To go to A+E about something that's neither an accident or emergency?

[FiveSugarsPlease]

My right foot hurts. Really hurts, and has been hurting for three weeks.

At first I thought i'd sprained it and it would go away itself, but for the past few days, I've been struggling to walk for longer than 10 mins at a time.

I have no idea how it happened. Can't remember tripping or anything like that. I can just recall it starting to be a bit painful when I walked.

I've been managing to get around the past few weeks by tilting my foot slightly so that pressure is going to the outside of my foot rather than the sole. Pressing my foot, the pain seems to be in the centre at the top, about an inch below my middle toes. My foot has swollen, and my lovely summery flats don't fit.

I called the GP and asked if I could see a doctor today just to get it checked over. She asked symptoms etc and said it sounds like a sprain. The next appointment is 2 weeks time (and she made out I was lucky to be offered this, as most appointments have a 4 week waiting time).

Ideally, i'd like an x-ray or thorough check of my foot as soon as possible, as it could possibly be a fracture.

If I were to go to A+E about this today, will I be turned away/told to get a GP appointment?

It's not an emergency, as I can still walk (albeit painfully), and the pain's only present when I put pressure on my foot. When i'm resting, my foot just has a heavy feeling (because of the swelling) and I can't flex my toes.

It's not an accident either as I can't think what caused it.

In fact, it's so much of a non-emergency, I think I may even leave it until Monday if I decide to go, as I've left it too late now and would be late for school pick up.

More of a WWYD, I suppose.

Took my sister to our walk in clinic with a very similar sounding sore foot that just started on its own, no injury - ironically she couldn't walk far enough to get to her own GP, a twenty min walk...it was something called plantar fasciitis. She was told to get a water bottle and fill wit hot water then roll her foot over it, plus rest...

not a corner shop nearer by? Aspirin is an an anti-inflammatory, too.

Couldn't be gout, could it?

Poor you Fivesugars, the only thing worse than not seeing someone is seeing someone and still getting no resolution. Are you alternating hot and cold compresses? It might help and shouldn't do any damage if not.

I think the whole concept of 'urgent' for a GP appointment is a hazy one personally. To my mind the OP had the perfect right to go to a Minor Injuries / A&E to rule out a fracture or break because the GP wouldn't have the resources to check something like that. What's the point of taking up an appointment to get a two minute referral into somewhere you could have gone directly to?

To add a personal anecdote, I had a UTI, tried over the counter remedies for two weeks and it wasn't shifting so called the GP surgery to make an appointment. I was told it wasn't urgent and I could have an appointment two weeks away. When I questioned this I was told that people who had real emergencies like chest pains or children who were unresponsive with fevers needed those appointments. Surely those people should be directed straight to A&E? Is a GP going to take an ECG and interpret it? Is a GP going to take bloods and wait for the lab to send results? Why are GP's reserving appointments for a symptoms they have no way to check out and will usually refer onto A&E.....

GP urgent needs to be much clearer imho.

When you make it to the chemist ask them if they have any walking sticks - they're only about a tenner.

Can't believe you didn't get any pain meds. I'd suggest taking regular paracetamol plus an anti inflammatory (if you're not asthmatic). As a PP said diclofenac is pretty good and you can now buy it over the counter. Hope you feel better soon

If someone works we tell them to go buy painkillers over the counter because why would you want to pay over £7 for something you can buy for 16p!!

I just thought Fivesugars don't waste your time getting a GP appointment to ask for a referral, see if it can be done over the phone.

If they have the paperwork from the hospital recommending a referral then really they should be able to do it off the back of that without you going in, they might even prepare you a prescription for painkillers and fax it to a chemist if they're particularly good, might be worth contacting your usual pharmacist and seeing if they work like that and give you their fax details in preparation.

It's a win win really, you save them an appointment, all they have to do is sort out the admin at their leisure and you cut down the wait time for your appointment or having to hobble up there unnecessarily.

My DF had something that sounds similar to your problem. It's called gout and is caused by uric acid build up in your blood. He had to watch carefully what he ate (limited meat in the first place) otherwise it would flare up. His pain was excruciating though, he often said that even a touch of air on his toe would cause tremendous pain. His foot would swell and become red and kind of shiny and he could not wear shoes. Not saying it is what is causing your problem, but worth of mentioning to GP, especially if you have another family member with similar problems. I don't mean to scare you, DF was not really following advice on lifestyle changes, he would rather have his steak and then go through the hell of suffering a bout of gout once in a while then feeling deprived and miserable all the time.

OP this sounds amazingly similar to what I've recently been suffering with! Mine also started out of the blue, ironically when I'd just been ill for a while so hadn't been doing any real exercise at all. Same symptoms of pain when walking on the top middle of my foot, below the middle toes, and swelling (only slight in my case). It was painful mostly on the "pushing off" part of a step, with toes bent. I also spent a while limping round everywhere thinking it was just a bruise, before going to the GP when it didn't clear up.

