It’s been two weeks since I stubbed my pinky toe, and it still hurts like a sumbitch. And it’s red. Would there be any point in seeing a doctor about it? It’s not like they could put it in a cast, and I can’t take most pain pills.
There could be something else going on, I did that once and it started getting better after a few days. It probably would be good to have it looked at.
When I (probably) broke my pinkie (falling down stairs and catching it in the banisters), the second* thing the doctor said to me was “well, there’s not much we can do for you, just try to stay off it as much as you can and it will heal up eventually.” Which it did, after numerous weeks of hobbling about in pain. I was about 20 at the time, and every year of age makes healing harder, so I fear you may be dealing with this for a while. Maybe a better doctor could have done something more active, but that was my experience.
*the first thing was “what were you doing running round the house with no shoes on?”. That’s the North of Scotland for you…
I’m not a doctor or a pop star, sadly, but maybe you could tape it to another toe to stabilize it?
Probably worth getting it checked out in case it’s something else like an infection.
I broke one of mine a while back. I wouldn’t have seen a doctor except that I had to as part of the process for getting paid time off work. All they could do was strap it to its neighbour. I couldn’t be bothered re-doing the strapping each day so I just left it. It healed eventually. Just don’t stub it while it is broken because it really fucking hurts!
Does yours look like this (click for full photo)? If so, it is probably broken.
“Re doing the strap”? I’ve broken/dislocated my pinkie toe a lot. I tape it to the next toe and leave it on for a week or so.
Also, ice it a few time a day if it’s still warm/swollen.
They taped mine to the next toe and said, “well we could X-ray it, but even if it turned out to be broken the treatment would be just the same.”
Whoa! It looks nothing like that, just reddish. Apparently it’s not broken, just hurts like hell.