Name : Donna Bowen
E-mail : : dbowen@slackdavis.com
Adult: 58 years old
Location: Austin, Texas
Areas affected: Left hip and foot
Personal History:
In approximately 1969, I began having increasing pain in my left foot following an injury. I was diagnosed at that time, through x-rays, with melorheostosis. I saw several doctors over the years and the pain increased as the bones were fusing. I had to give up running, but continued to walk for exercise. My foot began caving in and I was told that within 5 years, it might be totally prolapsed inward. In 1986, I saw Dr. Hughston at the Hughston Orthopedic Clinic in Columbus, Georgia. He told me to never let anyone cut on me except as a last resort, since the disease was so rare and it was not clear the effect that surgery would have on the progression of the disease. I am happy to report that the disease process in my foot has not progressed for many years and I am still able to walk with minimal pain. I think it is because the bones are now totally fused.
The disease was not diagnosed in my hip until 1991, after I began experiencing pain while taking tae kwon do. That disease process, too, appears to be in remission during the past several years.
For the past two years, I have had intermittent, shooting pains along my left tibia. Following a recent MRI, I was diagnosed with medial tibial stress syndrome, but, after reading the other personal histories, I am wondering if that, too, is not a manifestation of the disease.
I was delighted to find this website as I, too, have never met anyone with melorheostosis.