metatarsal stress fracture

Mine's a 5th metatarsal fracture (did my ankle at the same time) broken when I fell, rather than a stress fracture, but I'm now 5 months since I did it and the last x-ray shows it hadn't even joined yet. I do have a screw in it so I'm now walking on it, but I know the feeling of thinking your getting better only to find you've been standing still. So fed up with it all, but at least I'm no longer in a cast or boot.

I am in my 4th month of having 4 metatarsal fractures. Went to hospital last week all healing well. Had 6 weeks plaster, 2 weeks boot then show with crutches for another week now just trainers. Am swimming 4 days pw, doing gentle yoga and working out at gym but taking it easy I can walk but slowly as my ankle is really tight. Am not getting discomfort in foot but had issues until I started doing focused exercise and it has been much better. When I am in the pool I swim for 20 min then do a lot of water based exercises to prove my flexibility and that helps

specialist said I would be walking ok within 6 months but could take up to a year to be 100%.

I am following exercise regime as want to get mobile.

I am 64.

Hi Virginia,

Not that I would wish the intense burning pain and stinging on anybody - but it's so good to at last find somebody who has the exact same symptoms as ones I have been putting up with for 3.5 years! Since my foot problems began I have been looking up online and managed to self diagnose a Morton's Neuroma (although my doctor didn't believe me and it took another 6 months for a hospital diagnosis!) as my symptoms pointed to that alone. Researching the burning pain (only ever across the top of the foot from behind the smaller toes - where the neuroma is - to the ankle bone) which is then followed by highly sensitised skin where the merest brush of fabric causes a feeling like the after effects of a severe nettle sting, has led me to the conclusion that I have developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome following a stress fracture to the 4th metatarsal.

I apologise for the lengthy reply but feel that it could be relevant to my current situation...

The saga of my faulty right foot started around May 2012 when we had a holiday for the first time in 7 years and did a lot of rough walking in Cornwall. Both feet were suffering, but my right developed Plantar Fasciitis. On my first visit to a doctor a locum went straight in with the cortisone injection in the heel! After 3 days of agony the pain went and all was well until October that year. I put my weight onto the ball of my right foot as I reached for something and heard / felt a snap. There followed several weeks of a sensation like walking on bubblewrap, before the pain finally manifested itself. I put up with this pain until late November when I went back to the doctor. I had read that the injection can cause tears in the plantar fascia but this was never mentioned. Instead, I ended up on blood pressure pills and a very high dose of diuretics to get the swelling down in both feet and ankles as several x-rays showed no breaks!

By March / April I was in so much pain and distress that I signed up to an NHS podiatry clinic but had to wait 8 weeks to see someone. What a breath of fresh air! I nearly cried when the podatrist spent ages checking both feet and listening to my history! Over the months a second podiatrist sorted me out with special orthotics and my foot finally began to show slight signs of improvement. By the end of August 2013 the swelling was finally down but the pain was still getting me down. My podiatrist wrote to my doctor requesting hospital investigation and an MRI scan. I was called in to the surgery mid September, but not told why, and as I had just seen the doctor about antidepressants I thought they were the reason. My doctor seemed puzzled to see me too!

Out of the blue, in December, I got an appointment to have an ultrasound scan on my foot at a city hospital. I saw my doctor in January 2014 for the results - which is when I discovered that a second doctor had started at our surgery and it was HE who had requested I go in in September! So much wasted time because of a breakdown in communication somewhere! That scan showed a Morton's Neuroma. The doctor gave me paperwork to contact one of the Trust hospitals to see a specialist, meanwhile prescribing Amytriptilene and saying I may never get rid of the pain (a fact with CRPS, though it was not mentioned by name). I stupidly mislaid the paperwork so more months passed before I finally got to see a hospital consultant who studied the ultrasound scans and put me onto the neuroma specialist. September 2014 I had an injection into the neuroma. October the consultant got my feedback that there had been no change after the injection. My podiatrist had urged me to demand an MRI scan so I mentioned this to him and he agreed. Yay!! I was on cloud nine - until the actual MRI! A bit scarey as my CD jammed after track 2 and the scan went on for almost 30 minutes! Very noisy!

As the scan was mid December I didn't get the results for another six weeks. A different consultant viewed the images and told me there were tears in the plantar fascia, I still had the neuroma, and - this came as a huge shock - I had a stress fracture in the 4th metatarsal! I was so sure nothing new would show up! I had driven myself to the hospital in a borrowed car so the option of any sort of cast was out of the question at that point. I could walk relatively normally most of the time and had been doing so for many months. I was just told to rest the foot as much as possible for the next 4 to 6 weeks to let it heal. It had already been 6 weeks since the scan that showed the fracture!! He seemed surprised when I told him issues had been going on for 3 years already - had he read my history?

May 2015 I went for the follow-up appointment and was told it should have healed by then. I mentioned the pain and he virtually shrugged his shoulders and said there was little they could do if I didn't want a second injection in the neuroma, so he discharged me, saying that some people found physiotherapy helpful!

I saw my podiatrist the following week and she was disgusted at my dismissal. She tested my feet and my walking on bare feet and in walking boots. She spent 45 minutes with me and concluded that my right leg is fractionally shorter than my left and that the neuroma is not really the issue. We both agreed that though the fracture SHOULD have healed long ago, how can anyone be certain without another MRI? When did it happen? Was it the crack I heard in 2012 and had it repeatedly fractured? The awful burning pains are tied up with the constant swollen state of my foot along the line of the 4th metatarsal. The burning and stinging are commensurate with a diagnosis of CRPS (something she hadn't really come across so had researched it and come to the same conclusions as myself). She put an orthotic insole in my right walking shoe, only, and tested my gait for improvement, then recommended I try a good pair of trainers for a few months. I should be seeing her again soon and she had said that if I was still suffering she would write to my doctor demanding more hospital investigations.

I have just spent 3 days almost constantly on my feet in a rough field in various types of footwear. Sitting down at the end of each day brought the worst pain, when it felt exactly as if my foot had been crushed by one of the steamrollers. Yesterday, back at home and able to rest it, I didn't know what to do with my foot as it was so painful and uncomfortable.

My knee joints, and sometimes my hips, have also been suffering because I haven't been able to walk properly for most of the last 4 years. I am now approaching 51 and possibly in perimenopause to boot. I don't want to face the future as a cripple but no longer know what to do for the best!

Hi Virginia!

So sorry you have had to go through years of pain!

I have a Mortons Neuroma and have noticed it aboyt 18 months ago. For the last 7 months I have been messed about by medical professionals thinking they know best. I am hoping my next appouintment this week will give me better answers.

hop you find relief soon x