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The response to the question below was authored by Marc Mitnick DPM

Burning and pain in my foot, pinky toe side, up in the small bones. The area is pretty concentrated.

I rolled my ankle and heard a loud pop. I had it x rayed and was told it was just a sprain. I did the rice method as instructed. Over a week later now and I'm having a painful burning sensation in the small bones on the pinky toe side of my right foot. The swelling is gone and there is a hard bump where it hurts. Could it be broken and the doctor just missed it, or is this common after a sprain? I was not given crutches or a boot or anything, so the sprain must have been mild.

RESPONSE
Hi,

In general terms the "pop" you felt usually represents the abnormal movement of a tendon although it certainly could mean other things such as a small break in the bone or possibly a torn ligament.
Just because you were not given crutches or anthing else does not mean your trauma wasn't serious; it is all about how much it hurt and your ability to walk on the injured ankle.
The burning in your pinky toe sounds like you did some damage to one of the nerves that passes on the outside of the ankle. When you rolled over on your ankle you apparently over stretched the nerve and now are getting the type of discomfort that you describe.
Since I cannot examine you I do not know what the lump is on the outside of your ankle but I would suspect it may be a dislodged tendon.
Because your ankle was in no way immobilized after the trauma you run the risk of having done further damage to the ankle and at the very least, now allowed the ankle to heal properly.
Sometimes small fractures do not show up initially on x-ray. In these cases where there is still an issue with an ankle lets say 10-14 days after trauma, a second x-ray is usually warranted as at this point the fracture, if there is one, should show up.
I believe you should have the ankle looked at by someone other than the original doctor, although it sounds like you went to an emergency room.
I know nothing about you or your medical history so I have no ability to offer specific advice other than to see a foot specialist in your area who can better assess the trauma to your ankle and determine what the hard lump on your foot actually is. You do not want to put yourself in a situation where the pain that you are experiencing becomes a chronic problem.

Marc Mitnick DPM
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Jodi

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Burning and pain in my foot, pinky toe side, up in the small bones. The area is pretty concentrated.

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