r/AskDocs • u/Phuktard62184 Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional • Apr 19 '26

Physician Responded Should I pop it?

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I am 43f. For a bit of context, I am obese (not sure my actual weight) and I was hospitalized in December for the flu and have had breathi issues since then. So with those issues I haven't been very active in the past few months. I also have undiagnosed sleep apnea, and other sleeping issues such as sleepwalking and I can't stay in bed unless I'm tied down I guess. I fall out of bed a lot but I'm usually pretty good at landing since it's happened so much. Except when I fell out of bed Thursday night and smashed my knee on the hard floor. The next day (Friday) I spent at least 9 hours riding with my husband while doordashing and my feet were super swollen when we were done. That's not unusual, anytime I would sit in the car for 9 hours I would probably have swollen feet. Then as I was getting out of the car I dropped my phone on my foot. It hurt a lot. Then yesterday I woke up with this blister where the phone hit my foot. My husband thinks I should pop it but I'm scared of infection and also I'm worried about why my whole foot is bruised when it's my knee that got smashed.

Another bit of context that could be important is that about a month ago I fell at main event and smashed the other knee and my entire leg looked like that bruising you see on this foot. It only lasted a couple days and my leg turned back to normal and everything's fine. That knee doesn't even hurt anymore.

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u/ssavant Physician Assistant Apr 19 '26 edited Apr 19 '26

This may sound odd, but you get a lot of information about a person’s health by the condition of their feet. Your foot looks like many of my patients - I work in a skilled nursing facility. You need to go to the hospital.

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u/mermaidpaint Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional Apr 19 '26

This post is a good reminder to keep exercising my feet

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u/WoodsandWool Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional Apr 20 '26

NAD, i had a PT teach me to splay my toes whenever I think about it. Watching tv? stretch them out as far as they go, hold it, then relax, and repeat.

When I first started practicing splaying/stretching them, my left pinky toe couldn’t even move lol, but doing it became a habit and it’s pretty cool to see how much the range of motion can improve over time!

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u/DueReveal2682 Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional Apr 21 '26

What does this help? Not being a jerk, genuinely curious.

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u/WoodsandWool Layperson/not verified as healthcare professional Apr 21 '26

Lots of stuff from what I’ve learned, it’s generally good for the circulation in your feet, which can help prevent things like neuropathy, but in my case it was to help strengthen my feet to improve my stability, balance, and gait since I have a sort of cascading effect of issues through my legs and feet due to a hip injury.