my 200 lb son landed on my foot
by Sharon
(MA)
I was playing basketball and tried to guard my 6ft 1 son. He had jumped and when coming down landed with his full body weight on the top of my left foot. I have tremendous pain in across the bottom of my foot where the ball is, also have pain on the lateral side of the foot surrounding my ankle. I cant stand on tiptoe, cannot stand on that one foot, it also hurts going up to the side of my knee, not the knee itself but the knobby bone that you can feel on the outside of the knee. I went to the er, they said nothing is broken. Did not give me splint or anything. It is killing me. I have an appointment with a podiatrist but it is weeks away. What can this be, any suggestions on what I am dealing with are appreciated.
RESPONSEHi Sharon,
The simple and obvious answer is that you sustained trauma to your left foot, so the possibility of "whats wrong" is potentially endless.
The fact that initial x-rays were negative for fracture does not eliminate the possibility that there may still be a fracture. Sometimes, if they are small enough, they are missed by the person reading them, secondly, in many instances small fractures may not show up initially on x-ray and only ten days or so later will there be signs of a possible fracture.
The bigger issue from where I am sitting is that you appear to be in a lot of pain and you do not
have an appointment with a doctor for a few weeks. That is not acceptable.
Injuries resulting from trauma are best treated as soon as possible thus giving you the best chance of complete recovery.
Some of your options include calling the office where you have an appointment and telling them you sustained trauma and you are in a lot of pain and need to be seen sooner. Most well run offices are able to accommodate patients in pain.
If that option does not work, either ask around or call your local hospital and get the name(s) of other doctors in your area. Even if you have to travel somewhat, that is better than waiting weeks for an appointment.
With the type of trauma you encountered there can be a number of things that are causing you pain. As previously stated this would include possible fracture as well as soft tissue damage either to he muscles in the foot, tendons or even ligaments. It is impossible for me to know exactly what is causing your particular pain.
In the interim, until you can see a doctor, my best advice to you would be to not bear weight on the affected foot. Crutches would by your best option.
By not walking on the foot, you reduce the added trauma to the injured area that walking creates every time you take a step. Plus you will probably have less pain as well.
But as stated previously, getting to the doctor as soon as possible is what you need to do.
Marc Mitnick DPM
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