Did I make my broken leg worse by walking on it the first 12 hours?!


Question:

Did I make my broken leg worse by walking on it the first 12 hours?

Ooops! I broke my leg nearly midnight last night while on vacation and assumed it was sprained because I wasn't in agony. I walked around a great deal on it gathering luggage for the trip home before friends the next morning warned me I needed a doctor.
I've gone to the ER, am on painkillers for the weekend, but need to see a doctor.
I'm terrified and wondering if I might have made it worse by walking on it because it wasn't so bruised until walking a bit in the am. then I had to spend 4 hours getting home from the airport/riding the plane with no place to elevate or ice my foot. Also the doctor said not to take Ibuprophen because it discourages bone growth and it's news to me so I'm wondering if it's true?

Additional Details

2 weeks ago
*Correction* Oh my gosh, I meant I broke my left foot, so I suppose that was how I could walk a bit. I'm sorry I am on some strong meds to get through the weekend which is why I mixed that up. According to the ER Dr. I broke the 5th metatarsal in my left foot.


Answers:

ibuprofen is known to slow bone growth, that is true. and you might have done some damage by walking around on it, but you might not have. it depends on the break. if they did xrays at the ER you should have gotten a copy to take to your regular or ortho doc to compare and see if any changes have occured. elevating the leg will basically give you more comfort, but not sure if it actually does anything for the healing so to say. it's just that with it being at the lowest portion of the body gravity keeps it full with blood at all times, which makes the circulation back to the heart harder. so elevating makes it throb less. and the bruising doesn't necessarily indicate more damage. it never occurs right as the injury happens, usually much worse the next few days. i've seen breaks with no or little bruising and ankles so swollen you knew they were broken, but then the xray showed nothing of that sort and it was just a bad sprain (i work at an urgent care, so i see plenty of that). so you really can't always tell by how much it swells, not to mention people swell differently (i bruise and swell like crazy immediately, while my mom usually has no signs of anything after falling from a ladder.....go figure). so don't worry about what you might have done, it's too late for that anyway. just follow up with a doc and follow his/her instructions, keep elevating that leg and take it easy.




The consumer health information on answer-health.com is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions.
The answer content post by the user, if contains the copyright content please contact us, we will immediately remove it.
Copyright © 2007-2011 answer-health.com -   Terms of Use -   Contact us

Health Categories