You are not a doctor, I am not a patient, etc. Woke up with a sore foot. It’s on the dorsal, in the middle. Based on no medical knowledge save a short session with Dr. Google, I would say the pain is in the region of the extensor digitorum brevis. It feels like that part of the foot was hit with a stone, a deep bruised feeling. There is a bit of swelling and redness. Wth? I sprained a muscle I didn’t know I had while sleeping? More evidence that this aging thing is a real drag?
I woke with pain in a similar area 3 times in the past 5-6 years. The first couple I self-diagnosed as tendinitis and it got better in a few days. I couldn’t walk without pain for a couple days.
The last time my foot ended up swelling up and I went to the ER when it got worse after a week. I was diagnosed with cellulitis and given antibiotics.
I had something like that; it felt like someone had snapped a strap across the top of my foot or stepped on the top with their heel. It happened on and off a couple times and grew worse as time went on. In my case it was gout that just didn’t start with the normal “toe ache thing” and I’ve had it under control for years now.
Sounds like Gout.
GP can give pain / inflammation relief.
A 3rd gout shout out.
Gout
Yeah, gout. It first happened to me, I was in denial, thinking “that’s something my father has”. When I asked my doctor why it happened to me, he said “you are getting older”.
Hard to say over the net, but…
Gout usually causes pain at the base of the big toe
Cellulitis feels warm and a red rash is visible.
Tendinitis and metatarsalgia are common, especially if you are active or wear shoes that don’t fit or heels.
Morton’s neuroma causes pain at the base of the third toe under the foot. I’ve only seen a few.
Plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendinitis are close to the heel.
Foreign bodies like splinters and glass are not rare, but usually there is a history.
From your description, maybe a tendinitis. Worse when you move the toe? History of gout? Better with naproxen? No rash?
History of gout–maybe 6 attacks over 15 years, always in a big toe. Naproxen didn’t help, short course of indomethacin did, or perhaps it was just a coincidence, swelling and redness present. No pain today but some swelling and redness still present. Climbed 15 flights of stairs day of the night attack, but I do that regularly. With pain gone, I don’t really want to see the doctor over this. Thoughts?
Missed edit window, or maybe just operator error, the redness was rash-like the first day, today just redness and swelling, no pain. Warm to the touch. Curling the toes in either direction increased the paid. Took indomethacin for 2 days. With the pain gone, I’m not inclined to see the doctor, but I was limping around for a day.
I’m still thinking gout. I didn’t have any personal history with the disease but it did run in my family; always the big toe which is why it fooled me for so long. But mine was a very close match to what you report. Naproxen never did me much good; I have to go either Allopurinal <sic?> or Colchrys <sic?>.
How recently have you clipped your toenails? A couple of times in my life I managed to give myself an infection with toenail clippers. Big toes red, tender, ever so slightly swollen. I was in my twenties, so gout never occurred to me, even though my father had it. I punctured the cuticle with a sterilized needle, and a whole lot of pus oozed out. Immediate relief. Washed with Bactine, and slathered on Neopsorin, then bandaged. No more problems. At least until like, a year later when I managed to so the same thing. Now, I wash the clippers and dip them in alcohol before I clip my toenails, and it’s never happened again.
Also, I have a weird thing where sometimes a tendon pops out of place. There’s a nodule you can feel on top center of my foot just above my toes. It’s not quite the same thing as tendonitis. A bandage helps, but mostly I just have to take tramadol (Ultram), and wait until it fixes itself.
Have you been wearing high heels? That’s a classic symptom that you have a shortened first metatarsal and are putting strain on the middle of your foot.
Rest Ice Compression ADVIL.
I swear, I haven’t been wearing my wife’s high heels. They don’t even fit. Er, so I’ve been told…The pain is on the top of my foot, toward the outside. It felt like I’d dropped a jar or something on it, and came on during the night. Some of it seems consistent with gout, but the pain was different, more like tendinitis, and I get gout in the big toes, so far. Thanks for the ideas and suggestions, Dopers, it is helpful.