Unfortunately, the GP didn't seem sure what it was either, and when I eventually had it X-rayed that didn't show anything. But based on lots of googling, I strongly suspect it was a stress fracture on one of the metatarsals - apparently this oftendoesn't show up on X-rays, or only a long time afterwards if at all.

The good news was that mine eventually started to get better on its own, it is nearly completely OK again now (still get the odd twinge, but I can walk normally again). One thing that really helped was wearing the most rigid-soled shoes (or boots) I could find - I normally wear trainers everywhere, but switching to my boots made a big difference. So you could try that, and taping it up to reduce movement might also help.

If it doesn't start getting any better soon though, keep chasing up the GP etc till you get an answer, I was lucky that mine cleared up on its own, but if it is a fracture, not all of them do and yours sounds maybe a bit worse that mine, so might need some extra help.

PS I have also had plantar fasciitis (which some other people mentioned), but that was quite different and doesn't sound like what you said - that was pain on the bottom of my foot, round the heel, not on the top and at the front. So don't think it would be that.

Hope you get it sorted soon!

PS I also started doing the funny walking you mentioned to reduce the pain, walking on the outside of my foot etc. In fact it was partly that which made me realise I needed to do something about it in the end, as other parts of my foot and ankle were starting to get sore or tight from the funny walking and I didn't want to get another injury somewhere else too!

I also still think it was a stress fracture, they don't show up on X-ray until they heal when the calcium build up is visible. If it is then it will get better but just take it easy on the foot and don't wear heels.

FiveSugars as I said earlier I had very similar symptoms and the doctor gave me antibiotics yesterday. I couldn't walk or flex my toes. Well this morning the antibiotics have kicked in and the pain has completely gone. I can't believe it. Worth a try?

Couldn't your mum bring you some antiinflammatories? If in that much pain I'd have got a taxi to a pharmacy or shop for antiinflammatories if no-one to go for me. Most supermarkets sell ibuprofen or aspirin.
At the top of your foot stress fracture, sprain or infection most likely, planter fasciitis is sole of foot, gout usually big toe and arthritis usually toe joints or ankle not top of foot.
Do you have any athletes foot (white stuff between 2 smalles toes? That makes infection more likely as gives an entry point for bacteria. If it gets worse I'd contact an out of hours GP today. GPs see more foot infections than casualty departments. If it's easing with rest and antiinflammatories I'd wait until tomorrow

Hi OP
Just wanted to add that I've been diagnosed as having psoriatic arthritis since having DS2, and he's only just one, so they are def fobbing you off calling it "post-pregnancy" five years later!
My xrays are clear too btw, it only shows up over time, not relative to how bad it is.

At the moment, my middle toe and surrounding area on my right foot are swollen but not overly painful unless I'm walking far. However my wrists are in huge amounts of pain and my hands almost useless (I can just about type ) but hardly swollen at all.

Thanks again everyone. And thanks for the lovely offer, Euphemia.

My foot feels much less painful today, but still the same swollen size. I think yesterday's pain was down to the poking and prodding from Fri.

Really dreading tomorrow. I can see me either having to beg or fight with the GP receptionist for an appt.

Just tell her that you've been to A&E and they have said you need to see your GP urgently. Do not get into your symptoms with her. If she cannot/will not give you an appointment, demand to be put through to the Practice Manager (I'd be doing this anyway, to complain about the appointment system).

Hope you get sorted soon.

Yabu. You know its not life threatening or an accident.
Having said that you need it seeing to. Call your out of hours gp and get an appt there. They can xray it for you too!

PS if it IS similar to mine, I think driving is also not especially good for it (especially braking), I'm wondering whether that's why I can feel it a bit more again today. Not that that's very helpful when you need to get around and already can't walk easily!

Hi everybody.

Thank you all so much for your advice.

I had to practically beg and plead on the phone, but i managed to get a GP appt this morning. He was a lovely doctor (not my usual one), and agreed with the A+E doctors that i should see a rhuematologist (sp). The referral will take a few weeks to come through.

In the meantime, hes given me some anti-inflammatory pain killers.

He said that he also doesn't think it's a stress fracture because of the length of time i've been in pain. He said if it was, then such a fracture would have shown up in an xray after a week at the most, certainly after 3 - going on 4 - weeks anyway.

He also said it's an odd place for a sprain.

He asked a lot about psoriasis, and i told him i have had terrible dandruff for years and lots of flaky/scaly skin across my fingers every since my foot started to swell.

So i think he's considering the possibility of psoriatic arthritis, as someone mentioned above.

The swelling has gone right down this morning, and i'm walking much better so back to work tomorrow - yey! I just hope it doesn't flare up again.

Oh, that is good news, FiveSugars. Hope you'll be able to get to the bottom of this soon.

I bet it felt great to be heard at last? He sounds a great GP

Oooh never heard of that.

Glad you are feeling better