So on October 30th, I fell down some stairs and ended up landing on a twisted foot, which broke the fifth metatarsal bone (bone that goes down to the pinkie toe) and also sprained a ligament that goes down to that bone. I've been on crutches since that weekend (5 weeks now), and I've gotten to the point where I can do some partial weightbearing and even some walking without the crutches altogether, but I still have to go back to using the crutches often because of pain.
The hospital orthopedist I've been seeing has been very unhelpful. He basically called me a baby the last time I went in two weeks ago, just because I wasn't walking on it yet (it was MUCH too painful. I just started walking on it occasionally last week). He wouldn't address the issue of my shoulders getting strained from the crutches--he just told me i should be using my foot more. He made me try walking on it (which hurt) and told me I should try walking in a regular shoe instead of the walking cast that I've had since I first saw him. I can't put ANY pressure on my foot without the aircast, because it's much too painful and my foot's really weak and won't hold any weight (which I'm assuming the weakness is from disuse over the past 5 weeks and not being used to having weight put on it).
The bruising on my foot is just starting to go away; I still have a dark bruise down where the break is, but I've also had this horrible blue-green bruise for weeks now up near my pinkie toe and the one next to it. It hurts if I press on it, and the bruise still isn't going away. When I pointed it out to the orthopedist, he just said "hm," and ignored it. Someone said it might be the aircast, but if I try sleeping without the aircast, the bruise gets worse. It's darker when I wake up the next morning if I didn't sleep with the cast.
And the pain down where the broken bone is is getting worse. I've been walking on it sans crutches for about 2 hours a day or less all week, and using crutches either completely or for partial weightbearing the rest of the time. My foot was less painful, but it's been horrible the past few days, cramping nonstop, sharp pain where the bone is, etc. I'm not sure what this is from-i've never broken anything in my foot before, so I don't know if this is normal for beginning to walk on it or not.
When I went to the orthopedist two weeks ago, I was still in a LOT of pain, and he told me that I shouldn't be in that much pain. I basically had to get into an argument with him to convince him that I was, in fact, still in a lot of pain, even when I wasn't moving my foot at all. He told me I shouldn't be, so I should be taking more vicodin. I'm a student--I can't take the pain meds during the day because they affect my concentration.
So what IS normal for a broken foot? They told me it was a minor break, simple, even though it went all the way through, and that it just missed the area of low blood circulation so it shouldn't be taking long to heal, but the orthopedist is being no help and basically bullying me, so I'm not sure what I should be doing--should I keep walking on it every day if it's hurting this much? Is this normal? How long does a broken foot usually hurt? I keep hoping to get off of the crutches soon, but I can't even walk on it for more than an hour or two at a time without it becoming very unbearable. Any suggestions?
Thanks
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