I was walking through my living room with no shoes and my little toe caught the sofa and moved it a few inches. After a few kind words and hopping around, I got back to whatever it was I was doing.That night I looked down at my foot and my toe was all black and blue. It looks like a zombie's toe now. It doesn't hurt unless I touch it, so I don't touch it.
It's probably not broken, but if it is, can the doctors replace it?
No seriously, there's not a lot they can do regardless is there? I'm thinking I should just do whatever I can without a lot of pain, and be more careful about where I put my sofa.
I've had a broken toe. Right big toe. Swelled up twice it's normal size, turned several different shades of horror movie colors, hurt like a bastard. Went to the E.R. They told me yep, you broke it. That was pretty much it. No tiny toe cast, no nuthin. This was maybe 10 years ago. The good news is that apart from a strange need to pop it once or twice a day, and the fact that it's still slightly larger than it's left counterpart, there have been no lingering ill effects. It's never bothered me while running at all, ever.
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Feeling the growl again
I think I may have broken mine once as a kid, but like Greg said they don't seem to do much for a simple break unless it's compound or really mis-aligned or something. I saw a House episode once where a woman in Antarctica broke her toe and the bone marrow leaking into her bloodstream caused some weird issue and they had to set it back in place to seal up the crack but I have a hunch that was dramaticized a bit.
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
Tony, I'd make sure it's aligned well as it heals (assuming it's broken). I broke a toe as a kid. The way it healed, just a tough "off," I end up with the toe sometimes rubbing against its neighbor. On longer runs, this can mean a pretty bad blister.
"If you have the fire, run..." -John Climacus
I took mine out Oct 2009 - It still is moderately purple all the time - It hurt when I ran - But I figured there was nothing docs could do. I could not buddy tape it because the bottom of my next toe is higher than the top of the baby toe. So I just ignored it. It will probably come back to haunt me when I enter into a knew athletic passion - Like jazz or interpretive dance - But I will just have to be less of a dancer than I could have been.
Long dead ... But my stench lingers !
Greg - thanks, that's what I was hoping.
Spaniel - bone marrow in the bloodstream? Will it make me faster?
Nader - if you saw my feet, you'd know that it would be almost impossible to mess up the alignment of my toes. I don't have what you'd call pretty feet.
DB - it'll be tough, but I guess I'll give up my interpretive dance dreams. LOL!
My wife broke her big toe and went in to the doc for it. An ortho ended up drilling and setting a screw down the length of the toe and fused the joint together. She can feel the screw from time to time and her toe is tender at the tip.
The pain that hurts the worse is the imagined pain. One of the most difficult arts of racing is learning to ignore the imagined pain and just live with the present pain (which is always bearable.) - Jeff
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Apparently it makes you dead faster. I forget why, it was something weird and fanciful.
Ostrich runner
You could get a blast of stem cells that way, which would make you more likely to get super powers.
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Tony, I broke my little toe and just ran as long as it wasn't hurting too much. It actually hurt more a couple of weeks after, I think when it was starting to heal. The main thing was finding shoes that didn't push on it as the actual act of running wasn't painful, just any pressure on the toe itself. So, pretty much like Greg said. A tiny toe cast would totally rock though. With a little toe I'd guess that it's so little that you can't do anything too horrendous by stimulating it with movement and exercise...the big toe sounds a little more scary though (especially based on the splinting thing).
I feel a gimp for commenting on the bone leaking thing. I think the House episode was probably based on broken bones sometimes leading to leakage of the fat cells from the marrow into the blood and that can cause fatty embolism syndrome. Death by stem cell induced superpowers would be cooler though. I think there have been some early mousey experiments using stem cells to try and heal non union fractures which could be quite cool, but not going to give you a cape or the ability to see through walls just yet. I don't think you'd want a cape if you were a superhero though. I really liked the idea of combining liposuction with stem cell therapy though...could be a real money spinner. Lipo the fatty bits, isolate the stem cells...heal the bone or the cartilage or whatever. Two birds, one stone.
"Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend."
A tiny toe cast, superpowers, and a cape all sound pretty cool. Looks like my little toe healed up pretty quick. It isn't blue any more and hardly hurts at all now. I've ran on it and it didn't bother me. I have yet to test it out on the dance floor though, so stay tuned.