How Training Cured Her Neuroma
Eliza, 51, is a former ballet dancer, a mom and a frequent traveler who was struggling with neuroma symptoms in her right foot on and off for years.
Upon assessment, we discovered that her center of mass was shifted forward and to the right through various tests and measurements. This meant her right side was perpetually in a position of "load acceptance," limiting the metatarsal bones from sliding and gliding sufficiently any time she would walk or exercise. As a result, her left side adapted to a constant a position of "unloading" to accommodate this shift in her center of mass, making her right foot the main weight-bearer.
When joints on the left get stuck in a forward-propelling orientation, the right foot will act as a brake to provide balance to an asymmetrical pattern, perpetuating inflammation into the neuroma. It made sense that she was also dealing with chronic right hip pain, achy shoulders, and left SI joint discomfort at the time of the assessment. All of this insight provided a starting point for us to reverse engineer the pattern via strength training, breathwork and repositioning exercises.
We started training in March 2024 and within 2 months she was able to walk, hike and wear heels pain-free. This is her healing journey:
"I experienced symptoms for about one year, stopped exercising completely for a few years and it felt like they went away, but then they returned. I could feel them for about 2 months before I found Romina. It was a constant, throbbing pain in my right front foot that would intensify if I tried to plank, go for a walk or wear heels.
I got toe spacers, tried some foot chiropractic work with e-stim, stopped wearing heels, switched to Hoka sneakers, but I can't really say any of that provided much relief and I didn't really have confidence that any other approaches would help much. Up until that point, what I had tried was not super effective, what I read was not encouraging regarding other possible treatments, and my friend with MN had had surgery which was not very effective and actually seemed to cause other problems.
When I felt symptoms upon attempting to return to exercise, I really just wanted to nip it in the bud, so I really appreciated what Romina wrote about healing her own MN and the way she did it. Once I started training with her, I noticed pretty quickly that my baseline pain was less, and the neuroma wasn't being triggered as easily, though we were focusing on heel heavy exercises and not testing it much.
After 2 months I'm doing squats, full planks, hiking, and even wearing heels without feeling any symptoms for more than an occasional few seconds at a time. I am so pleased! I'm increasing my fitness, I can see my body shape and strength improving, I feel better overall and have also lost weight.
Before training I was very discouraged. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do yoga or walk for exercise, and that there was no real way to help my MN. Not only can I now do those activities, but I am getting stronger and feeling better all the time in other ways.
My friends had advised me against training online, but I have found the zoom training is very effective and it allows for flexibility in my schedule as I travel between places regularly. When I travel, Romina is surprisingly good (even better than I am myself) at remembering what equipment I have where, and being adaptable, coaching me effectively with whatever we have to work with, whatever mood I bring to a session, or however I am feeling physically that day.
I'm continuously amazed at Romina's ability to notice and correct even the smallest positional adjustments (ie. she notices if I lift my pinky toe a millimeter off the floor). I was impressed from the initial consultation by the attention to detail Romina gave to my alignment in the videos I sent her.
I really appreciate Romina's understanding of body mechanics and her ability to explain them to me, and her care in really wanting to correct the root issue and not just compensate in other ways. I am so grateful I found her and will continue to work with her. I would highly recommend training with Romina to anyone with MN (or without)."
If you think you've exhausted your treatment options for MN and are still hopeful for a cure, I'm here to show you what's really going on with your body and provide coaching that will diminish your symptoms for good.
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