Comments on: Lessons From My Broken Toe

By: Karen

Karen — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 22:46:28 +0000

Ive had 5 operations on my left foot, broke the side, then stubbed my three middle toes, then the next day broke my large toe. Turns out my foot is weak and that is why I continue to fall (foot drags) sometimes. Once you hurt your foot it is weak. I have tried to strengthen it bymyself hasnt worked. After 4 months still hurts after last break. Last time it took 12 months to heal. Im seeing a doctor at University of Michigan and will start therapy to stengthen it. One lesson is wear slippers in your house (or clean shoes). Make sure your foot is protected especially after you have had difficulties with it. I have finally learned my lesson I think.

Two years ago (for not wearing slippers in the house) I stubbed my right foot. Within two weeks I noticed the three middle toes began to curl. Shoes were impossible to wear. Went to doc and he said if he waits to do surgery he wont be able to fix them. He did surgery, cut the bone out (the tendons were mangled he said). Now they are permantly stiff (but straight). Live and learn I say. Now I find it strange not to have my slippers on.
Please be careful it can happen to anyone, any age.

By: Mandy

Mandy — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:59:52 +0000

Last Thanksgiving night I was staying over with my elderly mother since we would have to pay double time for help with looking after her. She went to bed and I went to bed in a different bedroom. I was not able to reach the lamp when I realized I still had on my jewelry. I wanted to take it off but still be sure it would be in my purse so I wouldn’t forget it the next day. I wandered over in the dark to just bend down and put it in my purse. BAM! I hit my lip and front tooth on the edge of a pan I brought to make the TG rolls on. I had it on the dresser, also in an effort to keep all my stuff in one place so I wouldn’t forget it.
After I hit it, and still in total darkness, I could feel the open gap with my tongue. I couldn’t believe what I had done. As I quickly reeled toward the light switch in the bathroom, I cupped my hand over mouth sure that blood would come next. When I reached the bathroom light, I was horrified to see the red spots falling all over the sink. I saw my lip and it looked split all the way through. It looked devoid of any swelling so I thought maybe I would be really scarred by it. I rinsed it out with warm water, tried to mush it all back in place, and holding a towel over it, went to bed. I checked it all through the night and was glad to see it swelling up, and the gap was knitting together and healing itself. I didn’t ever think I would welcome swelling, but that’s how it began to heal. 2 days later it is still swollen and I can’t laugh without holding my upper lip together so I won’t reinjure it. So far, I have only put antibiotic glop on it to keep it moisturized so it won’t split. There is a dark red line that ends just above my lip. I think it will be okay once it heals in a week or so.

By: CeleBrat

CeleBrat — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 03:00:26 +0000

Oh my gosh! I am laughing SO HARD while reading this….!

I too am accident-prone, and just broke my right 4th toe two nights ago by walking into the bed and “kicking” the bed leg with my right foot. It caused my toe to be bent over at a 45 degree angle, and was very creepy looking. It was the 5th time I had broken a toe, so I was used to it. But, I did need to go to the ER to get it set and straightened. (YUCK!)

My mom is also very accident prone, and has suffered any broken bones in her time. The most spectacular accident occurred after one of the hurricanes had just passed through Central Florida in 2004. It was the day after, and she went outside to check the mail. Her lawn is edged by maple (?) trees, that bear a lot of acorns, and the winds of the storm had caused all of the acorns on all of the nearby trees to be blown off. She inadvertently stepped on an acorn, did a cartoon “whoa-I’m-falling” thing, and fell, breaking her shoulder, elbow, and ankle.

On an acorn!!!

By: Alaska Lady

Alaska Lady — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 03:51:50 +0000

It was a dark hallway. Half asleep I walked toward my daughter’s room to say goodnight … SHAZAM! My right foot hits a vacuum cleaner HARD! “I think I broke my toe! I think I broke my toe!” The light was switched on and there was my right pinky toe at a 90 degree angle to the right. It looked really bad, but didn’t hurt as much as you think it would have by the way it looked. It was not an open fracture, but it has been about 5 weeks now and I too cannot move it or even feel it like I did before. It is also positioned differently now from its other four siblings. But I did survive.

