broken bones (also called fractures) in the foot are very common. in fact, about 1 out of every 10 broken bones occurs in the foot. here's why.
- the human foot has 26 bones.
- divide the foot into 3 parts: the hindfoot, the midfoot, and the forefoot.
- there are 2 bones in the hindfoot. these are the talus, which is where the foot attaches to the leg, and the calcaneus, which forms the heel.
- five smaller bones called the navicular, cuboid, and 3 cuneiforms make up the midfoot.
- the long part of the foot is called the forefoot and contains 19 bones. there is a metatarsal for each of the 5 toes, the big toe is made up of 2 phalanges, and the other toes each have 3 phalanges.
- in addition, the foot sometimes has some small pebble-like bones called sesamoid bones. These bones do not perform any necessary function and are often called accessory bones.
- none of these has anything to do with my injury.
went to see the orthopedic specialist after work today. the nurse who took me back and chittered to me about the injury kept referencing my heel and ankle. i explained that neither my heel nor my ankle hurt… more than once.
when the doctor came in she did THE SAME THING! asked me about my heel pain. i re-explained that there was nothing wrong with my heel. then she asked me about my ankle pain. i re-explained that there was nothing wrong with my ankle. i explained to her that the pain was in the topside of my foot on the left side. she looked surprised.
she then asked me about my running and i explained to her when i injured my foot, how i injured my foot, as well as how i continued to use the offending appendage after hurting it.
she asked me again about my ankle. *sigh*
we went around and around in a rendition of "who's on first" (click the link so you understand… especially if you're under 30).
once we got everything squared away she determined that it was not the fracture in my heel (yes you read that correctly. i have a fracture in my heel that doesn't hurt and i didn't know was there) causing me pain but overuse of the tendons. the peroneus brevis or the peroneus longus. otherwise it could also be the extensor hallucis brevis tendon because where that red box is… well, that's where the dummy dum dum pain is. clearly no one really knows so i'm just going to forgo running for 4-6 weeks and hope that everything will be healed by the time december 8th and the santa hustle rolls around. what a pain in my ass.
