Foot Fracture Still Not Completly Heeled

[little d]

Hi Everybody

I went to my Ortho doc for my fractured foot yesterday it has been 7weeks since I have broken my foot. It is healing the doc says, but not completly. So he is ordering for me to get a bone stimulator to wear at night while sleeping. I did ask for a bone scan and he said that he will set it up for the next visit but probally thinks im crazy for asking

[Ursa Major]

Hi Everybody

I went to my Ortho doc for my fractured foot yesterday it has been 7weeks since I have broken my foot. It is healing the doc says, but not completly. So he is ordering for me to get a bone stimulator to wear at night while sleeping. I did ask for a bone scan and he said that he will set it up for the next visit but probally thinks im crazy for asking

You are NOT crazy for asking! It is very possible that you are low in vitamin D, and as a result in calcium and magnesium as well. You need to have normal levels in all three for your bones to heal as fast as they should.

I broke my ankle five years ago, and it took forever to heal. I now know that due to celiac disease (which I didn't know anything about back then) I had low levels of vitamin D.

So, you should get tested to see where your levels of vitamin D, calcium and magnesium are. Once you supplement to get them up to normal, your bone will heal much faster.

Don't wait for your next regular visit for the testing, make an appointment NOW to get it done as soon as you can. Because you should never supplement vitamin D unless you know you are deficient, as too much vitamin D is just as bad as too little.

Let us know what your level is when you get the results, as doctors and labs will consider levels as normal that are way too low.

[little d]

Thank you Ursa for that I do need to go in for a regular physical anyway I already had my gyn for the year and they don't take any blood work.

Donna

[tarnalberry]

I presume you have been taking cal/mag/D supplements while your broken bone has been healing? If not, your doctor should have told you to do so...

[Ursa Major]

Thank you Ursa for that I do need to go in for a regular physical anyway I already had my gyn for the year and they don't take any blood work.

Donna

What do you mean, they don't take any blood work? ALL doctor's offices send people to a lab (usually in the same building, or if they don't have a lab, to the hospital) to have blood work done whenever it is needed. So, if they themselves don't take the blood, get them to send you to wherever they do. You have the right to have your levels checked when you suspect that you have deficiencies.

And Tiffany is right, you should have been taking those supplements right from when you broke your foot, to make sure the bone heals quickly.

[little d]

Hi Tiffany

No I have not been taking any vitamin supplement, I did ask my Ortho Doc if he wanted me to take any and he said yes that would be a very good idea. Yesterday I went and bought some Multi Vit for women, Calcium with vit D, and Omega 3 fish oil, that are wheat free and today when I had to pee my pee was yellow I almost freeked I forgot that I was taking vits and I just started laughing at myself. After I broke my foot all my nurses that I work with have been hounding me to start taking them, because I have a small stature 4'11" but I do wt 158 and very fair skinned, not as bad as my husband and daughter, they burn easy. Now I just can't wait to see what this bone stimulator is going to look like when I finally get it , it is something that I will have to sleep with, just when I got rid of sleeping with this boot that I'm wearing, just have to wear it when awake that is better than nothing. I just care about healing my foot once and for all

Later, Donna

[sashamay23]

i broke my foot (fractured the 4th metatarsal) on oct 2nd 2006.. and i didnt get off the crutches or out of the walking cast for 5 months. then it was another month and 1/2+ till i'm even close to normal. still have pain issues, weakness, am rather dependent on 800mg motrin when working.. and hafta wear tedhose when i'm working and i ice it on my breaks (i'm a cna in a hospital..12hr shifts on my feet..ugh). doc told me i was "slow to heal" and didnt even know it was fractured for the first 2 1/2 months when they finally did the bone scan b/c my "severe sprain" wasnt healing..

its likly mine is bc of this connective tissue condition that I have, it delays healing. (ehlors danlos syndrome) but now it makes me wonder if maybe it also could have had to do with what you guys are all talking about! i'm not diagnosed yet.. and i havnt had any nutrition panals done to check for deficnecies except for my wellknown anemia.

huh.. interesting..

no one ever told me to take extra ca+ or mg or K+ either.. i shouldda been supplementing Ca+ but again, didnt knwo it was broken till 2 1/2 months into my injury of not being able to bear weight and being in intense horrid pain.

wonder if things wouldda been different if i had!

[little d]

Sashamay23

Hi My Ortho Doctor just ordered for me to continue wareing my boot cast for another 4wks and start with a bone stimulator to stimulate bone growth, so it will be a totall of 11 weeks. He said that it is healing but a little slow, this is my 3rd time to brake the same bone but slightly in a differant spot I also had ligament surgery when I was younger walked with a torn ligament for 2years before I told my parents that it was still hurting. My foot still hurts and swells especially when working 12 hrs, I'm a patient care tech in the nursery at a local hospital I'm on restricted duty have to be secratary on the unit until June 5, and if it is still not healed by then, well I'll have to go on medical leave because the hospital only gives 12 weeks of restricted duty. And I have yet to get a diagnosis as well and I am not ever expecting to get one, but have been tested and all negative. That is ok I am slowly coming to terms with the idea, but I still need go to my fam doctor because he is wanting me to come back in because when he ordered blodd work the last time my triglicites and cholestrol were high just curious to see what they are and too see if I have any defiectancy of any kind. I don't know whats worse not knowing you have a broken foot for 2 1/2 months or of me braking my foot 3times. Did they have to rebrake your foot, surgery, or just leave it in a cast.

