How do I know if I have broken a small toe?

The only way to know for sure is a radiograph. Either way, there’s not much to do about it. If it is fractured, the only thing your doctor is likely to do is to tape the toe to the nearest neighbor (toe) to help to stabilize it and reduce movement. Elevation and icing it will help with the pain.

It hurts for longer. And when you try to bend it, it hurts like censored. I fractured my middle toe once.. nothing you can do about it. Just tape it yourself instead of wasting money on a doctor, they can’t do much for you.

This has happened to me a couple times and it turned purple and black – in addition to hurting like a mother.

Pain. It hurts like crazy. Again just tape it up yourself, that’s all a doctor can do. Or you can do like me and just ignore it and end up with deformed little toes.

This happened to me before on both my little ones. Look for swelling and bruising. Not much you can do, so just tape it. You can ice it too to relief some pain.

And break a popsicle stick to use as a tiny split. A broken toe looks very different from the normal little piggies.

(*relieve)

if your not sure its broken, then its not broken or at most just slightly fractured. If you actually break something there is going to be no doubt about it.

You need to get it xrayed. A fractured fifth met (little toe) can be one of the most difficult ones to heal. People tend to take it lightly and think that it will heal on it’s own, and that is true in many cases, but if it is fractured in a certain place, it can only be repaired surgically. The longer you wait, the more involved a possible surgery could be, so I suggest you see a podiatrist as soon as possible. Your family doctor can do an xray, but many times they miss a fracture because there are so many bones in the foot. If you go to your family doctor for the xray, I would be happy to have my doctors take a look at the xray if you can e-mail a copy of it to me. I work for a podiatric group. Send me a pm if you need any more help with this.

Thanks, fellow Fluthers. The toes (yeah, two turned blue) are much better today. I can wiggle them with little pain, still is sore to step, so I’m guessing I just jammed them. The whole toes never turned blue, only the bases of the toes and a little of the pad of my foot. Lesson learned: I guess I need to keep houseshoes beside the bed. Maybe I will get those houseshoes with headlights, like Bill Ingvall talks about.

@steel: glad that toes are not broken.If the blue turns to green and then yellow, you are home safe. You may lose the nails, but they should grow back.

Now, about those houseshoes w. lights.. Please send more info (and by “houseshoes,” do you mean what we Yanks call “bedroom slippers”?)

Beats me. Ingvall just makes fun of them in his standup routine. No clue where to get them (or if they actually exist!). I’ve actually got an old pair of blown-out loafers that I wear around the house in cold weather. Spring = warmer weather = no houseshoes = painful toe encounter.

@steel; remember the flipflops and keep them holy.

OH, and would add that my county is now the epicenter of Lyme disease in the entire contiguous 48. So we all practically wear white haz-mat suits when walking in the woods or gardening. I am ready to use a flea, tick comb on ME whenever I go inside.

@steelmarket I’m glad to hear you are feeling better. If you still have trouble walking on it in a week, you really should get it checked. the “pad” area you are reffering to is where the worrysome breaks occur. I don’t mean to sound like a worry wart, but I don’t want you to have further damage from waking on a possible fracture.

just tape your toes together and make sure they’re straight.

@Big88 Actually it’s very possible to break a bone and not even know it until a little bit after. Usually that happens when you’ve been doing something requiring a lot of adrenaline. And often breaks can be better then having sprains and other such ‘minor’ injuries (minor to those who typically compare them to breaks) when it comes to healing time and future injuries to the same body part.

This is what a broken toe looks like

you can get the house shoes with headlights at www.brightfeetslippers.com – bill engvall was the guy who made them popular

happened yesterday, black and blue not to much swelling but heck to walk on. how long should it take to feel better
thanks