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Months to heal and mysterious bruising (1 of 2)

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that I’d have to see a specialist, so she buddy-taped it and set me home in a hospital shoe. They gave me crutches, but only because I asked for them I couldn’t put much weight on my left, unbroken foot at the time because the left was still healing from a previous ankle sprain. I never figured out how to use the crutches, though, so I got by by walking as little as possible and using a walking stick. I don’t have a car or a fetch-things-spouse, though, so I was never able to stay off it quite as much as I would have liked.
The specialist couldn’t see me until 4 days later, by which time the toe had pretty much moved back to where it should be, though not completely. The new doctor seemed to know what he was doing, and the way he described it, I had two options: be lame for several weeks, or pay a lot of money for surgery to pin it and still be lame for several weeks. Didn’t seem like a hard decision. His instructions were the same as the ER’s: buddy taping, rest, and ice. I tried to follow these, but buddy taping the fourth and fifth toes together just didn’t work. Instead of pulling the fifth toe against the fourth, it was pulling the fourth toe out of place too! After about 3 weeks, I stopped doing that and started taping both toes to my whole foot, with about two inches of tape around the base of the toes, so that they were held where they were supposed to be. Once I started doing that, my mobility improved almost overnight, though it was still a long way from healed.
I saw the specialist about 3 more times over the winter he took more x-rays and said it seemed to be healing fine, although more slowly than he expected. He didn’t comment on the change in taping, so I assumed it was fine. However, there were another problem. The doctors all swore that the little toe was the only one broken, but I kept telling them it wasn’t the little one that was hurting — it was the three middle toes and the associated metatarsal area. I also had a lot of bruising on the top of my foot in that area. It eventually faded, but never completely went away. (continued in another post since I’m too verbose)


3 comments

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    9 10

    The swelling didn’t go down enough to fit in regular shoes until February or so, and I was still limping well into spring. It was the beginning of summer before I felt comfortable bending my toes (any of them), and the little toe still seems noticeably bigger than it was, though I can’t say whether that’s swelling or mis-bentness. But the toes did seem to be healing — just very slowly. However, the mystery bruising was still there; as of last week, it still looked like I had some kind of brownish mottling below the skin on the top of my foot, a patch about an inch long by about three inches wide below the three middle toes. Then, last Saturday, I bashed it again. Just a little bash, not the sort of thing that you’d normally think twice about. But all of a sudden, I can barely walk again and barely fit in my shoes again. The base of my little toe is badly bruised again, and the swelling and bruising is back on the top of my foot. It also seems — I can’t find anything when I examine it, but when I try to walk, it seems like there’s a swelling or hardness between my heel and the arch — or what would be the arch if I weren’t almost flat-footed normally.Any suggestions would be really, truly appreciated. The specialist stopped taking my insurance, and finding a new doctor without a car is pretty tough. But I’m so tired of limping. I’d be really grateful for any advice.

      Vivian Abrams DPM

      9 10

      First, I recommend you call your insurance company and find out who is near you that takes your insurance. You might also ask what the out of network benefits are and then reconsider seeing the specialist you saw previously. I would suggets a MRI to determine if there is soft tissue damage as well. If you have or know someone who has a cast boot, you might try wearing it.

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    9 10

    Sorry for spamming the board — here’s the start of that story that got cut off somehow:Several months ago (the day after Thanksgiving, in fact), I badly bashed my right foot. Was dancing and rammed it full speed into a metal furniture leg, in between my fifth and fourth toes. The little toe was so obviously broken that there was about a 45-degree angle between where it was and where it should have been. I went to the emergency room and they took x-rays, and the verdict was that the toe was displaced and that was all. The doctor fussed with it a bit, but said she couldn’t set it properly,that I’d have to see a specialist, so she buddy-taped it and set me home in a hospital shoe.

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