Patient Story - Ledderhose patient from Australia

Today I have some information from a patient in Australia that I connected with on Facebook, they have had surgery and some injections and are hoping for some more injections.  

My name is Janine, I am 48 and live in Melbourne, Australia. I first noticed a lump on the arch of my foot at the age of 41 and was referred to a Podiatrist. His advice was to get orthotics, so I had some orthotics made which worked great for when I was wearing trainers but they were too thick for any other types of shoes. I was advised to monitor its size with regular ultrasounds. The first ultrasound also found smaller fibromas in my other foot.
I then took on a new job which involved me wearing high heels every day which played havoc with my fibromas. I was recommended to visit an orthopaedic surgeon and he advised to continue with ultrasounds and track their growth and re-visit him 12 months later. The fibromas in both feet continued to grow at 0.5cm per 6 months and were becoming more and more uncomfortable. Plus the one on my right foot had changed shape from an olive to garlic bulb. 

When I re-visited the surgeon he recommended surgery to remove the fibroma as the change in shape could well be an indication of cancer and there was also a very slim chance that they would grow back. The surgery made sense to me and so at great financial expense I had the surgery in 2016 to remove the fibromas on my right foot. Roll on 4 years to 2020, my scar has given me daily pain since the surgery. It swells when I am sleeping, calms down after a hot shower and then gives we sharp nerve pain during the day. 

By 2020 I had noticed that lumps were appearing out the side of my scar and so I went to see a Podiatrist surgeon. He told me that I should never have had the surgery and that the fibromas had indeed grown back and he sent me for an MRI. He gave me a treatment of cortisone injections for the fibroma and collagen injections for my very sensitive scar. I was scheduled to have a further two sessions of the cortisone injections when I discovered this wonderful facebook page. 

I have since provided the Hyaluronidase enzyme injection information to my surgeon and it turns out that from February 2022 this will be covered by my insurance and so we have agreed to delay any further treatment until then.