Talk to me about foot injuries

17 years ago

Last night I caught my heel in a hole in the sidewalk in town and tripped hard. I didn't fall, but I hurt my foot.

My ankle is fine, there's an area on the outside of my foot, around the middle, that hurts when I walk or try to rotate my foot. Or bend my toes up. There's a small swelling there, and a bruise, even though that part of my foot didn't actually hit anything.

Does this sound like a tendon injury to you? I've read that these should be diagnosed by a foot surgeon, possibly with an MRI or ultrasound. I know if I go to the ER they'll want to x-ray it (after a four-hour stint in the waiting room). Plus I have such a busy weekend planned! Fortunately, I can sit through a lot of the activities.....although I sure would like to mow my lawn this afternoon.

It's a little better this morning than it was last night, so that's encouraging.

Susan

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Comments (17)

trinitytx
17 years ago
I have had exactly the same thing happen to me. do yourself a huge favor and go to Walgreens and get the gel pack WITH the velcro wrap that come with it. it will enable you to velcro the iced pack on the top of your foot. You will need stints of ice on it throughout the weekend. Also take Aleve (sp?) it will help with the swelling. Not much more you can do for it than baby it as much as possble.

Trin
cynic
17 years ago
So many people get so paranoid that you have to rush to specialists for any boo-boo it drives me nuts. I took a fall on the ice a while back and had very similar symptoms as yours except no swelling and no bruising. I got a little worried since I have to be on my feet for work and after a few hours of PAIN, I decided to go get an x-ray. Well it showed nothing, cost $1k and the doctors scratched their heads. I had to tell them what to do and was about ready to tell them where to go. They gave, or I should say SOLD me a "special" shoe to wear to essentially immobilize the foot and toes from bending and stretching and wanted me to be on crutches for a week or two. Well my crutches were in the rafters in the garage and I wasn't in the mood to hobble up a ladder with a bad foot to get them down so I just propped my foot up, took painkillers, snoozed and put off as much work till the end of the week as I could. I got off my feet as much as I could, propped it up as much as I could and it was just fine eventually. Probably pulled a tendon or ligament, maybe a muscle or had a small fracture that didn't show on x-ray. In any case I'd have been far better off just staying home, off my feet and use the foot as little as possible, essentially following common sense than going to the hospital.

I actually was far more worried about other things. When I went down, I landed on my tailbone, foot slammed down onto the concrete and my back went right into a step. I sat a bit wondering if I was paralyzed and worried more about my back. That was fine, fortunately, but boy did my foot feel it. And yes, I got my stupid newspaper....

I don't see how it's an emergency to get in. Stay off it and see if it starts to feel better. If it does, you're doing the right thing. You can always go in later. BTW, they wanted to send me to a foot specialist. I said nope. Why waste more money and time and have to hobble into yet another office?
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azzalea
17 years ago
Hate to tell you this--but that sounds just about like what I did a little over a month ago. Thought I could tough it out, thought I just 'sprained' my ankle or pulled something. 24 hours later, it was obvious that wasn't the case. My tendons pulled away from the bones in a couple of places, pulling bits of bone with them. It was classified as a fracture and I spent the past 4 weeks in a cast.

The good thing is--if your ER is anything like ours, orthopedic injuries are fast-tracked. I was in and out in under 2 hours--a record, in my experience.

The down side is, they splinted my ankle, sent me home and told me to call an orthopedic surgeon the next day.

It does sound to me as if you need to get it checked out. If there is a problem, you could be doing more damage by not getting it properly treated. I know I'm the worst example of that--I went out to eat at a restaurant the night I injured my foot (hey--I had a $15 coupon that was about to expire--LOL). But it's BECAUSE I was so pigheaded, and ignored what I KNEW was a serious injuiry, thinking if I toughed it out it would go away. I won't do that again. In future, I will get this sort of thing seen to, rather than ignoring it.

Whatever you decide, good luck and hope you feel better soon
mcmann
17 years ago
It's amazing how easy it is to break a bone in your foot- sometimes there's significant pain and swelling but not always. It can be difficult to determine if it's a sprain or a break or both without a proper exam.

My son broke a small, non-weight bearing bone in his ankle. He didn't feel any pain and played the rest of the lacrosse game. However by evening the swelling and discoloration were severe and he went to the ER and the X Ray showed the break. But he only felt a mild discomfort.

I slipped on ice, turned over on my ankle and had an avulsion fracture in my foot which was fairly painful. That's when a tendon or ligament pulls off a piece of bone. Usually it's treated as a soft tissue injury. In my case all I needed was one of those hard sole shoes from the pharmacy. I iced it and kept it elevated and wore my pretty, navy shoe for a couple of weeks. It sounds like what Azzalea just described.

My daughter had such a severe sprain that the Orthopedic Doctor casted it.

We weren't sure if we needed to see a doctor or not but we did. I don't think we were being overly cautious in seeking a medical evaluation. I just hope it's not your right foot so that you can still drive if need be.
jannie
17 years ago
My doctor told me when I hurt my knee when I fell, ice it as often as possible, buy some Arnica cream (an herbal cream for pain) and take Motrin. Hope you feel better soon!
Jodi_SoCal
17 years ago
A few years ago I was leaving a friend's house late one Saturday night after getting together with her to talk about her upcoming business open house.

