but the numbness has been around for days now.

thanks for the help and suggestions

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janeed, sounds like a nerve neuroma, but as i said impossible to say without a proper assessment if this is the case then a metatarsal raise will help to spread the bones and reduce the compression on the nerve

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Thanks for the advice. I'm back now and will try to get the adjustments made.

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Hi All, my girlfriend is experiencing very similar symptoms with her ski boots (salomon divine 6's) & had the same problem in her last pair also (atomic B70's).
Would be very interested to know whether you ever got to the bottom of this problem and found a solution?? The GF has today been to see a podiatrist who has told her that the boots were definitely too narrow and likely to have been causing the pain. Strangly, both pairs of boots are "wide" fitting with 104mm last, and we can't seem to find many pairs of boots that are wider - help?!!!
Any thoughts / advice happily recieved, she's getting very frustrated with the pain & financial outlay on boots!!

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Hi,
No, I haven't had chance to get back to the bootfitter yet, but should do sometime the week after next. I'll let you know.

My toes are still slightly numb, but have been getting better.

My boots are Head adapt edge, I think the last is set at 103 on one foot and 104 on the other. They don't feel too narrow, and the bootfitter was confident they were the right fit.

After all it is free

It sounds like you have the same problem as me, the only thing I've found that helps is to prevent the build up by taking off my boots at regular intervals, ie in a gondola or at a coffee stop.

homers double, remind me never to share a Gondola with you! Toofy Grin

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I suffered nerve neuroma from new boots on my mid January trip this year and it was excrutiating when the numbness receded! Basically mine was caused by a constant compression of the nerve between my third and fourth metatasal but as CEM states it can also be caused by compression on the top of the foot.
I immediately had my Atomics stretched for width and adjusted the foot bed slightly to reduce pressure on my very high instep and over the top of the right foot especially.

The result was instant success and when I went on my March trip had no problems at all and they were as comfy as my slippers!

Bad news however is that whilst I have recovered full feeling in my left foot, I think the damage was a big worse in my right. I still get numbness in my right fourth toe depending on which shoes I wear through the day and depending on how I allow my foot to sit at rest. I have a habit of resting my right foot on its outside with my feet crossed when relaxed. This actually aggravates the neuroma by squashing ever so slightly the metatarsals.

I actually think the damage is pretty permanent in my right foot in that it will always be susceptible to flare up. That said it didn't bother me skiing at all in March and it is not painful whatsoever day to day. The numbness is more annoying than anything.

My advice from experience is don't take neuroma lightly and get boots adjusted asap rather than soldiering on which will inevitably cause more serious damage.

Also worth a mention perhaps is technique, I think my feet were aggravated by often not being in the correct and relaxed skiing position in the afternoons when I was stood about a bit and helping the kids on thier first ever trip (ie pulling them up slopes when they got too slow etc). I think that caused me to dig toes into the beds quite a bit.

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Hi all, JELLEYMR gf here.

I went to see a podiatrist/chiropodist with my boots and she said that I must be very careful with this problem as it can cause permanent damage resulting in agonising pain or permanent numbness with the only cure being a painful steroid injection or surgical removal of the nerve. She advised me to stop using the boots and to visit her again before I ski in an adjusted or new pair. She also mentioned that as I have a high instep, that the widest part of my foot is further back than the widest part of my boot. I have the same width feet as my bf and he wears a 100mm last and my currents boots are 104mm last...

I'm hoping to get my boots adjusted at CEM's shop soon or considering buying the Salomon Idol 85 CS womens boots that have heat mouldable outers (v.exciting!!!) but am uncertain how suitable they are for very wide feet.

Hope you all find a solution soon!

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jellemr, agree re permanent damage. My Doctor was very reluctant to consider cortisone injections into the nerves in my feet as they are small and delicate.(the nerves not my feet (my feet could never be described as delicate Very Happy

)) I told her I have had steriod injections into my patella tendons for years when I was playing high level of rugby but she said " that was easy compared to your feet"! Only fractional changes are needed to the fit of the boot to relieve the problem. I have a very wide foot with high arch too so I sympathise with your position. I don't know CEM, but from all the evidence on this site he is clearly an expert and a good one at that so I'm sure he will sort your boots.

cran

If you have custom foot beds maybe try taking them out and putting normal ones in (take them out your trainers if you haven't got any others with you).

If you don't have custom foot beds, maybe try getting some...

