Rachel's Injured Foot

Rachel sprained her foot six weeks ago. She was playing basketball at half time. She was competing for a ball with a teammate, landed oddly and had her foot kicked at the same time. These actions caused her toes to touch her shin, in her words. I cannot imagine how that happens, but since that point in time she was unable to put any weight on it.

We took her to the ER that afternoon. Here she is sitting in a wheelchair at the UMASS pediatric ER. She and Carmen had so much fun trying to maneuver the wheel chair in and out of the room. The nurses were surprised at how well Carmen and she got along.

At the time of initial injury 6 x-rays were taken. Rachel did not break any bones, thankfully. The ER doctor thought she would be walking within a few days of using the crutches. Not the case, Rachel had to use crutches for 3 weeks. Still unable to put much weight on her left foot. I contacted a friend who is an orthopedic surgeon. We had more x-rays taken.

Here is her beautiful long foot.  They looked to see if there were any signs of breaks.  Sometimes a break cannot be seen until healing has occurred.  But again, no signs of bone breaks.  We were told of a few anomalies in her foot.

First, she is missing a joint in her pinkie toe.  If you look at her toes there should be three joints, but the top bone of her pinkie toe is solid without the joint.  No issues with this, just an interesting fact.  She is also missing a bone in her foot that the metatarsals attach to. 

Really cool photo of her foot. 

The only possible explanation the surgeon gave for her continued pain and inability to place weight on it is that she may have cracked a growth plate between her third and fourth toe.  That is where most of her pain has been.

After seeing the surgeon she was given an air cast. It took her a day or two to be able to walk with out the crutches and just the boot.  Two weeks after getting the boot on she would play soccer and basketball in it.  We went back for a final check up, 8 days ago and was told to ween her off of the boot within the week of vacation.


Here is Rachel using the boot to walk around Boston.  That was Marathon Monday, April 18th.  After that day she barely used the boot and now is boot free.  She has started wearing two shoes for the first time in over 6 weeks! 

When we would tell people she sprained her foot they always wondered why she was taking so long to recover.  I learned that sprains happen in levels:  1st, 2nd and 3rd degree sprains.  The more severe the sprain the longer it takes to heal.  She didn't break a bone, but tore her ligaments and injured a growth plate so her recovery time was similar to a break.  It took Abram's elbow 3 months to fully heal. 

 Now the question is:  when will she be OK to play soccer.  She stopped all sports once this injury happened.  She missed multiple play-off games for basketball and soccer.  I'm sure she will be playing soon; my tough cookie.