How to Know if Your Toe Is Broken

on 4/19/2008 Buddy taping the toe and a stiff soled shoe are all you can do for a broken little toe, found that out last week when I snapped mine. But they're important! Don't think that because it's "just a toe" it doesn't need TLC like any other broken bone.

My husband's former boss broke the fourth toe, she didn't wear a stiff soled shoe the first few days and the fracture grew another two inches. Now she has to wear sneakers at all times for two weeks straight except when she's bathing or sleeping. No exceptions.

So whoever said their doctor advised them to walk it off, I wouldn't trust his opinion anymore. My own doctor's office said to do the taping and stiff shoe.

on 4/19/2008 I broke my toe, and went to the ER. I went to a good hospital, but depending on where you end up, make sure they take an X-ray image first before they touch anything! From the X-ray it was evident that I had a clean fracture (a total break) of my little toe bone. The nurse gave me a couple of pills as painkillers and swell reduction. Then she told me she had to straighten the bone (re-alignment). She did something and announced it was done, and then she taped it to the adjacent toe (the standard practice of what should be done to keep the bone in place), and gave me a special shoe to walk in with a hard base, and sent me on my way with crutches.

However, immediately the next day I went to see a podiatrist in town. She took a new X-ray and saw that the toe had not been aligned correctly! Rule #1: Always ask them to take an X-ray again after they do something to the toe to confirm what they did.

Then she injected some local anesthetic into the bone, and re-aligned my toe. She then confirmed before and after with a new X-ray. I could see the difference clearly!

Morale of the story: Do not be mislead by a diagnosis of a general doctor or ER person at the time, no matter how confident they may sound. It is better to let them patch it up, and then go straight to a specialist because the general practitioner will not be specialized in this field.

on 4/19/2008 I went to the emergency room at the hospital thinking my little toe was broken (since I could not even step on the foot with the injured toe). After waiting 6 hours to be seen by the physician, he confirmed it was broken without an X-ray. He gave me 2 pain killers and dismissed me form the hospital. 20 minutes after taking the pain killers, I started feeling dizzy. To make a long story short; I ended up vomiting for the next 7 hours. It is now a day later and I am walking fine. Moral of the story is the toe was not broken, it was a wrong diagnosis and the emergency room doctor just wanted to get me out of there as soon as possible.

on 4/19/2008 For my fracture, I used the buddy system with cotton wool between the toes and rested for a week. Even after 5 weeks the toe is still tender, but getting better every day, It still gets a bit sore when wearing shoes. For the first week the painkillers given to me at the hospital helped a lot.

on 4/19/2008 As a nurse, I would advise elevating the extremity (affected foot) to a level above the heart, thus decreasing blood flow to the injured area and lessening inflammation.