You know it makes sense.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm finding this all helpful, if a little scary. I'm going to share the link with the guy who fitted my boots, before I go back next week to get them adjusted. Hopefully that will do the job.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Ok, I went back to the bootfitter this week, and after talking through the problem he agreed it was probably a neuroma. He cut a space in the footbed to give the nerve a bit more room.

I skied them all day yesterday, and although better, they are still not right. I felt pain after about 3 hours, which went away over lunch, but came back again late in the afternoon.

So, it will be back to the bootfitter to have a new footbed made, and let's hope this helps.

A snowHead

A snowHead

janeed, nerve neuroma is caused by compression and subsequent inflamation of the nerves. It can be permanent if you do not address it correctly. If you keep aggravating it and don't let it settle you will end up with permanent numbness from damaged nerves

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

(GF here) I agree re not cutting hole in footbed, from all the advice I've been given, the solution is to spread the pressure over the rest of the foot, not sure how cutting a hole in the footbed would address this...

Also, I did have custom footbeds to try to help the problem but they made it worse because the footbed was so hard, the pain was unbearable and for the first time I experienced the same pain in both feet rather than just one.

Counting down the days til I see CEM at Solutions 4 Feet, can't wait!

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Okay, I'm adding to an old thread because problems have returned this year.

To update, last year I went to CEM and got some new footbeds. He also recommended wedges under the insole. One or other seemed to help. I think he thought the boots were a little big, but not particularly so.

I didn't have such bad foot issues last year, although the problem didn't go completely. I did only ski 3 days in a row though.
I also went for a scan which didn't show a Mortons neuroma.

This year the numbness came back on the first day, with pain on the second day. Middle toes of the left foot, 3rd and 4th toes mainly.

By the 3rd day I was in agony and went into a boot fitter for advice. His opinion was that the boots were too big. I explained that I was wary of spending lots of money on new boots without knowing it would solve the problem. We agreed I'd hire similar boots in the size he was recommending, and consider buying some if they helped.

So day 4 I skiied in size 24 hire boots (mine are 25.5). I did have a little numbness but not the toe pain. I had some cramp, which might be due to them being too narrow for me. By this point I was ready to buy new ones and give that a go.

Day 5 I went back to see the footfitter, who hadn't showed up for work. Colleagues of his looked at my boots and said they were big, but not that big, and recommended that I didn't buy new ones. They suggested taking the wedges, and possibly the footbeds, out. So I took out the wedges, and tried replacing the footbeds with the thinner, more flexible ones from my trainers. The pain didn't come back that day, but I felt my feet moving around in the boots, and didn't feel like I had enough control over my skis.

Day 6 I put my footbeds back in to get more control for my lesson. The numbness, then the pain, came back during the late morning. I did notice that there seemed to be a feeling of pressure somewhere between the 2nd buckle and the bend where my foot joined my leg, and wondered if maybe the boot was pressing on a nerve here.

I've done a shell check and think there is about 4cm space on the left and about 2 cm on the right, but I'm not completely sure where to measure.

So, I'd welcome advice. How do I diagnose the problem, and try to solve it. I'm prepared to buy new boots if I knew they would solve the problem, but concerned I'd just have the same problem in new ones.

Thanks

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OK, I suffered years of numb toes and painful boots. And I mean YEARS, despite hours and hours spent with bootfitters.

In the end I bought a pair of Atomic LiveFit 80s with the flexible bit on the side of the boots. I put my moulded footbeds in them, and they were PERFECT. The footbeds have a cushioned rubber bit under the balls of my feet, and this is crucial for me. Hard footbeds cause me pain (as I discovered when I replaced them - the old comfy ones soon went back in!)

My feet are VERY wide, and I have a prominent bone on the top so need boots with a lot of height. Those boots are the most comfortable I've ever had and solved all my problems. Might be worth a try?

I now have a siimilar new pair, but only because I won them, or I'd stick with my comfy ones!

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janeed, with a shell check of 2cm it is about as big as i would want in that model (ie the next size would be 30mm) but with 4cm????? that is just BIG it sounds to be a flexion issue as we looked at, possibly needs more lift but this is a thing you need to play with slowly and stretching for the calf muscle will affect how much/little you need

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Thanks for the reply. I'm not sure exactly where to measure, so it might be a bit less than 4cm.

I'd forgoteen the conversation about flexion Embarassed

Having said that, I had real calf problems after a knee injury last year, and so have spent lots of time stretching / massaging / rolling them. I will keep that up.

HoneyBunny, glad you solved your problems. I will look out for those boots.

Help!!

numb/painful toes in new boots

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