Likelihood of it being a broken bone?

[user16373]

Just got up to make dinner, opened the fridge door and one of the shelves in the door collapsed, it had three full jars of pasta sauce in it that fell directly on to the top of my foot. Luckily only got a slight cut from the glass but I now have a big hard lump on the top of my foot that's not there on the other one. I can touch it and it's not too painful which is making me think it won't be broken but it hurts to walk on it. Can't go to a&e tonight as dh is at work and I'm on my own with two dc. Obviously if it's still there in the morning I'll get it looked at but has anyone ever had similar? Apologies for the pic as I'm sure no one wants to see feet but I was trying to get a pic of where the lump is

That sounds incredibly painful. Do you have any frozen peas you can put on top of it? Are you able to rest it for the evening?

@healthybychristmas I have currently got some ice on it and am resting on the sofa. Hoping the lump will go down and it won't be something I need to get checked tomorrow!

A jar of mayonnaise falling out of the fridge broke my toe

I broke two bones in my foot in similar circumstances.

@catin8oots @Wibblywobblybobbly was it obvious that you had broken it? The pain is getting worse by the minute but I can still touch it without it hurting weirdly!

A jar of peanut butter falling out a cupboard broke my toe. It wasn't painful to start with but became increasingly so. I didn't go to a&e as it wasn't out of shape. I think you need to with a foot though

No, it just really hurt to walk on it. Didn't hurt to touch it really.

Thanks all, DH has just got home and said he thinks it probably just tendon damage (although I'm pretty sure he's saying that as he would rather not take me to get it checked at this time of night ). It's really hurting so I'll see how it goes overnight and then get it checked tomorrow if I think it needs it. I didn't think I could break it from a jar falling but obviously from your stories I'm guessing I could have done!

i am no doctor but that looks very painful and not like a tendon 😬
You poor thing! Do you have a bruise on the sole of your foot?

@PammieDooveOrangeJoof no bruise on the sole of my foot that I can see. The pain is pretty bad even after paracetamol but I'm hoping it might go down a bit by the morning

Does it hurt when you push on the underside of your foot? My dd dropped a rock on the top of her foot in the summer and that was one of the tests they did. If the bone is broken it hurts when pushed from underneath.

Elevate and ice , anything out of freezer.Use tea towel to protect from ice burn.Review again in the morning .

@Elisheva no it doesn't seem to hurt when I push the bottom of my foot so hopefully that's a good sign. The pain is now like a throbbing pain all over my foot and hurts to walk on but it's not impossible to walk, leaning towards thinking I might have bruised the bone fingers crossed!

Within 24hrs it was apparent. It was sore at first but got progressively worse.

Poor you OP. Can you get to A&E?

@catin8oots I can't get there tonight as it's almost an hours drive away but I'll see how it is tomorrow. Sorry to hear you went through similar!

I went over on my ankle one Christmas Eve and the top of my foot was instantly (as in, by the time I got my slipper off) swollen with a massive golf ball sized lump on the top.

Off to A&E where I was triaged and the nurse was convinced it was broken. Down in x-rays, the radiographer said the same thing. I was then called back in to the see the doctor and she looked at my foot and immediately left the room. When she came
back in she told me that she had gone to
make the senior doc check the x-rays again because she’d been told there was no break, but it looked so bad she was convinced a fracture had been missed.

As it turns out, the x-rays were correct - no bone damage but a snapped tendon/ligament. (don’t actually know the difference and it was about 10 years ago and I can’t remember the detail). Incredibly painful and took longer to heal than when I actually had broken by foot 20 years earlier.

Definitely get it checked out tomorrow. If it's broken, and I'd bet it is, then you need the correct care to make sure it heals properly. A break that heals wrong could affect you for life (retired nurse).

I went over on my ankle a few years ago, I cried but walked on it for two days. When my foot was black from bruising I went to A&E- I'd broken it in two places. It was painful but I could still weight bare.

@HOTTOGOisastupidsong oh no that sounds horrific! Hope it is all healed now. My daughter had the opposite happen, she fell recently and i begrudgingly went to get an X-ray as we were all convinced it wasn't broken as she could move it etc. The nurse when we got there was convinced it wasn't broken and so was the person doing the X-ray. When it came back she actually had two breaks so I felt terrible! It's weird how it all works!

Thanks for letting me just rant on here about the pain, I know I will need to get it checked tomorrow know what has actually happened but it's just helping me not worry by voicing it on here as I've got no chance of going to a&e tonight!

I had an ankle twist 5 years ago that I thought was fine but then couldn’t get to the loo without being supported 2 days later - was X-rayed and it wasn’t even a bad strain apparently.

I went over on wet decking in this July - walked on it and drove around for a week before it went green. It was a “spiral fracture of the distal fibula”. I was in a cast for 3 months because of the damage I’d done walking on it. The first one was the most pain I’ve been in since childbirth, the second one was just horrible.

I’ve done that too - twice, with the same
child - once with her wrist and once with her leg. In my defence, both times she genuinely seemed ok, was using her arm fairly normally and was walking (albeit with a limp) with the broken leg. Both times I took her the next morning and discovered fractures. I felt awful because I had it happen to me as a child too with my wrist - took a week before my mum believed it was broken! In that case though I had been saying how sore it was for 5 days before she finally listened to my swim coach who insisted I was taken to A&E after I couldn't train.

@TheBramley it so strange how different accidents cause different pain. I thought any broken bone would be unbearable pain but judging from this post that's not the case.
@HOTTOGOisastupidsong yes I felt awful too, I only ended up taking her as she said she felt like she couldn't get her arm comfortable an hour after it happened but I genuinely didn't think they would say it was broken! 6 weeks of a cast later and I won't make that mistake again!

Ouchie!! That’s the sort of thing that happens to me. I dislocated my finger on Monday taking it out of my pocket!! Ouch! Still v painful. Rest it, elevate it, ice - wrap in a tea towel though and plenty painkillers and fluids. Do you have a minor ailments? Ours is great for this, my son broke his scaphoid sp? And they x rayed and dealt with it so fast compared to a&e where you sit in for hours.
take care op and feel better soon 😊

A broken bone sometimes takes 24 hours to feel really painful. The most important thing is to continue applying ice and elevate to keep the swelling down. It's the inflammation that causes the pain.

Good luck OP.