3 Tips When Your Foot is Broken Inside Your Boot

broken-foot-in-boot

A broken foot involves an injury to the bone. You could break your foot in a car accident or if you just trip and fall. The damage caused by a broken foot can vary, and fractures can be anything from small cracks in the bone to breaks that go through the skin.

Broken bones, or fractures, in the foot are very common. About 1 in 10 broken bones happen in the foot, and here is why:

  • The human foot has 26 bones
  • The foot has three parts – the hindfoot, the midfoot, and the forefoot
    • There are 2 bones in the hindfoot. These are the talus, which is where the foot attaches to the leg, and the calcaneus, which forms the heel
    • Five smaller bones called the navicular, cuboid, and 3 cuneiforms make up the midfoot
    • The long part of the foot is called the forefoot and contains 19 bones. There is a metatarsal for each of the 5 toes, the big toe is made up of 2 phalanges, and the other toes each have 3 phalanges
    • In addition, the foot sometimes has some small pebble-like bones called sesamoid bones. These bones do not perform any necessary function and are often called accessory bones

What Causes a Broken Foot?

Most of the time, bones break when they are crushed, bent, twisted, or stretched.

  • When you kick something hard by accident, you often break your toe
  • When people fall from a high place and land on their feet, they often break their heels
  • When you twist or sprain your ankle, you can sometimes break other bones in your foot
  • Accidents usually cause bones to break quickly
  • Over time, repeated stress on the bones can sometimes cause small cracks to form in the bones, which are called stress fractures

What are the Symptoms of a Broken Foot?

If you have a broken foot, you may experience some of the following symptoms:

  • Immediate, throbbing pain
  • Pain that increases with activity and decreases with rest
  • Swelling
  • Bruising
  • Tenderness
  • Deformity
  • Difficulty in walking or bearing weight

Tips When Your Foot is Broken Inside Your Shoe

Here’s what you should do to check an injured foot for a broken bone:

  • Take the shoes and socks off both feet and put them next to each other to see how much the injured foot has swelled up
  • Look for cuts or wounds that are big. Large wounds or cuts that expose a broken bone are a more serious injury

Go to the nearest emergency room right away if any of these things happen with a suspected broken foot:

  • The foot is blue, cold, or has no feeling
  • The shape of the foot is wrong or it is pointing in the wrong direction
  • A large cut or wound is close to what might be a broken bone
  • You are in a lot of pain
  • For any other reason, you think you need help right away

Are you suffering from an injury to your foot? Do you need treatment help with your injury? Check out our locations here, or give us a call at (865)690-4861.

 

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