By: Kraila

Kraila — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:52:00 +0000

Looks like those stairs are steep and each one is higher than it should be..

By: Crystal

Crystal — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:57:36 +0000

I already posted a comment to this about 6 months ago when I slammed my pinkie toe into my dining room chair… well I just freaking broke my big toe! i was walking up the stairs and got my toe caught in the hem of my pants… foot went one way… toe went the other. I went and had xrays this time…. definitely broken. so that’s… 6 broken toes now for me.

I called my best friend and told her I broke my toe and she LAUGHED! lol She says I need to wear steel toed boots… I say I just need steel toes.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:58:46 +0000

True story… as it’s 20 minutes fresh…

So I was *just* thinking…
My old man moved into the new house a few years before I was born…
That’s funny because my wife is having a baby in September…
He moved because he didn’t like stairs…
I don’t know what his problem is…
They’ve never been a problem for me…
That would have made him 40? No, no 30…
But not quite…
More like 28 or 29…
I’m 28…
That’s funny.
Here’s the last step, I’ll do a little hop around the corner.
*crunch, right-side big toe folds*
Ahh crap, that was the second to last step!

By: greenstrawberries

greenstrawberries — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 09:54:17 +0000

I am known as “accident prone” at work. (and everywhere else I have lived- many, many places) Let’s see… While in college, I stepped off a median and broke my ankle. It was literally 6 inches. My left ankle just decided not to come with the rest of my body and I crumpled on top of it. Eventually got to the campus clinic (a man came up to me and said, “Are you in need of medical assistance young lady!” I thought I was hallucinating.) The doctors there said it was just sprained. I argued with them that I’d heard it snap. They didn’t listen. The next day, it was tilting to one side, black and blue on one side, and it just didn’t look right. Went to another doctor who looked at it and said, “That’s broken.” I then had to move the next week, that wasn’t fun.
A few years later, I moved to Korea. My THIRD day in Korea I slipped in the bathroom at work (I was living at the school where I was working for a few weeks) and landed on my ribs on the toilet- bathrooms in Korea are slippery, there’s no shower curtains, you just get the bathroom all wet. I went to admin in excruciating pain, and they arranged to have an ambulance take me to the hospital. (talk about a great first impression) Turns out I cracked a rib.
Then, last year, my first year in China (I move a lot), I managed to slip going up the stairs and messed my knee up, was on crutches for 6 weeks (really not fun at high elevation-6000 ft, it’s like trying to run on crutches, you’re out of breath in like 5 steps). Then, 2 weeks after I was off crutches, I fell off my bike and landed on my face- right on the school playground. I needed stitches on my lip. That was school picture week. Then, this year, about a month ago, a bike hit my moped head-on, and I landed on my tailbone, and apparently dislocated it. Which I can tell you, is quite painful.
That’s just in the past few years too, I seem to have an ability to turn a simple slip into an injury requiring medical attention. It’s a talent. :)

By: Tdave

Tdave — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 09:41:44 +0000

(What to choose? what to choose?) O.k how about this:

I tripped over the line on the map.

As teenagers, my buddy and I were running down the street. literally “down the street” because it was on a hill. I tried to stop. My bottom half was stopping more than my top half so I stumbled and went “splat” face forward onto the pavement. I broke the cartilage in my right knee, scraped huge patches of skin off my forearms, and my right hip. I went for x-rays, no broken bones. Then I realized that where I had stumbled and fell was exactly on the borderline between two townships, as if I had tripped over the line that you see on a map. :p

By: Average Jane

Average Jane — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 03:35:38 +0000

The only time I ever fractured a bone, it was the knuckle of my little finger. It was a cold winter day and I was home on our small farm by myself. I went out to feed the horses and check on their water and noticed that the horse tank was frozen over. As I was breaking the ice with a sledgehammer, my little finger got between the handle of the hammer and the edge of the tank. It hurt a lot, but all the doctor did was prescribe a split for a couple of weeks.