Oh crap I really hurt my toe! How do I know if it's bad?

[fuzzpig]

Hurt it playing football earlier today (the one time I'm well enough to play with the DCs, go figure )

Still reeeeally hurts so it's worse than a stubbed toe, can't put any weight on it. What do I do?

Oh Fuzz!
Go to minor injury unit? Which toe is it? Is the toe straight as it should be or bent? Is there the beginning of bruising? If it hurts to move it you could have broken it. I have broken both my little toes (on separate occasions)and knew immediately, they were broken, although the bruising was more obvious days later. I went to minor injuries with the most recent break (the toe was at an odd angle) and because it was only a little toe they did not xray, but stuck it with sticky plaster (with gauze to pad between the toes) to the next toe, which helped. I found wearing stiff footwear such as walking boots the best! I was also told to rest it as much as possible and keep it high(foot stool) to prevent too much swelling. Hope it feels better soon.

Does it hurt only when you move it? (Likely a muscle/tendon injury)

Does it hurt all the time, even if you are not moving it or bearing weight on it (Likely to be broken/fractured)

In any case, ice it and take an anti-inflammatory painkiller like Advil or Nurofen.

Hasn't stopped hurting at all but is much worse when I try bending it and can't put weight on it. But if I walk leaning on the outside of my foot (IYSWIM) I get shooting pains in the big toe, where the knuckle is if that makes sense

I could go to walk in or minor injuries straight from the school run but reluctant to go unless I have to! It doesn't look any different from my other foot at all.

It sounds like you need an x-ray.

Damn I was hoping you'd all tell me to stop being dramatic :o

OK if it's still hurting in the morning I'll head to minor injuries (I guess there's no point in the walk in GP if there's no X-ray facility there?)

Oh well at least I'll get to spend ages reading my book :o

Still hurts this morning and keeps going tingly so after I've walked to DCs to school (today is one of the few occasions I wish we had a car!) I'll head straight to minor injuries.

Before you go, is it a big toe? My minor injuries unit don't x-ray toes, the large one being the exception.

Whether it's broken or not you've done damage to the soft tissues. You really ought to be resting/icing/compressing/elevating it to help it heal. So do try to spend less time on it and more time sitting around reading your book with your foot on the sofa!

I didn't have an X-ray in the end! They had a good look/feel and reckon it's not broken. They were really nice though and I didn't feel like I'd wasted their time, as they would've x-rayed if necessary (it is indeed the big toe crash :))

They said to go back next week if it still hurts.

Got my foot up now don't worry purple :o

Thanks all