My 17 year old son woke up one morning not able to walk on his foot. His foot has curved and is forced to walk on the side of his foot. I took him to an urgent care where they took x rays. No break, no sprain. The side of his foot was bruised and swollen but the pain was on the opposite side in his ankle. They recommended an orthopedic foot doctor. I took him to the ortopedic doctor. He ordered a ct scan. He had a CT scan which came up clean. The ortho doctor said it was due to (mental) stress and provided a knee high foot brace but no medication and no physical therapy and to have a good day. Now what? I would guess he needs help with dealing with stress. But what do I do to help him get his foot flat? It's been two weeks. Have you ever heard of this? Thank you.

You should follow-up and vist an orthopedic foot doctor as recommended by your primary Physician. If you son is bothered by the way that he walks or is stressed by the amount of time he walks, he may need to used the support brace until his feet or ankle is fully healed.

Personally, I would investigate his shoes and determine if he walks on the side (as in bowleged or knock-kneeded) which can cause injuries such as these to its structures. I am sure if you look at his shoes, you may where his soles wear and find evidence of the way that he walks.

If there is no appearent evidence that this brusing is due to him walking, this may be an injury that has occurred as a result of bad shoes, such as low tops instead of high tops. Low tops can causes stress on the way a person walks frequently, because there is little support around the ankles, even though the person may not notice it or feel any pain.

So as a start, check out these areas and if you still see no obvious reason, your son may be able to provide you with some enlightment. For example, there had to have been some type of irritaion prior to his bruising.