Print Page - OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe

Welcome to Techsurvivors => Community => Topic started by: gunug on May 17, 2007, 01:22:45 PM

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: gunug on May 17, 2007, 01:22:45 PM

I was trying to set up a hose to water an area with new grass in it at work but before work started. I hopped over a "condenser" line hooked to an air conditioner compressor unit and slipped in the gravel and did a flop into the asphalt. I: 1) knocked the wind out of my fool self, 2) scraped my elbow, 3) scraped my knee, 4) severely overstressed the big toe on my left foot. The question is (supposedly there are no stupid one's) how does one know that it's broken and do they currently do anything about it!

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: RobW on May 17, 2007, 02:21:57 PM

1. x-ray.

2. depends on number 1

3. While TS is a great site for lots of stuff, I'd not recommend seeking your medical advice here. Unless you want one of us to do the old joke of "does it hurt when you go like this?" "Then don't go like that."

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: Paddy on May 17, 2007, 04:01:55 PM

While I agree with Rob (about not seeking definitive medical advice here - or anywhere online for that matter) there are some helpful info sites that do have suggestions about what the symptoms might look like:

http://www.ehow.com/how_6044_know-toe-broken.html

Treatment clearly depends on the type and severity of the break:

http://www.healthsquare.com/ndfiles/nd0734.htm

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: jepinto on May 17, 2007, 08:10:27 PM

1. You KNOW when a bone is broke. There is a spot, in the back-middle of your stomach, back where it resides next to the backbone that TELLS you. Kinda like when you were a kid and jumped off the side of the pool, and did a flip right after/when you hit the water. And that doesn't quite do the feeling justice. But, believe you me, you KNOW.

2. They basically tell you to keep your weight off of it. HAH! But, a pencil, taped or glued to the bottom of your shoe, right under your toe space (you know, the ball of your foot) will do it. If a pencil is too thick, a couple of popsicle sticks, adjust to fit your step, will do the same thing.

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: RNKIII on May 17, 2007, 09:25:58 PM

Happened to me twice while in the service of Uncle Sam... And in their infinite whizzdom they assigned me 'light duty' the first time (barracks orderly) and the second time they put a steel plate in the sole of my boot so my foot wouldn't flex so much... try a 20 mile hike like that sometime...

X-ray is the only way to 'detect' a broken or cracked bone in the foot... and even then it may not show up on the x-ray due to the complicated structure of the foot and the bones there in..

Best of luck....plenty of Ibuprophan.... and 'light duty'

Bob K. rnkiii

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: gunug on May 18, 2007, 01:13:27 AM

Oh, I sought medical advice yesterday morning, right after it happened; and the Dr's office only got back to me after I left work at 4pm! I still don't know what they said (probably left a voice mail). I have health insurance but feel hesitant to contribute my own money to the growing medical industry!

QUOTE

Oh, when I was laying in a puddle on the asphalt I felt that way; It's funny, I just woke up because of pain in my shoulders and upper arms which I apparently wrenched around trying to save myself! I'm going to sleep in tomorrow morning and go to work in the afternoon. I have a bruise around the inside and underside of the toe which means, at least, I tore up some blood vessels! The knee is swollen to about 1-1/4 times the size of the other knee!

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: krissel on May 18, 2007, 01:25:12 AM

Sorry to hear of your pains. But it is important to seek medical care when it involves a part of your anatomy that has to support you in your movement.

I damaged two toes many years ago when they came in full force contact with a pile of roofing shingles which did not give their ground. Hobbling around for a long time and pretending it would just go away was not a good idea. Only recently have I been able to bend the toes substantially. Should have sought attention when it happened but I'm not one of those who runs to the doc unless it's really serious.

So it only took about 15 years to get better.

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: Highmac on May 18, 2007, 02:33:41 AM

Broke a middle toe when the motorbike I was riding went along the side of a parked van that had been hidden in fog. Went to casualty and they told me toe WAS broken, "nothing we can do, best thing you can do is walk on it..."

Mind you, that was 40-odd years ago - hopefully medicine has advanced a little since then

Hope you recover soon.

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: jepinto on May 18, 2007, 08:01:58 AM

QUOTE(gunug @ May 18 2007, 02:13 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

And that is the other side of the coin. More hurts, WORSE hurts, trying to stop a fall. A friend survived falling out of a pickup bed, doing 45, because he was too "relaxed" to stop himself. The MD's said

saved his life. Another friend tried to break a fall on a sticky lane approach...9 months later she finally was able to bowl again. Compound fractures of ulna or radius do that, you know.

