How could I tell if I still have broken glass in my foot?

Go to a doctor.

You think you have a foreign object, a sharp foreign object, lodged under the skin… and you have to ask if you should see a doctor?

It sounds to me like there’s glass still in it, if there’s sharp pain when you apply pressure to the spot. You could try washing the area with hydrogen peroxide, and if it bubbles up white, that means there’s an infection (the white is the infection). It may bubble up so much that the glass becomes visible, but it’s also possible that there’s skin healed over the glass and then the glass won’t/can’t come out. I would try that and then if you don’t have good results i’d take myself to a doctor.

Just an aside, if you are doing these types of things while drinking, you may want to examine your drinking habits and consider that maybe drinking is becoming a problem for you.

Try duct tape.

With your foot clean and dry, put an 8” piece of good, sticky duct tape over the cut area, let it adhere well, and then pull it off quickly. You might want to try it a couple of times. If there’s anything at the surface (and it sounds like there might be from your description), that might grab it and get it out.

If that doesn’t work, then you should probably see a doctor, who can examine your sole more closely – and in sterile conditions! – and remove any residual pieces of glass.

I had this happen to me recently minus the whole walking on a bar bit and such :P. I just soaked my foot in warm water for a while to loosen everything up and then got a clean saftey pin and went at it like a splinter. Pulled out a pretty long thin piece of glass. It had been in there for a couple days before I realized what it was, but all better now :)

Yeah, it sounds like it is still in there. I once found a few small pieces of glass in my heel – no idea how they got there, they must have worked their way to the surface. I tried pulling them out with tweezers, got one, but two others just refused to leave. Maybe I’ll find them again one day.

Well…if you don’t find them they will find you via a nice infection.
Puncture wounds are really bad, hope you’re up to date on your Tetanus vaccine.

If there is glass in it, you will know.

Go to the doctor immediately. If you don’t, the glass under there might not be able to get out, even with surgery. Better safe, right?

P.S. Add a note to self: NEVER walk in a bar barefoot, especially when you’re drunk.

Ouch! It does sound like there’s still something in there. If it’s already healed over, chances are good you’re going to need a doctor to find it. Good luck!

Do you really need one more person to tell you the obvious?

Go to the Doctor.

There now you have one more person.

Well thanks to the people who were actually helpful and didn’t jump to conclusions about my drinking habits based on one incident.

I could try soaking it but it has basically healed over so if you think it sounds like there’s something still in there I better head in to my doctor cause I doubt I’d be able to get it myself. I just wanted to check that it still hurting wasn’t just part of the healing process before making an appointment, I don’t like to be a hypercondriac!

@shrubbery Please come back and let us know what your doctor does/advises.

I couldn’t get an appointment until next friday but I asked my mum (she’s a nurse but I didn’t want to have to tell her the story before) and she said with stuff like this often it heals over outside but takes longer inside so that could be why it’s still hurting but if it is still sore by the time I get to the doctor then there’s definitely something in there. It seems to be less intense when I poke it now but we’ll see!