Turf Toe / Ball of Foot pains

Hi there, 
First off, I'd like to thank you for opening this post.  I appreciate you for taking the time to read this wall of text that I know I'm going to write.  I'm here because of an issue that I thought was taken care of has risen up again.  I have seen a professional about it as well as several friends (one is a physical therapy assistant, another is working in sports medicine on several college football and baseball teams)
Their answer was the RICE method and to squeeze a little rubber ball with my toes.  

Intro
My name is Apu.  Professionally, I'm an engineer.  I love cars, animals, and doing stuff introverts do.  Naturally, I have too many cars I work on and too many pets.  Currently I am home shopping for something big enough for everything.

Reason why I'm here
In October of 2019 I experienced several short bouts of Turf Toe / an inflammation of my ball of foot.  
An example would be: Work Monday night for a few hours, Tuesday my ball of foot would hurt (either left or right, it alternated), Wednesday I was perfectly fine.  It was just pain, I don't recall ever seeing the foot inflammed or red, just pain. 

In November of 2019, the first week specifically, I had significant pains in my right foot in the ball of the foot right behind my big toe.  That week was a weeklong vacation in Disney world for a friends wedding so a lot of walking and standing.  That whole week I was with my friends who were a mix of medical professionals and their diagnosis was turf toe so I was kept hopped up on Advil the whole time.  

I had one more flare up in mid November, maybe one or two in December.
I saw a local foot and Ankle specialist ( I can provide name if needed) in December / Early January.  She was not concerned with it and suggested the RICE method.  She was focused on a toenail fungus that I have one on of my nails (haven't taken care of it really, just started a month ago on some OTC liquid application)

Everything has been smooth sailing up until now.  I woke up at 1 am this morning June 20, 2020 and felt nothing.  This morning when I woke up, I feel it again.  This excruciating pain in my left foot again right behind the big toe, this after not doing any kind of activity that could cause it.  On June 12, I ran a 5k and felt nothing besides the usual feet being tired after any exercise.  

Can you provide me any suggestions on what I can do to make sure this doesn't happen again?
I'm thinking that this may be arthiritis at this point and am considering seeing my primary once we are allowed to.


Suggestions that have been made to me / things I am doing
I purchased some Toe spacers from Amazon, but I haven't really used them.  
I purchased toe spacers from Correct Toes, used them briefly but stopped.
I purchased compression socks, used them briefly but stopped.
I purchased shoes that were wide and oversized for my feet.  

The sports medicine guy suggested standing in ice water for as long as you can, but his PTA wife said that it's best to not be on my feet.
When I had the flare ups, I would do the RICE method which consisted of bags of ice inside of a home depot 5 gallon bucket.  This was placed on my couch while I laid on the floor, 30 minutes on 30 minutes of repeating as I could take it.  I didn't wear socks and probably should have.  

The last RICE method I figured out was to use this bucket filled with ice water and place it on the stairs.  It was slightly angled so that the water would not leak out and elevated up about 2 stairs.  I could lay at the base of the stairs with my feet elevated and in ice water.  This was the last thing I did.




Full background / wall of text that is entirely optional to read 

Most of my life, I have been an active person.  My father owns a beer store and I have been there since about 8 years old.  I've worked there in highschool and during college.  I could wear the crappiest shoes(too tight or clown shoes), work for obscenely long hours, and it didn't matter.  My feet would be tired but the next day I'm ready to do it again. In highschool I was in shape at 150-155 lbs, six pac and all.  College was 160-170lbs, out of shape, but never any foot problems.

In 2018, I got a full time engineering job which was mostly standing and in steel toe work boots.  No issues besides being out of shape at 170+ lbs.

In July of 2019, I got a comfy desk job and gained a few pounds.  I'm probably hanging around 180lbs.
October 2019, I started working evenings helping out at the beer store, back in my crappy shoes.  Now my ball of foot starts to hurt for the following day after working. 

End of October, I buy some Under Armor shoes with my girlfriend.  She always complained that I buy shoes that are too big.  So we measure my foot and she picks out a size that would SEEM appropriate but I complained that they were a bit tight width wise but "that's how they are supposed to feel". They were fabric so whatever. 

The first week of November is that Disney friends wedding trip.  Immediately we get down there and it flares up in my right foot.  It's really bad and I'm poppin Advils like Tic Tacs.  The wedding was on Wednesday and I think I took in about 16-20 Advils (200 mg Ibuprofen) that day which did absolutely nothing for me.  I stopped taking Advils after Wednesday because it really didn't reduce my pain and I don't recall ever having any signs of inflammation.  I just limped around.  Eventually my hip started hurting because of how I was using that to rotate my leg.

The week ended and I made it home.  It hurts for almost a week after.  It flared up a few times in December, I saw a foot specialist and then it did not happen in 2020 until this morning.  

End of wall of text







Edited by RacingTurtles - Jun 20 2020 at 12:32pm