Does anyone have experience with broken 2nd, 3rd & 4th metatarsels

This is an update on my status, 12 months on, it is now mid December 2017…   I started this discussion a year ago because I had been led to believe by doctors in my fracture clinic that I should have been starting to get mobile again, but I simply could not get any weight into my foot.  Depression was kicking in…   I’d sustained bad injuries, multi-fractures in metatarsals 2,3 and 4.   They were (very unusually) still aligned, so surgery was ruled out.

By Christmas last year (2016, I fell in the September), I’d made zero progress and went to see my GP who sent me to A&E as he thought I might have an internal infection, and was sent to A&E again.   I saw the same doctor as before (the same guy who had been telling me to get down to physio and sort myself out), who didn’t seem to have any idea what was going on with my foot besides the obvious fractures.   

There just happened to be a specialist foot consultant on duty at the time and he was brought in to check my x-rays.  He found that a fractured 5th metatarsal and a chip to the cuboid bone had been missed during earlier consultations.  He told me I was nowhere near ready for physio and to spend another 4 weeks non weight bearing, which took me to the end of January.  At the end of this I saw the original doctor who told me to begin weight bearing.

Having lost all faith in the medics who were charged with my recovery I tried to weight bear independently of any extra help.  

Roll forward to June this year and I was nowhere near walking, spending most of my time in a wheelchair or hobbling very badly with a walker.  By now I was very reclusive and had sunk into a fairly depressed state.   I then went privately and had more x-rays, a CAT scan and an MRI. 

An operation was again ruled out and a physio with a couple of decades experience in my type of injuries recommended, again this was done privately as I wanted the continuity of the same physio which I may not have got on the UK NHS system.  The progress I made from there was fairly rapid, I was shown how to use crutches and started going back to the gym …that was in mid July.   Now, in December I am walking almost without a limp.  Going down stairs can be slow going but I’m getting there.    I can’t run yet, but I’m hoping in the next few months that I’ll get there too.

Based on my experience, I would say to anyone in a similar position that the older you are the longer you will take to heal, I am in my fifties.   Don’t just accept the word of one or even two doctors if you are in extreme pain as I was, there is a culture in the UK where many medics think they are God and behave as such …I should have got a second opinion early on, don’t be afraid to get one, you are the one going through the ordeal, not them.

I’d like to thank the ladies who responded to me so generously a year ago so that I didn’t feel so alone, the original doctor made me feel bad, like I wasn’t trying hard enough and being a baby, as you will have read above, it was anything but that.  Onward and upward, one step at a time.!

PS  I hope the powers that be on this forum publish this, as for some unknown reason they have shelved any answers I have tried to post to help others.

For some reason I didn't see this thread when I searched earlier this year but I started my own as I had 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th fractures - luckily the x-rays did show the 5th.  However, I too was very stressed and it's taken a long time to come out of the trauma/depression of it all : https://patient.info/forums/discuss/make-myself-walk-properly-after-metatarsal-fractures-596485 ; I wouldn't have been able to help you but, having virtually recovered, I kind of gel with what you've been through.  It's a pity all of us can't heal so easily and quickly as many seem to experience - so many posts around the internet quoting 6, 8, 12 weeks and and back walking!  I didn't trust physiotherapy after one put me through so much pain with my shoulder...I continued by myself using online resources.  Anyway, glad to read that it's just the stairs being a stumbling block (whatever you do, don't! Lol) as it's the same with me and I think that's partly because it's earlier in the day that I'm using them (stiffness - ouch!).

Good luck and enjoy THIS Christmas!