Doctor in the Room? I think my foot is broken

Hi.

I fell, standing up, full force sideways on my foot 2 1/2 weeks ago. It is till bruised all over and you can tell there was alot of internal blood.

I can walk on it now, but it just does not seem to be getting better. Today I started experiencing shooting sharp pains through it (from left to right). The whole foot is damaged, so it hard to describe all the bruises without going into a page full.

I do not have medical insurance and do not want to spend money on x-rays. But I am getting worried now - these shooting sharp pains are scaring me. If someone knows about this please share.

Karrie

I am no Dr but I know this. GET OFF THAT FOOT.
A Friend of mine did that this spring and she still cant walk properly on it.Why? beacuse in spite of Dr orders not to walk on the foot she still did it. She had a small crack in one bone but the worst was that she pulled/elongated all the ligaments in the foot/wrist. most often if you can wiggle all your toes nothing is broken, but you can have a crack in some or one of the bones. BUT all the ligaments WILL without a doubt be streched out and that takes long time to heal up.
Get a good supportbandage and STAY off that foot. also try to loan some cruches. If you dont stay off the foot and this I KNOW your ligament will not retract and you will have trouble with it forever AND you will have it easier to do this time and time again and land you with a operation that makes the wrist unbendeble forever. I dont know what such operations is called in English but they fuse the wrist so it never can bend.
Praying for a quick healing and stay off the foot.
Janett

Maybe there is a free medical clinic in your area?

Karrie, One question...Did you feel nausiated when this happened? That is a pretty good sign that it's a fracture of some kind (from a stress fracture to a small bone fracture). One things for sure, you have strained tendons & broken blood vessels.

I agree with Janet! Get off of the foot!...You need to ice it & elevate it. You may also need to take I-buprofen as well ~ this helps with the swelling & pain. You need to take care of yourself, because no one else can do it for you.

I'm no a doctor, but have gone thru all of this with my kids.

It is getting better - slowly but surely. I have crutches, but can't use them all the time. I think I'm ok, now, for walking, but I have to be careful. It doesn't take much to send me off balance because it is not sure-footed and believe me, my cat has been yelled at for trying to trip me (they just love doing that).

I get occassional sharp pains in it, that last about a second. Very sharp, kind of jolt me. Happen out of the blue, and usually when I'm not on my feet. I can tell there is ligament damage - the top, just under the toes is what seems to be taking the longest to heal and where the pain is, when it happens. I'm pretty sure there is/was something broken in there, but don't want to see a doctor at this point. I'm afraid they'd re-break it or something, or do something to me to make it worse than it is now.

A friend of mine had foot surgery for something similar and during the surgery they severed a nerve. The damage they did is irreversible, and he is now on morphine and disability for the rest of his life. He is only about 35 years old. THAT scares me to even think of venturing there! Sometimes we just have to accept our losses.

This message was edited Sep 1, 2006 1:14 AM

Hi Karrie - If cats love to trip you up, one of my dogs must be a cat. He is forever under my feet. At dinner time when I am cooking dinner, I have three of them under my feet. ha-ha.

I twisted an ankle several years back, and thought that it would never heal. It was over six months before it felt even half healed.

Ticker has a good idea about a free clinic in your area. Even if you don't use it for this, you might want to find out if you are eligible for things that might happen in the future.

Good luck and good healing.

Ruby

Been there, done that 3 x lately (also no insurance), late September last year broke left foot and badly sprained my right ankle - elevated and iced - for the I left foot my sister lended me a walking boot (my nieces old one) and I put a specially made for foot tensor bandage on right. 1-2 weeks later finally went to Emergency - they x-rayed and confirmed it was broken $500... keep doing what you are doing.....In February stepped out front door broke left ankle and right foot hoppled over to ER.....xrays, 1 walking boot and 1 temporary splint $2,000.

Here is the problem if you have truly broken the bone you need to know if it is still properly aligned this means an Xray, if its not aligned you will not heal correctly and you will need an operation. If its still aligned and it is broken you will need a boot......if I had been smart I would have gone to my doctor and had him line up the Xray. You can buy walking boots on E-Bay (just come in small, medium and large). I bought one the first time round because my nieces well used boot was showing some definite wear the shipping cost more then the boot.

So....xray through your doctor (no ER fees) and buy boot on Ebay keep taking I-buprofen, stay off it and if you are at a certain income bracket, there may be some financial assistance available to you. Take calcium with Mg & Zinc pills and find exercises on line to stregthen the foot so you do not have this happen 2x.

Signed
I have 2 paid 4 feet.

This message was edited Sep 1, 2006 4:22 PM

cute signature, lol!

Thank you all! I am going to get through this. I was hoping it was just a bad sprain but it's not. And it's alot of money out of pocket to find out that I'm doing what I should be doing anyways, ya know? This is the dilemna. (sp?)

The sharp shooting pains are what concern me now. Nerve damage perhaps? How much longer?

Another weird thing I noticed today - my good foot is bigger than the bad foot. So swelling is down, but it almost looks like my bad foot has concaved just under my toes. That is where it was bruised the longest. I should have taken pictures of it - so that if I do end up seeing the doc they'd have had something to look at for how it was when it first happened. Hindsight is not always 20/20.

You really do need to see a doctor. This has been going on to long. Poor baby.

Diann

Karrie, The probable cause for your other foot being swollen is that the "good" foot is taking all of the abuse, due to catering to the "bad" one. The concave spot on your "bad" foot is probably tissue damage from the bruise.

I hope that this answers some questions for you. I hope that I've helped. :-)