Donna

Welcome to the board hope that you learn alot I know that I have.

[sashamay23]

Sashamay23

I don't know whats worse not knowing you have a broken foot for 2 1/2 months or of me braking my foot 3times. Did they have to rebrake your foot, surgery, or just leave it in a cast.

man good luck with that!! my doc kept askin me whenevr id see him "so what do u think is helping?" "...i guess time.." and when i'd get all impatient cuz i wanted to go back to work, id call him up and ask about diff things and he wasjust "well look at how far you've come..just give it more time" very annoying. lol wonder if a bone stimulator thingy (tens unit? or something else?) wouldda done me good..

im glad tho ti was owrkmens comp cuz i was able to seek treatment w/ a kickass orthopedic surgeon and awesome physical therapy which i did for 4 months.

i'm presently on a quest to find cute shoes i can wear lol im stuck in my $120 tennis shoes i had to get cuz my foot didnt remeber how to walk right for the first month+ or my trusted birkenstocks. lol everything else kills that foot.

i also am having neuroma pain every so often.. doc doesnt think its anything major but if it still bothers me enough, he said he'll think about doing a cortisone injection.

so how did u break ur foot so many times? that really does suck. u need a new little bone!

(THANKFULLY i broke it at work.. and my agency i work for workmens comp covered me for everything. i was doing sit-down offfice work for the 5 months of being on crutches..then i could do "one-on-ones" and then finally back to full duty about a month ago.)

so have u gone gluten-free regardless of the test results? i'm thinking of doing that for a month to see how it goes..even if the results are neg. i just got the ok from the doc an dshes doin a cholesterol check too cuz i was curious so i need to be fasting.- i have to ask my doc exactly what i want run, i dont think she really like...thinks. Lol she jsut does whatever i ask. not exactly bad but id like some imput ya know? lol

i think a broken foot sucks..badly. either way. crutches are evil, so are walking casts. no they didnt rebreak it. it was a clean break that jsut wasnt showig up on the xrays. though the 2nd doc i saw told me the bone scan was negatve and i had regrowth on my GOOD foot.. and that my foot had RSD and i was feeling pain that wasnt there.. and to do "aggressive PT" and walk on it as much as i could (HA!) and he refurred me to the foot speicalist ortho. and he told me "go home, put the boot on. do NOT put any weight down w/out the boot.. u have a fracture of the 4th metatarsal based on ur bone scan." so there are thoughts that that couldda made it worse a little bit.. all i know is i never wanna spend 5+ months on crutches again. that sucked lol. least i can ALMOST walk right again. lol

goodluck with everything w/ yours and esp with the job stuff!

[little d]

sashamay23

OK so I finally got my bone growth stimulator, I have to ware the thing for 10 HOURS a day First of all I can't ware it with my walking boot because I can't tolorate the extra straps and pressure around my foot still hurts. And it has a long cord connecting to a battery pack that keeps track of how many hours I use it so the doctor can see when i go to him next. I am tring to ware it while sleeping but will be hard with the cable attached, It is easier for me to sleep with by myself while I am sleeping for work, so it stays off while sleeping with my husband, never know when he will surprise me in the middle of night. So I am waring only my stim with out my boot for right now and if I have to leave anywhere then I switch out and put my boot on. THe first thing that happened to my foot or ankel I tore my ligament when i was 14 had surgery when I was 15 or 16. A year later or so I was running to the front yard and over ran the sidewalk and my foot landed on the sidewalk halfway and the other half of my foot grass, sidewalk won and it was also higher that the grass. 2002 I broke it stepping down from the deck of the pool from the pool area doing laundry at the Apartments that I was living at the time and somehow my foot rooled and instantly heard a pop, if it was not for having my tennis shoes on it would have been worse. and now happened March 20, my sisters birthday something always happens on her B-Day, Car accidents, Deaths (we had a grandparent pass on her B-day while she was in Army Boot camp) or illnesses. So I continued the trend so I think, she didn't have to worry about it so much though, Anyway I am now waring the stimulator, supposed to promote bone to grow stronger, so well see. After June 15, my work will put me on Leave of Absence if the doctor does not release me to full duty by then I don't care as long as my foot gets better.

Donna

[Piccolo]

Donna,

I sound like you with a broken bone. I broke my toe in November. It was swollen and hurt for 8 weeks. It has started feeling better, but it still bothers me. I can't have the seam of a sock on it so I wear my sox at an angle to keep the pressure off the toe. It is healing slowly. I have't had any recommendations for vitamins at all.

Susan

[little d]

Piccolo

I started takin a multi vit with iron but I stopped because that extra iron was making me too constipated I don't need any more of that.

Donna