Walking with no toe articulation

[fknm]

In the grade schools I suffered in for 12 years, figures of authority liked to claim that you're supposed to learn one new thing every day. Today, I learned just how hard it is to walk when you can't move your toes at all*.

Background- Last Saturday, I took a nasty fall, and injured my left ankle and the small toe on my right foot. Figured "meh, it'll take care of itself". Fast-forward a few days, and the toe still hurt, despite the bruising being mostly gone, and at that point I figured it was time to see a doctor. Surprise, surprise- it's broken. Doctor's directions were to tape all of my toes together with athletic tape. Turns out it's quite challenging to walk this way. I had never realized just how much the human stride relies on being able to bend and push off with the ball, but when my foot hits and leaves the ground like a brick with each step, it becomes amazingly obvious.

*Disclaimer- this wasn't the only new thing I learned today, but unless anyone here is interested in the differences between doing pragma export to c on variables in ada and how gcc 2 reacts differently than gcc 4, this is probably the most interesting thing.

[Winter_Wolf]

Absolute sympathy from here. While my ankle/foot isn't broken, I somehow managed to twist the same ankle twice in two days. Here's a tip: don't do that.

Make mummy type noises to amuse yourself when you walk. Foot injuries are sucktastic.

[Cobalt]

Ouch. :smallfrown:

Sorry to hear that. Though I've never actually broken any bones (I think) I did jump off a cliff once* and slammed into my right foot. Couldn't walk very well for a while, needless to say. Hope you're feeling better soon.



*It was taller than it looked from the top. I thought I could make it. Don't judge me.

[wxdruid]

I had the smallest two toes on each foot broken for me during surgery. They operated to make them straighter. For quite awhile after that I had to wear those funny shoes to walk and keep my toes from moving.

They operated so that I would be able to walk or run for longer periods and not have my toenails rubbing the insides of the next toe over. Now, years after the surgery, I'd say it was a success, even if I'm missing part of the joint in each of those toes.

[Thajocoth]

Would a cane help? It's something else to push off of.

Any reason the doctor didn't want to put a cast on it? I'm not so sure tape is going to keep it aligned well enough to heal properly...

Also, get better.

[factotum]

My colleague at work is currently off sick with a broken toe...he's really not looking forward to hobbling back in next Monday!

[Syka]

One toe really isn't that big of a deal. At least your doctor's actually told you what you can do to help, lol.

Thajo, there really isn't much they can do for toes because they are small. A cast might help with avoiding further trauma should something be dropped on it, but other than that it won't let it heal any better. That is their version of a finger splint for toes, basically. I mean...they don't even cast fingers. Putting a cast on your leg for your toe would be complete overkill, and really expensive to boot. As someone whose healed two big toes (see below) with no real medical intervention (not even bandages, lol), it's not a big deal. I'd imagine pinky toes are even less of a deal. Hurts? Heck yeah. Worth spending lotsa money when likelihood of future issues is small? Nope.


I've broken my big toe twice now. Once in high school after I tripped over my sister backpack. We went to the emergency room the next night when, after class, I took my sock off and saw my toe had turned purple after walking on it all day.

They told me they COULD put pins in, but they didn't really recommend it. Other than that, "Just don't drop anything on it." :smallsigh: 'Cause I totally drop things on my feet on purpose.


This last time was in the beginning of May; don't as how I did it, but I got my big toe (other foot) caught in the car door. It was bloody and hurt like hell. It took 2ish weeks to stop hurting, and I'm definite I broke it because A. it was swollen pretty bad and B. it felt like something was 'loose'. Didn't even bother going to the doctor this time around, lol. I just limped around for a week and a half until I could walk on it (managed to hurt my knee in the process...just TRY walking with your big toe elevated...).


Edit: Forgot to mention, they stuck me on crutches for about two days with the first one. I refused to use them after that since they didn't help much. :smallsigh: So...some medical intervention in the first case, but more in the "Don't put pressure on it" realm than the "Stabilize it" realm.