Do not wait....depending on the kind of break , if you have one, you will be setting yourself up for problems if you wait and see and then need to have corrective work done. Please please get it xrayed...now...

You say you are not in pain but it really hurts when you press on it. Better to be safe than sorry...insurance is a wonderful thing when you have it...use it. :) c

I'd just go and get an x-ray, there are hundreds of little bones so you never know. Better safe than sorry.

You may have fractured one of the metatarsal bones in your foot, or you may have a stress fracture, or you could have a sprain? Have had the fx, and needed no cast, only foot boot and crutches. You really need to have an x-ray to have it appropriately diagnosed. Can you call your primary for an x-ray to have it taken care of before the holiday?

After sleeping it feels better but it's still swollen down to the toes.

I'll try to get it xrayed today or tomorrow.

trail, I thought a torn ligament was a sprain? This doesn't hurt like a sprain does. Only a dull ache unless I press on it.

Doctor is gone on Tuesdays so I'm giving it another day.

Trail, if I hurt a ligament, wouldn't it be incredibly painful to walk on the foot?

See, when I fell, the top of the foot hit the ground, not the bottom of it, and I'm thinking because I fell that way my foot landed with the toes pointed out.

I've broken a toe before, and had a horrible sprain, and those hurt like heck. This is just a dull ache.

In the meantime, treat it like a torn tendon and do the RICE method: Rest - Ice - Compression - Elevation. Also take as much ibuprofen as your system can handle.

Thanks, Kelly. The foot is actually doing a whole lot better. I was able to almost get a shoe on. lol.

I elevated it for an hour and ended up taking a nice nap! I'm walking normal again. But if it goes bad this evening like it did yesterday, I suppose I'll get it x-rayed. I keep saying that, don't I? :)

You bruised it....don't be fooled into getting un necessary xrays.....there are enough very necessary exposures to xrays without adding any that are not necessary.
If you had broken something it would be feeling worse not better.
Glad it's healing!
Linda C

I certainly wouldn't diagnose myself, even with the help of forum members. ;)
Get it checked out at the doctor! You don't want to end up with long term foot problems.

X-rays aren't always necessary. A qualified doctor would be able to determine if it was required or not.

Definitely see your doctor. Have to agree that no matter how helpful we want to be, we haven't seen your foot and don't hold medical degrees. X-ray/no-xray that's a call between you and your doctor.

Oakley, do you not have health insurance? I agree with Trail, Lukki, Natal and WIP, and I can't imagine why on earth you'd be self-treating such an injury if you do have coverage!

If one of your grand kids sustained such a boo-boo, they'd be in a doc's office asap, I'm sure. Why aren't you treating yourself with the same TLC?

You are not qualified to discern the nature and severity of the injury, with all due respect. Why take chances?

Oh, and Terriks said it beautifully,

"I certainly wouldn't diagnose myself, even with the help of forum members. ;) Get it checked out at the doctor! You don't want to end up with long term foot problems."

If I lived in OK, I'd drive you to the doc's office myself ( but VA is a little too far away!)

I've never broken a bone in my life. Till I broke my foot. It was a hairline fracture of the bone just on the top outer side. I heard a 'crack' tho, like a branch break. *shudder*. Had I not heard that sound, I might have blown it off. My symptoms were kind of similar to yours. Bruised and hurt like the dickens the first night. Could bear weight on it carefully next day, but pain kept coming & going. Then I lost the feeling in pinkie toe & one next to it. So that next day I called the office, they had me come in right away but verbally ordered an xray so when I went for my MD appointment I could just bring the films with me, save time. DH had to drive (it was my right foot). M.D. picked it up right away. Then he poked & prodded and pressed a spot that almost sent me through the ceiling (and I have a high pain threshold). He concluded I had probably pulled a tendon, too.

He put me in one of those Frankenstein boots for 4 weeks, which was hard to walk in. He threatened to put my foot in a cast if I didn't stay diligent about wearing it. Then it was doing better and he switched to a thick compression type wrap. So I wore a sandal over the wrap. The reason he gave me a hard time about keeping the boot on all the time was because he said if I didn't let it heal right, it would never be the same and would be inviting more trouble later.

Go to your doctor, let him/her make the call. But I wouldn't wait, not worth risking more/bigger problems later.

My DH has a PhD and when folks ask him questions that he either can't answer or doesn't want to answer he always says , " I'm not a doctor and I don't even play one on TV !!! ". So see your health care provider. c

Did ya get your appointment made yet? A friend of mine did something to her foot and it ended up that she tore a ligament and her doc told her that if she'd waited she'd have ended up needing surgery!

Hope you're feeling better, DO NOT MESS AROUND!

I was at a training session in the forest one day and I needed to 'go behind a tree', so I was going up the hill and tripped on a hidden log. I fell backward and slid down the hill and hit my arm on something. I SWORE I broke my arm, it hurt so frigging bad and it swelled up like crazy. I had help hiking back out of the woods and drove myself home, crying the whole way. Took a shower THEN let DH take me to the doctor. Turned out I'd knicked an artery in my arm, no broken bones, and the pain was from the hematoma. My arm turned BLACK from the arm pit to the wrist, it was awful, and the pain...oh man. It would have hurt less if I had broken it! So the point of my long story is you never know what could be the problem. Go get some real medical advice, please!!

Ouch, Moon! Yesterday afternoon I glanced at my foot. The toes were black!

It freaked me out so I went and had x-rays. A nurse practitioner did it and she couldn't find anything but she'll give the pictures to the doctor today to look at them.

She said I could have hyper-extended it. I kept it elevated last night for 12 hours, and I think some of the swelling went down, but now it's extremely painful but I can still walk on it okay.

Hopefully the doctor's office will call this morning and I'll let you know what they say.

Good girl, Oakley!

My ortho doc explained strain/sprains vs breaks in this way. I used to see him on a regular basis due to my adventures, he was prone to graphic descriptions . He was trying to discourage me ! Ha...I just got more careful :)

Tie a boat to the dock with a rope. Gun the motor of the boat and start driving. As you pull and pull on the rope it strains and strains....eventually either the wood of the dock breaks or the straining rope snaps. Think bones ( wood dock) and rope ( tendons and ligaments). It is almost always better to have the wood snap than to have that stret....ched out tendon/ligament, even if it doesn't snap. way easier to mend the bone and also way way less painful and heals incredibly faster. c

im having the same pain in my left foot. it feels fine until poked or extended. walking doesnt hurt at all. the difference is, i can recall doing anything to get hurt. i woke up the other day, and it hurt.

ld, you can't remember anything at all? I wonder if you could have slept funny on it?

Mine ended up being a bruised bone. It took almost three months for the knot on my shin to go down, and the knot on top of my foot took two months to go down.

Could it be plantar fasciitis? Doesn't sound like it, but after you've been sleeping or sitting for a spell, when you stand up it hurts really bad, then goes away.