pinky toe

i always knocked my toes every now and then, but the pain usually went away quickly. but this time it's pretty bad, i could hardly walk, and the sharp pain kept waking me up last night. now it's swollen, and i can see it starts bruising now. what should i do? what would the doctor do? should i go to hospital?

my husband is trying to drag me to some chinese bone doctor in chinatown. ugh. should i go?

there isn't too much they can do for a little toe. Sometimes they tape it to the toe next to it.

Keep your foot elevated when possible, don't wear tight shoes and take some Aleve or other pain meds.

oh, right. no shoes. i havent thought about that. i should go find where the hell my sandals are now.

Ice, ice, baby.

lol.

i did use ice yesterday when it first happened, but it still hurts like hell.

Ouch, sorry.

Ice, Advil, elevation, beer...

bullyboy wrote: Ouch, sorry.

Ice, Advil, elevation, beer...

Wine. Pinky toes need wine.

You're right. Beer makes them go wee wee wee wee all the way home.

Flexichick wrote: there isn't too much they can do for a little toe. Sometimes they tape it to the toe next to it.

Keep your foot elevated when possible, don't wear tight shoes and take some Aleve or other pain meds.

True. An x-ray would tell you if it's in fact fractured, which would let you know that this is going to take a few weeks to get better, not a few days, but the only treatment is "buddy taping" the toe (using the 4th toe as a splint for the 5th). Use a piece of gauze between the two toes as padding. Here's a picture showing the 2nd and 3rd toe buddy taped. Same principle.


Ice is good for the first 24-48 hours after the injury to minimize swelling, but not that useful after that. Elevation and NSAIDS (motrin, aleve, whatever) are also good. Sandals are a double-edged sword. They reduce pressure on the toe, but provide no protection from bumping it again. If you have (or can get) shoes with a wide front that won't put pressure on the toe, that's probably better.

If you think there might be any injury to the foot itself rather than just the toe, or if it's numb, pale, red, if there's a cut over the injured part, or anything else weird where you're not positive what's going on, you should see a doctor.

I'm glad to see Dr. Flexi's advice matches the experts :-)

Wow..sounds like a broken toe to me. My sister returned from Barbados and was in excruciating pain.She said she hit her pinky toe on something and it was swollen and hurts.She too thought the swelling would go down and it would stop hurting. After a few days she couldnt take the pain anymore and with my pointing out that it looked awfully weird went to the doctor to find it indeed was broken. They cant do anything for it. Told her to wear open toe shoes and it would heal itself in about 6 to 8 weeks.It has been 5 weeks and it is still swollen.Still hurting too as my 18 month old niece greeted her with a kiss and a step on said big toe 2 days ago .Ouch.

Busted toe. Ouch! Happened to me years back. I taped it to the "ring toe" and iced it when it hurt. Took a few weeks of the taping routine to get back to normal, but it's fine now. Good luck and I hope it stops hurting you soon!

thanks everyone

just an update, i just got back from nym, waited for 6+ hours. finally got the doctor and xray. broken toe.

at one point yesterday, my husband accidently kicked the toe too! (or rather, without him realizing, his shoe brushed my pinky toe when he was walking, though it felt like a kick for me). and omg, hurt like hell.

6 hours at NYM? oy. what did they tell you to do? I think we could have saved you some time :-)


As for the husband kicking the toe....One word....Divorce! ;-)

that's why i hate going to hospital, they are taking forever. the last time i went to emergency, it took me 4 hours too.

so anyway, i waited for probably 3 hours in nym, and didnt hear them calling so i went to check, and they told me they called me 4 times, i was like, HUH? i was waiting there with my husband, and he didnt hear it either. and we were sitting on the second row closest to the counter. so they told me that they took my name out of the system already, so i had to go through the whole thing again, including the wait. so the second half of the wait, i asked them every half an hour if they have called out my name. luckily i bought a book (i was expecting the wait would be long, from my past experience).