Constant pain and burning sensation in foot

by Wendy
(Columbus, Ohio)

Approximately two weeks ago I jumped up to grab my dog from escaping out the front door when someone left it open. I kicked the inside part (thin door jam area) of the door. My three middle toes seem to have bent a little from the impact. I know it dropped me to the ground immediately. I had difficulty walking on it and then bruising started and has slowly progressed across the toe line. I still have swelling and the more I am on my feet and wear shoes the swelling gets worse. The pain is actually worse now than it was when I first hit it. It is a constant pain with a burning sensation that is very uncomfortable. It hurts to move it and it is in the three middle toes as well as in the center-top portion of my foot. I have not gone to have it examined as I figured they would tell me it is just a bad bump. But I have never had pain last this long or get worse over time.

RESPONSE

Hi Wendy,

Well, in light of the fact that you sustained trauma to your foot, in particular your toes, there is always the possibility that you broke a bone in one or more of your toes. The fact that two weeks have passed and you are still having pain would lead me to believe this is a real possibility. Most people who stub their toe(s) usually start to feel relief within a couple of days. Factors that might delay an improvement include the types of shoes you wear (conservative vs. high heels) and the amount of walking that you do during the course of the day. This would also be exacerbated if you go to the gym on a regular basis.
You states that when your foot hit the door jamb, the three middle toes bent backwards. In doing so you may have done damage to the tendons that flex the toes (bend them downward), or even to the capsular ligament which is a band of tissue that wraps around the joint that makes up the attachment of the toe bones into the metatarsal bones.
But here again, these types of soft tissue injuries generally should be feeling better, maybe not cured, after a two week period and of course that is not your case.
I could sit here and try and guess as to whether you fractured one or more toes of just sustained a severe soft tissue injury, but that's just what it would be, a guess.
My advice to you would be to certainly have an x-ray to make sure you did not fracture a toe. If there is a fracture and the fact that your pain is getting worse is not a good sign; it will require treatment. If there is a fracture and it is not appropriately treated, you could end up with chronic pain in your foot.
If there is no break in any of the toes, but you still have so much pain, there is treatment that can be given to you to reduce the pain and expedite the healing.
In order to receive this type of treatment, I would suggest you see a foot specialist in your area instead of a family doctor. A foot specialist is better trained and understands the injury mechanism in the foot, to offer you treatment to allow the toes to heal. In this day and age, there is no reason to walk around in pain especially in a situation such as yours.

Marc Mitnick DPM
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