Pain in left foot

At the top front of my foot there is pain that feels like an intense charley horse. The pain goes from there to the outer-side (left) of the ankle (bone). Slightly swollen; warm to touch; and slight (red) discoloration. Two days previous I was housecleaning and squatting to scrub the floor and baseboards. I don't recall positioning my feet in any particular way (maybe a couple times on my toes). Painful to walk -> applying weight; and am "only" 100lbs., 5' 1" tall, 55 yrs old

Thank you for your time,
Betty

RESPONSE

Hi Betty,

Usually, when people are squatting to do things like cleaning or gardening, if they hurt themselves it is usually damage to the bottom of the foot.
Apparently although you were squatting down to clean you have done something to the top of your foot. I will make the assumption, like you have, that it was the cleaning that precipitated the foot pain and that between the time you were cleaning and the time the foot started to hurt, nothing else happened to your foot that would have caused pain.
The first thing that comes to mind would be a tendonitis of one of the tendons that runs over the top of your foot, usually a tendon that allows you to bend your toes upward. The only problem with this possibility is that the pain would probably not extend to the outside of the ankle but rather that front part of the ankle, because that is the course that the tendons travel. Pain on the outside of the ankle when it is due to a tendon is from the peroneal muscles, but, they end at the level of the outside of the midfoot (fifth metatarsal base).
So, even though the pain is traveling it certainly sounds like a tendon issue, but because of the course the pain is traveling, I am not so sure.
Next option would be the possibility of a stress fracture. Bones can "crack" without any real history of trauma. Just putting a lot of pressure on a bone can cause it to break. A stress fracture certainly could make the foot red hot and swollen.
Tendonitis and a stress fracture would be the two most common causes of pain on top of the foot without any history of trauma.
Another more remote possibility would be that of a superficial phlebitis (blood clot) on top of the foot. This would create the scenario of a red hot and swollen foot, but probably not the type of pain you are experiencing. These are not as dangerous as a dvt (deep venous thromobosis) but medical care would be advised.
By the time you receive this response, it will be roughly 24 hours later from the time you wrote this post. If your symptoms have not dissipated dramatically and you are still having the same symptoms, then the best advice I could ever give you would be to see a foot specialist in your area you after examining you, should be able to make a more accurate diagnosis.

Marc Mitnick DPM
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