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: kimmer on May 19, 2007, 09:37:15 AM

Ouch! Sorry to hear about your aches and pains, gunug.

Like Kris, I banged up a toe, ignored it and now pay the price. One year later it doesn't ache any longer and the doc said, "Well, we could rebreak it and set it."

Hah!

Let us know how you're doing.

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: Gregg on May 19, 2007, 07:18:09 PM

Hope you're hoppin' around some better by now!

When I cracked my heel, it didn't show up on a x-ray two days later. But, it didn't get better, so I went to and orthope.. orthoped... a bone doctor. They took another x-ray, and sure 'nuff, there was a little line in there that wasn't supposed to be. Doc said that it's common for the trauma to disguise an internal fracture like that. It still wasn't much better after several weeks, so they put me in a Denver boot, well, a Milwaukee boot, to keep me from flexing and give it a rest. That did it, and I got off the crutches and started an exercise routine that I continue to this day, which has trimmed me down and made me feel better all around.

Good luck!

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: sandbox on May 19, 2007, 11:43:25 PM

I like the crunch and grind method myself. Grab hold of the little bugger and listen or feel if it crunches. You can place a microphone on the toe as you move it around. If it needs resetting now would be the time to do it, waiting just makes for a longer healing process. For Broker Toes I recommend Johny Walker Black on ice before you pop it back in place.

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: gunug on May 20, 2007, 09:05:37 AM

I was on it all day yesterday (Eagle Project and then a dinner with family to celebrate my nephews graduation from Engineering School and acceptance to Medical School) and it's hardly even sore this morning. I'm thinking now the thing isn't broken. My knee on the other hand is still fairly swollen so I'm icing it!

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: jcarter on May 20, 2007, 12:20:53 PM

Ouch! That happened to me playing soccar with some guys back when I lived and worked in Bermuda. I kicked something that wasnt the ball!
My big toe swelled up like a baloon, and turned purple, and it sure did hurt. I could not get my sneaker on for about a month, so wore bare feet to work or an old pair of sandles that I cut the strap off the front of.
I was too young and dumb to go to the hospital in Hamilton. Thank god I could get my flippers on, as diving was a very important part of my life there.
That toe still hurts if I bump it wrong, and thats like 40 years ago! So moral of that story, get it xrayed and at least see a doctor to see if the toe can be fixed somehow.
Jane

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: gunug on May 20, 2007, 07:03:37 PM

QUOTE

when I lived and worked in Bermuda.

My step-dad was down there for a grand adventure back in the 1980's; he and his buddies cruised around in a Vietnam era PT-boat and went diving and did everything but kick things that weren't soccer balls!

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: jcarter on May 20, 2007, 08:00:58 PM

Yes indeed, a fantastic place to scuba, and snorkel too.
I took a topo map which was also a chart, a sort of combined map, that I kept adding to with pencil over the several years that I was there. I still have that map!
I need to get it out of the closet and scan it in bit by bit, as the best diving is where all my notes are. But this was 40 years ago, when I worked here, http://www.bbsr.edu/
Their site has recently changed, and everything there has really changed.
Jane

edit/add,,,,one of the reasons that I opted for a tour of duty there was my dad played golf there all the time, and said it was a great island, and he had not even snorkeled at his age.

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: gunug on May 23, 2007, 04:19:40 AM

The swollen/bruised knee has gotten down into my leg (yeech!) and I'm going to see the Dr. today; the toe on the other hand is perfectly fine!

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: RobW on May 23, 2007, 06:33:17 AM

Uh, gunug, in all seriousness, don't screw around if the "swelling from your knee is down in your leg." As one who spent 6 days in the hospital with "Deep Vein Trombosis" (aka DVT aka blood clots), followed by a year (which is 6 months longer than usual) on coumadin (blood thinners), I can tell you that you must have that checked. Soon. I hope for you it's just the bruise, but don't play around with that.

We now take you back to your "community forum" programming.

Title: OT: How can you tell if you've got a broken toe
Post by: Gregg on May 23, 2007, 07:35:14 AM

John, I hope they get you fixed up before you have to let your fingers do the walking. Take care!