I've had problems with one of my medial sesamoids for a couple of months now, and I've just been fitted with orthotics by a podiatrist. With these, it seems like I'm able to run now with only minor irritation-- I had not been able to run for more than a month, and it was very painful before that. I'm only up to jogging a few miles easy each day, but orthotics seem to be helping.
I do worry, though, about becoming dependent on them. I really don't want to have to wear clunky expensive orthotics for the rest of my life. I figure I'll need to transition out of them slowly once my sesamoid is totally healed, but I'm not sure how difficult this will be or how best to do it.
My orthotics have a raised area behind the ball of the foot, then a lowered part under it, so as to take pressure off the sesamoid. They also have a higher heel on that foot, since my podiatrist says that leg is shorter which could be causing problems.
Does anyone else have any experience with orthotics/weaning themselves off of them? I don't feel like my feet need "correcting", and I don't want to be a slave to a podiatrist for years. What is the outlook for orthotics-wearers over a period of months or years? If you got them to accomodate an injury, are you still wearing them much later, or are you back to normal footwear?
Thanks very much for the help.