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Spontaneous fracture?

Cat-a-Tonic

Super Moderator
I'm not certain, but I may have a broken big toe. I had broken my other (left) big toe years ago and this feels extremely similar. When I broke my left toe years ago, it was something sudden and painful that I definitely remember - I was wearing socks but not shoes and I went to my freezer to look for something to make for dinner. A can of frozen concentrated orange juice fell out and the edge of it landed directly on my big toe joint - instant break and super painful!

As of yesterday, my right big toe has a very similar pain to what I experienced when I broke my left big toe - BUT, I didn't do anything to injure this toe! I didn't bump it nor drop anything on it nor stub it. It feels broken but this feeling just came on out of nowhere yesterday. I can't be sure it's broken - I recall that when I broke my other toe, I had called the local hospital as well as my doctor, and both told me that they don't really do anything for broken toes, and they advised me to tape it to the toe next to it to stabilize it, and to try not to move it and to wear hard-soled shoes. So since the ER couldn't do anything with my previous toe break, I don't see much point in going there for this suspected one either and am doing the same type of treatment. Since I'm not going to the ER, I can't confirm for sure that it's a break, but it feels so similar. (Sharp pain but mainly only with movement, pain is in the joint, no bruise, nothing visually looking amiss, but hurts to put pressure on and I'm limping as I walk - it's not gout as I read that gout symptoms almost always include redness, swelling, and the joint exudes warmth - mine is doing none of those things.)

It's super weird though. Could it be a stress fracture? I was on Entocort from Feb through Oct of this year so I guess it's possible that the steroids leached enough density from my bones to cause a fracture. And my mother is only 61 but she was just diagnosed with early-onset osteoporosis so I have a family history of that now. I do exercise regularly although I do more weights than cardio, and I don't do high-impact cardio (I don't jog, I usually do the stationary bike) so it shouldn't be a stress fracture as a direct result of exercise (I think?). I haven't had any bone density testing so I don't really know what shape my bones are in - I should probably go talk to my doctor about that. Has anyone else had a spontaneous fracture (or suspected fracture) after a round of steroids?
 

my little penguin

Moderator
Staff member
Couple of thoughts
Can you go to urgent care ...?
That way you would know if it was broken or not
If it not broken then it could be a number of things
Again a doc would be best ( gout, arthritis , tendonitis etc....)
Take a picture now and then in the morning if there are any changes .

Fwiw I apparently hyperextended per the doc my big toe without realizing it ( didn't realize it happened )
Purple bruise painful big toe in the joint from just walking on carpet .

( only Ds has Ibd not me )

Good luck
 

Cat-a-Tonic

Super Moderator
I could go to urgent care, but I'd still end up with a $300ish bill for x-rays. And with it being flu season, I also want to avoid urgent care because I've heard it's a bad flu season and I'm guessing that the urgent care clinic is chock full of flu patients right now! I really want to avoid catching the flu if possible (I did get a vaccination, but they said in the news that the flu vaccine isn't a very good match this year.) For now I'm going to continue taping the big toe to the toe next to it, and if it still hurts after the holidays (and hopefully after the flu season has died down a bit) then I'll see about getting it checked out. There still aren't any visual changes - no bruise, no swelling, it looks totally normal - so I really don't know what to think. The pain is somewhat better although still definitely there, and could just have improved because I've been taping it and wearing hard-soled shoes.
 
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