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"I broke my toe . . ."

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Personal stories and videos about toe fractures

This is a photo of my left foot, taken April 27th, 2010. Notice how the fourth toe is pointing in a different and unnatural direction compared to the other digits on my foot. I broke my toe, and it's not the first time this has happened to me.

So I decided to make this web page dedicated to first hand accounts of broken toes. Misery loves company, I guess.

So here's how I broke my toe

The story of my left fourth toe fracture

I'm a fast walker. On the morning of April 27th, 2010, I was walking through the dining area of our house when my foot collided with the leg of a heavy dining-room chair. It hurt a lot, and the first thing that came to my mind was that I really hoped it wasn't broken. I tried to go on about my business, but I could tell that the pain was increasing instead of decreasing (that's always the tell-tale sign for me). I hadn't actually looked down at my foot when the accident first happened, but I finally looked down and saw that instead of pointing north, my fourth toe was taking a detour to the northwest.

My 10-year-old son was nearby, so I used it as an opportunity for some homeschooling. Here are the points that were covered (this is excerpted from my homeschooling blog -- What Did You Learn Today?):

  • He got to see what a fractured toe looks like.

  • We talked about how bones heal, why casts are helpful and how fractured toes are treated by taping the broken toe to its neighbor.

  • I explained the idea of medical triage - how if Mommy went to the Emergency Room, she might face a long wait because dying people take priority over people with broken toes.

  • This experience also reinforced something we already knew. JG's destiny in life will probably not be the practice of medicine. He couldn't watch when I got to the point of actually taping my toe.

  • I'm limping around the house now, but still taking care of business. I'm telling myself that this also counts as teaching important values of courage and not feeling sorry for oneself, as well as the value of not being a klutz.

A one-question quiz

Poll - Have you had a broken toe?

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Broken Toe Videos

Yes, there are a lot of broken toe videos on YouTube. These are the ones I picked as my favorites, based on the stories of how the toes got broken and/or the charm of the presenter.

Vote for the ones you like best!

(Just so ya know, there are some other entertaining toe fracture videos that I couldn't use here because they include words that you can't say on TV. I also stayed away from the ones where the toe-breaking incident happened on camera.)

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More broken toe videos

My Broken Toe
by FreerunnerDave | video info

4 ratings | 5,996 views
curated content from YouTube

Spiritual lessons from a toe fracture?

There are some healing traditions that encourage us to look at any physical or emotional health problem and ask ourselves, "What in this problem could be beneficial and healing for me and for the world?" So how about a broken toe? Is there anything in it that can make me or the world better?

Lesson of the broken toe: Slow down and be more aware.I was reading a blog post where the blogger had a history similar to mine -- she has had numerous toe fractures. She said that breaking a toe is a message to her that she needs to slow down and pay more attention.

I can definitely relate to that. As I said at the top of this page, I'm a fast walker. If the lesson for me is to take things slower and be more attentive to my surroundings, the broken toe causes this to happen immediately because I have to walk slowly while it's mending.

The fracture has also made it necessary for me to tell my children to be more attentive. My kids have a habit of stepping on my feet and barely noticing it. Sometimes I would complain about it and sometimes I wouldn't. But now it's imperative for me to tell them to be careful of Mommy's feet.

A broken toe music video!

When I was a kid, I remember hearing someone joking on TV that if a country singer broke his toe, he would write a song about it. Well, one of the members of the southern gospel group Gold City broke a toe, and his bandmates wrote a parody song and made a video about it. Here's "God Bless My Broken Toe" by Gold City.
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And there's a Broken Toe Club on Facebook!

Share your own fractured toe stories here!

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  • Reply
    MiddleSister Dec 31, 2011 @ 6:19 pm | delete
    I'm just guessing that I broke my toe. My 2nd toe was swollen and ouchy for weeks. It was from the same kind of stubbing that you did! Loved your quiz about what activities you would forego because of your hurt tootsie.
  • Reply
    Katemcm Sep 14, 2011 @ 4:07 pm | delete
    not a broken toe -but an ankle. My friend broke her toe two days later. Broken bones anywhere = no fun at all
    www.squidoo.com/fractured-ankle
  • Reply
    cwkerns Jul 25, 2011 @ 11:07 am | delete
    Fortunate enough never to have broken my toes.
  • Reply
    SmartChica Apr 17, 2011 @ 3:28 pm | delete
    Big toe, right foot, November of 1999. Took two years for it to stop hurting completely even with a doctor's help.