As I walked out the door, I turned around to wave goodbye and at the same time came to a step down I didn't see. I was wearing thin soled shoes and my left foot basically bent over the step and I heard a crack. I smiled, told her I had just broken my foot and finished waving goodbye. She laughed, thought I was kidding (because I had just broken my ankle the year before) and went back into the house.

I hopped to my car and when I got home and told my DD, who was up doing homework, that I had broken my foot and would go to the hospital the next morning. DH and HS were out of town.

I went to hospital where they took an x-ray which they interpreted as not showing anything broken. I said but...I heard it crack. They said it was a strain and it would be ok to walk on if I could manage it.

So for the next week I walked on it, though it was a little painful. I got home one day and there was a message on my answering machine from a radiologist asking me to come back to the hospital for another x-ray because he read my previous x-ray and felt I had broken my foot. My medical system has a radiologist read every x-ray within 7 days of it being taken. When you go in for urgent care, it is a regular dr. not a radiologist who reads the x-rays.

So back I go and sure enough, a second x-ray revealed what is called a Jones fracture (see link). A Jones fracture is where the tendon on the outside middle of the foot tears away bone when stress is put on that area. I was told if my fracture were 1mm longer I would have required surgery to pin the tendon and bone down. The problem with this particular break is that any flexing of the foot pulls the bone apart again so a cast is required (and sometimes surgery) for it to heal properly and with no long-term problems. I was in a cast up to my knee for 6 weeks. When I showed up at my friend's open house with my new cast, she finally realized I was serious when I said I had broken my foot. :-)

You may just want to get an x-ray just to be on the safe side.

Jodi-

Here is a link that might be useful: Jones fracture
gneegirl
17 years ago
I had the same thing happen. I did have a fracture though - not sure if Jones Facture, but sounds like it from Jodi's post. It was cast incorrectly at the ER so the pain was unbeaerable. Back to the hospital where a sports med doc from Georgetown U. He taped it the same as he would have for the football team. It seemed better than the cast and only took about a month, vs., 6 weeks to heal. The one trigger in your symptoms - the bruise. A bruise with that kind of pain usually signifies a fracture vs, a sprain.
susan_on
17 years ago
My son broke a bone in his foot, in the area you're talking about. He tripped on a step (well, he was pushed, actually). We left it overnight, with him icing and elevating it, but it was still swollen the next day. We took him to ER and sure enough it was broken. You might want to have it looked at.
HomeMaker
17 years ago
Sounds exactly like my next door neighbour's accident. She broke a bone in her foot and is now on crutches with an air cast.

Have it checked out.
alisande
Original Author
17 years ago
Thanks, everyone, for talking to me about foot injuries. I was sure some of you had tripped and/or fallen. I can't be the only klutz! :-)

Well, I'm walking normally in the house as of now, which is a HUGE improvement over last night, and even a big improvement over this morning. I still can't rotate my foot without considerable pain, but I'm encouraged by how much better it feels. It's my left foot, so I can still drive just fine. I can do a fair amount of sitting today and tomorrow, and I'll see how it feels by Monday.

BTW, I was going to try to mow the lawn, but the mower wouldn't start. A little divine intervention, perhaps?

Thanks again!
hayjud_mn
17 years ago
Alisand,
I hope your foot heals quickly, but remember a sprain may take longer to heal then a break.

Jodi, That info about the Jones fracture was very interesting. I have had a pain in exactly that spot. I have had it for months already. I don't remember what happened and I can't recall a bruise. Some days it feels OK and some days I've discribed it as feeling like a bone splintering. Does anyone know if it is possible for it to drag on for months? Would it be rediculous to have it checked now?

I don't remember a time of swelling, but I have a lot of trouble with water retension so I wonder if I could have not noticed the fracture swelling. Sometimes it hurts when I'm not even stepping on it.
Terri_PacNW
17 years ago
Judy, I slipped and twisted my foot...2 years ago..it still occasionally hurts in that spot...So yes it can last a while..LOL....I didn't have it checked out.....
hayjud_mn
17 years ago
Terri,
Does it feel like the pain is in bone?

Sorry Susan, I don't mean to take your thread.
alisande
Original Author
17 years ago
That's quite all right, Judy. Talk on . . . I'm going to bed. :-)
Terri_PacNW
17 years ago
Yes Judy in the bone, the center of my foot on the outside...little sharp pain now and then if I strike it a certain way, or sometimes just roll it to the outside...

It's very possible that I broke it back then..hubby thought it was likely just sprained or maybe a hairline or stress fracture..But I refused to go to the ER on Easter Sunday (the day it happened)...And there was no way, I could hobble around on a cast anyway. I just was very careful and gingerly limped around for a few days. But it's basically fine now...just the very rare "remembrance"..LOL
angela59
17 years ago
I actually had a Jones fracture when I was in college. I tripped and the pain was exactly as you describe. It even got better and I could walk but after about 2 weeks, it still hurt in that spot and wasn't getting all the way better. I worked part time on an orthopedic floor of a hospital and had it checked and it was a Jones fracture.
Cherryfizz
17 years ago
I am sorry you hurt your foot.

I steppped in a mole hole once and it really hurt. I was in the US at the time so I never went to the ER. My cousin is a foot surgeon there and he checked it out for me and said I was lucky I didn't break it but I badly sprained it. I find even to this day it is weak at times.

Anne

Talk to me about foot injuries

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