5th Metatarsal Fracture day 4

Hi! I also have a fifth metatarsal fracture. I will be four weeks out from injury tomorrow. How your fracture is managed (cast, boot, surgery...) depends on the type of fracture you have. I have a zone 1 or avulsion fracture and did not require surgery. Crutches are awful, I hear you on that one. I got some padded weight lifting gloves because my hands were so painful and bruised from them. That helped a little. I know what you mean about not being able to do anything! I'm so sorry you are dealing with this. I was able to get off my crutches about a week ago but still have a boot and getting around is slow. Try to stay off it and elevate as much as you can. The swelling gets worse the first couple days before it starts to improve at all. At least that's what I experienced. Are you allowed to weight bear at all? Average bone healing time is 6-8 weeks and from what I've heard there's really no speeding that up. 😜 Hang in there. The first week was the worst for me.

Hello Susan!

I am so sorry to hear that you are suffering from this 5th metatarsal fracture as well! I fractured my left foot, 5th metatarsal 7 weeks ago. There are different types of fractures to this bone, and therefore they may be treated differently, depending on the type of fracture that you have.

My fracture was a non-displaced, but decent sized fracture at the base of the 5th metatarsal. I fractured it on a Wednesday afternoon and went to urgent care that evening where I had x-rays and the confirmed it was fractured. They sent me home with a boot and told me no weight bearing, but they didn't give me any crutches!! I ended up getting crutches from my mother-in-law that evening.

I didn't have a follow up appointment with an orthopedist until the following Friday. Nine days later. This seemed like a very long wait after the fracture, but they told me that this is standard as it allows the swelling to decrease before doing follow up x-rays and determining a treatment plan. They did another x-ray at that time. They confirmed that the fracture was still non-displaced. I was advised to remain non-weight bearing in my removeable boot until my follow up appointment a week later.

The following week (2 weeks post fracture), the third x-ray showed that it hadn't moved so I was told to remain non-weight bearing for an additional two weeks. At this point the bruising was starting to fade. For me, the first two weeks were the worst. I felt like I had more pain from the foot than from the fracture. I had the boot on day and night, even to sleep, and it hurt my heel, toes, and everywhere on my foot. It was nice to be able to remove it a few times during the day to ice it. The crutches were terrible also. They hurt my arms and my chest. My knee hurt from supporting the weight of the boot. My other leg hurt from carrying the weight of my entire body. It was painful and exhausting!! The best medicine that I found was rest, ice and elevation. I kept my foot elevated above my heart almost all the time. I was lucky to be able to work from home during this, so I could sit in a recliner on my laptop with my foot elevated.

At my next appointment (4 weeks post fracture), the x-Ray showed new bone growth! I was given the green light to gradually start weight bearing with my boot and crutches. The goal was to work my way to 100% weight bearing over a two week time period. Over the next two weeks as I transitioned to weight bearing my foot was very, very red and swollen.

At my next appointment (6 weeks post fracture), I hadn't quite gotten to 100% weight bearing. I struggled with 75% weight bearing due to sharp pains in my heel and ankle after being non-weight bearing for several weeks. My x-Ray at this appointment showed continued bone growth and I was encouraged to get into my shoes as soon as possible.

I've worked and worked at getting into shoes this week and finally yesterday, at 7 weeks post fracture, I finally got back into my other shoe. It is still slow going and somewhat sore. I still have some swelling when I am on my foot for a while. My next follow up appointment will be at week 9 post fracture. We'll see if I am mostly healed at that point!

Please keep us posted as you progress through this. This can be a very frustrating injury! If you have questions, ask. I'm sending healing thoughts your way and hoping that you can get some rest!

Anna

Update Day 8 

Well, it is like carrying a concrete slipper around.

Here is me thinking I had a pretty good core and then a friend pointed out that as I have such a heavy cast this is pulling me over.

Do not get me started on going to the loo in the middle of the night !!!!!!!!!!

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