    How? Joking around with friends and got flipped over a modular sofa. The sections of the sofa were not tied together. The unit flipped back with my weight throwing me back with it and when my feet hit the floor the angle was off and it pushed the toe forward too far....snap!

    I was job hunting at the time. Ever job interviewed with a broken toe? Your shoe selection is very limited becasue of your swollen toe.
  • Reply
    _Joan_ Apr 17, 2011 @ 6:29 pm | delete
    Ouch! I've never fractured a BIG toe. That must be awful.

    But I know what you mean about shoe issues. Sometimes I went to church wearing one dress shoe and one sneaker.
  • Reply
    bloomingrose Mar 25, 2011 @ 12:52 am | delete
    Adorable lens. Talk about turning lemons to lemonade!
  • Reply
    ajgodinho Mar 12, 2011 @ 12:59 pm | delete
    Very nice way to turn a toe injury into lessons in life. I've hit my toes on furniture many times, but thankfully have never had a broken toe. **Blessed by a Squid-Angel**
  • Reply
    vallain Jan 17, 2011 @ 8:48 pm | delete
    I admire how you made good use of the injury to make a lesson for your child and to give information to the rest of the world.
  • Reply
    BigGirlBlue Jan 8, 2011 @ 11:28 pm | delete
    In the last two years both my husband and I broke the second toe on our right foot. I kicked the steel leg under the bed and he tripped. A match made in heaven! For both of us it seemed like it took forever to heal and is very easy to injure again while trying to get it to heal.
  • Reply
    LotusPetalYoga Dec 5, 2010 @ 2:52 pm | delete
    What a great idea for a page! Here are my two latest broken toe stories. Just last Firday night my son, who is only 4, tried to grab the cat. Instead he grabbed a 5 lb barbell and dropped it onto his toe, ouch! poor little guy, broken little toe. For me, just last year I kicked the bed frame, not with my toes but the sapce between the last two little toes and broke both of them. it was super painful and my whole foot turned black and blue!
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Why I don't go to the doctor for broken toes anymore

Once you know how toe fractures are treated (it's officially called "buddy taping"), you don't so much see the point of going to the ER (possibly with children in tow), paying a co-pay, and waiting to be seen just so that they can do something you could have easily done at home.

I've never had a fracture that included broken skin or bruising, so I have been comfortable with assuming the risk of self-diagnosis and self-treatment. But I'm not taking responsibility for anyone else's decision

Buddy taping a broken toe

Elizabeth tapes Eben's broken pinky toe

This video shows how simple buddy taping is.
Elizabeth plays nurse
by drtimwilliams | video info

0 ratings | 1,089 views
curated content from YouTube

Anyone blogging about broken toes?

Toe and behold: Lee poised for rapid return
I've [played with pain] on numerous occasions and I know I can play with a broken toe. "People asked how I played with my toe split in half at the MCG, but you do these things when you play for your country. In terms of [my] pain threshold I've played ...
Pain, Drugs and the Risks of Self-Medication
Only on one other occasion, when I broke a toe, had the nerves in my feet rebelled with excruciating stinging which had lasted for months. I am still uncertain what caused the severe flare up last year, but at that time I needed pain medication.
An Illegal Education: How I Had to Commit a Crime to Get a Fair Chance
The answer is: I broke a few laws, here and there. One of the reasons I initially eschewed becoming a journalist is because, to me it appeared that the profession required both an ability to work without being paid, and that deep pool of general ...
Aconcagua Adventures – Part 2
Most were complaining of freezing toes and went down upon advice from our guide. I also could not feel my toes but decided to remain silent about it. Five weeks later, this is a decision I am still feeling the effects of, as I sit writing this article ...
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Basic facts about toe fractures


Here's a detailed article about causes, treatment, and prevention of broken toes:

Broken toes article from Emedicinehealth.com

Some random books that mention broken toes

I did the search just for a laugh

75 book results showed up when I did an Amazon search on the phrase I broke my toe. I just picked a few that looked intriguing.
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About the author

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by

_Joan_

. . . who has had enough toe fractures that she prefers not to share the exact number.

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