Metatarsal Pain Almost 2 Years After Break

Hello, just looking for a bit of advice here, not a magical cure or anything. I broke my 3rd metatarsal and fractured the 2nd and 4th back in August of 2007. I had surgery and a pin was put in my 3rd metatarsal, I'm not sure what it was called but it was put in at the front of the ball of my foot just below the toe and it was exposed at the end. After 8 weeks it was removed, and I never had any physical therapy or anything. For about a year or so I never had any problems with it really, although I never quite had full range of motion with my toes.

I joined the Army last October, and at first it didn't really bother me. But lately it has been getting worse, I think due to the physical activity I do everyday. I am on my feet a lot with very heavy loads, plus a lot of running and weight lifting. It's now at the point where I can't bend my toes at all except for my big toe, they just kinda twitch. The top of my foot where the break was is tender, with a pain that feels a bit numb yet sensitive. I have had a limp for about 4 months now and it seems to be getting worse.

I am a bit worried about injuring it again, and I can't really rest it, as all the activity is a requirement of my job. Any words of advice would be appreciated.

[FootDoc]

Whether or not it is related to your previous injury, you certainly need an evaluation which would hopefully result in a diagnois on which a treatment plan might be formulated. As you are in the army and have available to you free medical care, you have absolutely no excuse for not having it looked into . . . Why not??

The pin you are talking about is called a k-wire, (short for Kirschner Wire) named after the fellow who invented it. It too had 2 pins used to fixate 2 broken metatarsal shafts (see x-rays at footsahurtin.wordpress.com/2009/06/06/fractured-metatarsals/

In fact I just had the pins removed last week! Was your fracture similar to mine? Your case interests me because I've been curious as to what complications might arise in the future as my healing progresses. I'm no doctor but I would venture a guess that you may have some arthritis setting in? You should get it checked out soon and please report back with the doctor's findings! Good luck to you!