Foot Sprain, On Crutches, Get Crunching Stinging Pain On The Outside Of Foot. What Could Be Wrong

Posted on Sun, 12 May 2013

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sun, 12 May 2013 Answered on

Tue, 4 Jun 2013 Last reviewed on

Question : I sprained my foot (on the side where my pinky toe is) by it rolling into a crack in the sidewalk back in the beginning of February. I kept walking on it until it went numb a few weeks later then that's when they put me on a boot and crutches. I've been off the crutches for a month and was not able to do any follow up care. Now I can barely walk. When I do I get this crunching stinging pain on the outside of my foot. Its hurting on the side even when I'm resting. The top part of my ankle has this dull pain that never goes away, I don't know what's wrong.

Answered by Dr. Achuo Ascensius (2 hours later)

Hello,
thanks for the query

You definitely sustained an injury to a ligament or a fracture. A x-ray would have been good to appreciate if there was any bone injury.

However, from the pictures you have shown, there appear to be no black colored area which could indicate an ongoing ischemia and or necrosis. The absence of such an area is a good sign.

On picture 3 i see what looks like a swelling on the metatarsal of your small toe. That implies that there is an underlying problem at that level and a fracture should definitely be ruled out by doing an x-ray.

Whether its a ligament or a bony injury, medical management could first be attempted failure of which will necessitate surgery. You should rest the leg continuously and avoid using it and take pain killers such as paracetamol, tramadol, ibuprofen etc, Apply pressure on the area by use of bandege and allow it as such.
Without using the leg and applied pressure, the pain should must have greatly reduced.

Hope this answers your query. If you have further query, i will be glad to help.
Best regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar

Follow up: Dr. Achuo Ascensius (6 minutes later)

Thanks for the reply. My job requires me to run errands on a daily basis so I'm always on my feet either walking or driving. Only when the pain gets intolerable I stop what I'm doing while running an errand and slow down a bit. How long do I need to stay off of it? I also had a x-ray last month and they said they didn't see a fracture. Would I need another x-ray now?

Thanks.

Answered by Dr. Achuo Ascensius (11 hours later)

Hello,
thanks once more for the query and sorry for taking so long to get back to you.

Its a pretty difficult issue giving that your job requires a lot of errands. Good progress can only be obtained within 2 to 4 weeks of absolute rest of the foot.

You do not need another x-ray since the first one showed that there was no bony lesion.

You need strong anti-inflammatory drugs such as diclofenac or ketoprofen and balms to apply on it.

Hope this answers your query. If you do not have further query, you could close the discussion and rate the answers.

Wishing you good health.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar