Who has had a fractured metatarsal bone??

[Bazza1234]

Eventually these things heal themselves - but I am interested to know how we know it IS healed and we can move on. My fracture is a relatively minor one - and is called a "dancers fracture" as I had a fall similar to what dancers have resulting in a fairly minor fracture ( when compared to others). It has been 8 weeks now since it happened and I am sure that it is healing (although I seem to change my mind about that every second day!) I will be having a second x-ray in 2 weeks time and my Doctor told me originally - 6 weeks to heal and another six weeks for the repair to strengthen.

So - when did you feel confident enough to start running again??

[Madge50 Graduate]

Hi Bazza, having had several metatarsal fractures, I'd say, when it stops hurting! Normal healing time is 6-8 weeks, I wore the wrong pair of shoes after about 6 weeks, thinking it was ok (high heels - not necessarily your style Bazza😉) but that told me it wasn't quite ready - had some swelling and a bit of soreness, so waited another week or so, then seemed to be ok.

Just did the usual, listened to my body and took it slowly.

Hope you're back to it soon

Mx

[Bazza1234 Graduate in reply to Madge50]

Hmm - depends on what you mean by "stops hurting" !! I can stand one legged on it without any "pain" - except that sometimes I get this weird feeling/pain that feels like an open skin wound. Feels like skin wound has started to heal and then gets pulled slightly apart - kind of stinging pain. So something is not quite right yet down there. My Doctor said that there is no guarantee that it will every heal "properly" - he went into detail about how bones in the that area can heal , but not grow the hard bone on the outside that we normally associate with a healthy bone - in other words, just waiting to break open again!!

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I fractured my phalanx (big toe) during hockey when the opposition took a swing at the ball but got my toe instead. It was fractured in several placed so it was buddy strapped. I remember it took a week to weight bear. I was given a funky shoe thing but i used an oversized trainer instead. I went back to work after a week or so. Running and hockey took longer, about six weeks when the pain changed from being the 'bony' pain to an aching pain. It was a gentle jog and it did ache afterwards but slowly improved. Even now my toe feels different some days and is the most like to cause me a gremlin! Each one of us is different so see how it feels.