Dr Foot Discussion

[baller]

Hi.
I have a terrible pain in what I guess is the ball of the foot, but its right behind the little toe. I play basketball every week, and having played sunday night, came home fine. All day Monday was fine, until Monday night. I was getting up from laying on the bed and walked downstairs. A little after walking back upstairs, I suddenly felt a pain in that area of my right foot. Next day I could hardly put any weight on it, although I did manage to walk/limp on it after a while - very painfull though. A couple of days later and the pain has got a little worse.

The pain seems to be coming from right behind the little toe, in the ball of the foot to the outside. There is no bruising, no swelling, no redness. I've checked to see if theres a splinter, but nothing. i can bend my toe fine, so i havent broken anything. There is no change to the appearance at all. The pain also seems to travel into, and make the little toe hurt too. Putting weight on that side of the foot is very painful indeed. At first I've just put it down to over use at basketball, but I was fine after I'd got home, and i'd not injured it whilst playing. I've not had this problem before.

It's a difficult one to explain exactly, as I don't really know how it's happened. I did wonder if i just bruised something in there that night on the stairs or something, or trapped a nerve maybe? It's annoying, as there seems to be no reason for it, but it hurts like crazy, in a stabbing/throbbing type way.

I do get a few injuries from playing basketball, but i didn't notice this until a day later, and certainly didnt feel anything give whilst playing.

Sorry to be so long winded, but finding it hard to describe.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

[Dr Foot]

You need to rule out a stress fracture of the metatarsal, so visit the hospital for some x-rays ASAP. Also visit a podiatrist/ chiropodist to have a removable semi compressed plantar cover pad made for the foot. This will take the pressure off the area and provide temporary relief while the cause is determined. In may be a trapped nerve but you need x-rays to rule out bony damage.