Great left toe

[robrienco]

My 14 year old daughter complained her toe was hurting @ 9p.m. on 7/4. Upon looking at it was swollen. The next day she could not walk on it b/c of pain and unable to bend toes up/down. I took her to ER on 7/6 and xray showed nothing & they rapped it and recommended cruches. On 7/10 she was able to walk. She was attending a volleyball camp & they had a trainer look @ it and she said turf toe. After she pushed/pulled on the it popped, but my daughter did not tell us that until 2 hrs after the evaluation by the trainer and the pain was gone and she could walk better. The area between the great toe and 2nd is were she complains the pain is and you cannot touch the top where the tendon would be. Well as of today, after seeing and ortho last week it is worse. The ball of her foot is swollen and not the same size as her right foot, the top of the toe and it is very painful to put an ice pack on it and it is difficult to walk on. She says that she feels something roll around and it pops, like 2 bones and is very painful if she trys to put her foot flat to walk, so she does not do that which causes her to walk on the outside of her foot.Is it possible that she could have torn or ruptured a tendon? What about a dislocation? Is that something that is easy to fix? We had an MRI on 7/26 & will know result Mon. but we are so concerned b/c volleyball tryouts are on the 11th. I just think they say turf toe b/c we tell them she plays VB. Any insite would be great.

[Heidi]

Hi,

Had anything happened when she first complained of pain? Fallen over, landed awkwardly etc? Or did it just come on gradually, or maybe after a long walk, or other unaccustomed actvity?

If she had a tendon rupture or dislocation there would have been a point when it happened and she would know about it. If it came on gradually it is more likely to be an inflammatory, overuse type injury.

I think all you can do at the moment is get the results and see what is recommended.

[robrienco]

Heidi,

Thanks for the reply. She played volleyball two days before and can remember nothing painful happening, only two days later the pain set in. How long do you think it will take for the recovery with an obvious bad sprain?

Beck

[robrienco]

Well, she seems to have MTP Joint capsulitis, or synovitis. She is to return to the ortho dr. today to have it tapped. However, I am wondering how long the recovery will be b/c of her tryouts. Will asking for shots help the pain and inflammation so she is able to tryout? Still concerned.

[robrienco]

Well, the ortho dr. put her in a small boot, drew blood for gout/rehumitory arthritiis testing and also told her the bad news about no tryouts. I read the MRI and the radiologist said inflammed joint with fluid. What could the fluid be? The ortho dr. said depending on what the blood test show and might consider drawing fluid from the joint to see what it was. Her heart is deeply broken b/c she has los the one thing that she was so looking forward her freshman year and on. What are the chances of gout?

[Heidi]

Hi,

The chances of it being gout are pretty low I think. Gout is usually in older, overweight people with poor diets. Although there may be some exceptions to this rule I would be surprised in an active young person!

Corticosteroid injections can be used in severe cases to reduce the pain and inflammation but I don't think this will be used to enable her to play unfortunately. Its usually more of a last resort type treatment, having already thried other methods and oral anti-inflammatories.