I broke my toe over the weekend… the doctor really didn’t tell me much of anything (didn’t give me a boot… or crutches… or any useful advice, other than to say I can start to do stuff as soon as I can tolerate the pain…)
I understand that it’s just something that will heal on its own eventually. There was hardly any swelling at first but now my whole foot is a little puffy. It seemed to be better right when I woke up and gets more swollen throughout the day.
Is this normal? Should I just try to stay off my foot and keep it elevated as much as possible?
When I broke my big toe, they said there wasn’t a whole lot they could do for it. About all they said was, put a cotton ball between it and the toe next to it for padding, then lightly tape (using that paper tape they put in first aid kits) it to the toe next to it. And, elevate it, don’t move around on it, don’t drop any more heavy metal things on it for a while.
Around here that’s called “buddy taping” - not a bad idea at all. Depending on the toe and where the brake was I’ve actually done a bundle of three sometimes with the broken one in the center. I’ve found it helps me to sleep with my feet on a pillow so they are slightly above my body all night. During the day, when I need to have the leg down, I keep it out slightly and rest on the heel insead of the ball of my foot.
When I had a broken toe I asked the doctor what to do about it, and he said, “What are you doing now?” and I replied. “Limping”. Doc says, “You’ll want to keep that up.”. So that was it, I limped until it got better. Couple months at least, went away so slowly I wasn’t even sure when it did.
I broke my toe once as well but the break was inside the foot so, like others, the doctor couldn’t do anything for it. I did get a walking boot that would isolate the foot and keep it from bending. Funnily enough (to me), I didn’t realize it was actually broken and limped around on it in pain for over a week until my wife took me to the emergency room on a Saturday, on our anniversary. I was also on manternity leave at the time, which has nothing to do with the topic at hand.
Ice and ibuprofen or Aleve. Stay off it. Keep it elevated. Buddy tape, as others have suggested.
I found that either shoes with a good heavy sole (like hiking boots) or running shoes were best.
The puffiness isn’t unusual, nor is it unusual to look ok in the morning and get puffier as the day goes on. If it continues past a week or two, go back to the doc.
Get well soon. Broken toes aren’t fun and you can’t do much about them.
Ha, I like your doctor.
About 20 years ago I had a similar experience - very sure I had a broken toe, painful, swollen up, limping, etc.
Doctor was pragmatic: Buddy-tape it if possible, stay off it as long as it hurts, make an appointment if you must but we can’t do much for you than you can do for yourself.
I spent about a year wearing only Tevas (open toed sandals) which was fine by me. There really isn’t much anyone can do - keep it as unstressed as possible, pain meds as needed, self-splint or buddy tape so it heals straight.
Is it intra articular? Displaced? Comminuted? Proximal, distal, or middle phalanx? Open or closed?
I had a tiny fracture through the base of the proximal phalanx of my big toe. It kept me from running for 2 years due to pain in the joint (which finally went away, thankfully).
Good luck, it will probably be fine, but not all toe fractures are benign. Demand more info from your doc (including the radiology report).
Hey, a broken toe is fun! Just think about how you disobey doctors’ orders and all them pain pills. Peggy Guggenheim died of complications from a broken toe. Ol’ Pegs! That walking cast? That one will break in three days cos you keep walking
I broke my right big toe as a teenager. I got to wear trainers/sneakers/runners/whateveryourpeoplecallit for a few weeks at school. That was the entire treatment.
There is very little point in going to the doctor for a broken toe. Even if it is the rare case of greater complications, they are so used to the correct answer being “do nothing,” it’s unlikely they will notice anyway, unless you have a jagged bone poking through the skin or something. I’ve had doctors offer to X-Ray, but say there is nothing to do either way, so it’s just a pointless extra bill and radiation exposure.
Bolding mine. Heavy wooden objects dropped on your toe would not be good for the toe either. Lets face it, any heavy object dropping should be avoided.
Another story about doctors; I once met a cowboy that was missing his left thumb, When someone asked about it, he said he lost it one day branding cows. It seems he somehow got it caught between his saddle horn and a rope just as a big cow he had roped hit the end of the lariat. He said it just popped off. After the cow was branded, he took the still hot branding iron & cauterized it to stop the bleeding. After two more days, the roundup was complete. He then rode in to see the doctor. The doctor took one look at it, handed the cowboy a bottle of whiskey, & said, “You lost a thumb, that will be 25 dollars, keep the whiskey.”
I do not know if the story is true, but I would not bet against it being true.
I broke one toe a couple years ago, on a dive trip to the Komodo islands, dropped a 1kg lead diving weight right on top of it… while getting ready for the very first dive of the trip.
Not playing the tough guy, but I didn’t even flinch, it slipped off a weight pocket, saw it drop and THUMP!, what went through my head was “Oh, there go the plans for the day.”
After seeing that it was just broken and not bleeding too much, I just put my fins on, jumped in and bit on the regulator mouthpiece a little more than usual for the rest of the trip.
It looked like a ripe grape after a day or two, but by the end of a week it looked much better, human like even.
The funny thing is that less than a year before I broke the exact same toe when I accidentally kicked a sofa leg at home… that one stopped the frolicking after my GF activities right then and there though.
“Yes, your toe is broken, RICE/tape and limp. And BTW, when did you break your ankle?” (15 years before, thought it was a bad sprain, took a really long time to heal ;))
Back in the old days I played a LOT of 16" softball, a game where the brand new ball is as hard as a baseball and no one wears gloves (it’s a Chicago thing).
Broken fingers were a very common occurrence and every noob, despite advice from everyone else, would go to the emergency room for their first broken finger only to hear “Yep it’s broke, tape it and ice it - that’ll be $200, thanks!”
Broken toes suck. I’ve broken more toes than I care to count. Falling off of something in middle-school gym class, catching my foot on the sofa leg, running into the bathroom door frame in the middle of the night because I didn’t want to turn a light on… Most recently was two summers ago when I tripped over the cat and my foot hit the wall as I was falling. My foot turned all sorts of interesting colors. The cat was fine of course.
Like others have said, about the only thing you can do is stay off of it. Buddy-taping works fairly well too. Good luck, I feel your pain!
