Broken metatarsal - foot still heavily swollen after 7 weeks

[Blue Oval84]

Mother fractured a metatarsal in her foot 7 weeks ago, she walked about on it somehow for a few days before getting it checked, and has then been pretty lax about using crutches etc. preferring to wear the "boot" and hobble along (despite being told not to!)

Anyway, the folks are visiting me and she is complaining about pain in the foot and it's still very heavily swollen compared to her other foot. She says that she is sometimes getting a very sharp pain coming from the affected area.

Is this likely to be anything we should be particularly concerned about? It's the fact that her foot looks like a balloon which is making me wonder if we should be going to the walk in centre! Needless to say, given that she was "embarrassed" to use crutches, she's not keen to go anywhere near the docs at the moment!

[Cupramax]

I'd be straight down a&e if its badly swollen, not the walk in.

[K77 CTR]

Cupramax said:

I'd be straight down a&e if its badly swollen, not the walk in.

Not sure why you feel walk in centre is inappropriate, i'd say it's more appropriate than ED. The best advice would be to do as she has been told, elevate it, rest and ice. If not improving then contact the fracture clinic that I'm sure she has been referred to and ask them to review her.

[sawman]

Cupramax said:

I'd be straight down a&e if its badly swollen, not the walk in.

why would you go to Accident and Emergency with a 7 week old injury?

If she originally attended fracture clinic it might be worth getting a routine review, but these things take months to get better and even more for the swelling to go away.

If the swelling and pain is worse rather than better, they might do another x ray or CT to make sure things are progressing and that no more metatarsals have fractured, the best thing the OP can do is buy her some vitamin D

[MYOB]

Broke mine last year. Was under strict instructions not to put any weight on it at all, think it was circa 8 weeks. I would imagine this is the problem.

[Blue Oval84]

Thanks for the advice guys, she'll go for a review with the fracture clinic when she gets home.

I was just concerned at the fact it was still so swollen after so many weeks but it appears that this is par for the course!