Broken toe: questions, concerns for future skating
Stan
Hello,
How long does it generally take for a broken toe to heal?
Last month I broke <in an accident not related to skating> the 2nd
largest toe on the left foot. I of course had to give up inline
skating 'til the broken toe heals.
I treated the injured toe with ice and by taking OTC ibuprofen. I wear
a fairly stiff hiking boot so that the toes don't bend or flex much.
I had been taping the broken toe to the big toe but then, from simple
research on the Web, found that it was important to have an X-ray
taken so that one would know to which toe the broken toe should be
taped. The X-rays were taken on Friday 11 September, and they did
indeed reveal a bone broken in the 2nd toe of the left foot. Knowing
now how the break occurred, I am taping it to the *middle* toe of the
left foot.
I wonder if any of you have had such a broken toe, how long it took to
heal, and how skating felt after complete bone healing. Was there are
problem from skating, or any pain from skating? [I ask since this is
the first bone I've ever broken in life.]
Do broken bones take longer to heal when one is 51 as I am, compared
to younger people?
Thanks,
Stan
Philip Roesel
the group who'll have a better answer but this is the answer I've always
gotten. If it doesn't hurt do it. So, strap the skate on and see how it
feels. Go easy.
I've broken several bones. They seem to heal faster with activity.
Good Luck,
Philip
Mark Abbott
> > How long does it generally take for a broken toe to heal?
Disclaimer: I'm no doctor, just somebody who's beaten the crap out of his
body over a large number of years and hence learned a bit about injuries from
the dealing with them personally.
It varies a lot from person to person, and yes you do heal slower the older
you get. Was the break in a joint or on one of the 'long' bones of the toe?
If a joint you're probably also dealing with a sprain on the toe which may
slow things down as well. Sprains are ligament damage and heal quite slowly.
Feet heal slower than most other body parts in general as the blood supply
isn't as good. A sprained toe can take a couple of months to be back to
normal, easily, though you can often do quite a bit long before that. Breaks
are similar though sometimes quicker than sprains.
The best way to handle it is to guage entirely by how it feels. Skate a bit
and see how it feels, WITHOUT ibuprofen or some other painkiller in you. Is
the pain severe, minor, non-existent? Does it cause swelling to skate? Is
the pain in the joints of the toe or in the bone itself? If you're taxing a
joint with the skating and it causes inflammation then you should back off a
bit and let things heal more. Working it some but not severely is ok just
make sure that you control the swelling with ice and ibuprofen. And you have
to judge for yourself if you're working it so hard that it's impeding
healing. Some work is good, too much isn't and every body is different. In
general, the older you are the gentler you have to be (this getting older
stuff sucks).
If it's the bone, broken bones ache when you stress them much at all. As
long as what you're doing isn't flexing the break, and hence getting in the
way of the healing, it's no big deal and more an issue of how much the pain
bothers you.
It's key that you don't take a painkiller before you skate. If you're on
painkillers then you're damping your body's best mechanism for telling you
whether the activity is okay or not. Take the painkillers after the skate if
you need them.
Mark
Mirella
i don't know much about broken toes apart from what's been posted
before, but i was just wondering.... Don't you have a doctor (general
of specialist)? And what does (s)he say?
groetjes,
Mirella :)
Shawn Powell
> How long does it generally take for a broken toe to heal?
I think it takes about 6 weeks, assuming you don't re-injure it as it is
healing.
> Last month I broke <in an accident not related to skating> the 2nd
> largest toe on the left foot. I of course had to give up inline
> skating 'til the broken toe heals.
>
> I treated the injured toe with ice and by taking OTC ibuprofen. I wear
> a fairly stiff hiking boot so that the toes don't bend or flex much.
>
> I had been taping the broken toe to the big toe but then, from simple
> research on the Web, found that it was important to have an X-ray
> taken so that one would know to which toe the broken toe should be
> taped.
The first time I broke a toe, I asked my doctor about it a couple of weeks
after the injury. He didn't even bother examining the toe. He just said
to keep it comfortable and let it heal on its own. He recommended a
stiff-soled shoe. I asked him about taping the toe to another toe, and he
said the only reason to do that would be if it makes the toe more
comfortable (which it didn't, so I stopped taping it). It eventually
healed just fine, although it still occasionally hurt a bit even after 6
weeks.
> I wonder if any of you have had such a broken toe, how long it took to
> heal, and how skating felt after complete bone healing. Was there are
> problem from skating, or any pain from skating? [I ask since this is
> the first bone I've ever broken in life.]
I have had two broken toes (middle toe, and big toe) in the past year, and
neither injury stopped me from skating for a single day. I found that it
didn't really cause me any pain to skate with a broken toe. Maybe it's
because of the inflexible sole of a skate. I do think I may have
re-injured my latest broken toe yesterday though, when I jammed it the
wrong way as I was putting my foot into my skate! I skated on it right
after I did that though, and there was no pain.
===================================================
Shawn Powell
smp1@*home.com
To e-mail me, remove the asterisk from my address.
===================================================
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste
good with ketchup.
Annette C. Hollmann
>
>Hello,
>
>How long does it generally take for a broken toe to heal?
For me it takes about 3-4 weeks.
>
>Last month I broke <in an accident not related to skating> the 2nd
>largest toe on the left foot. I of course had to give up inline
>skating 'til the broken toe heals.
I ended up with a broken toe twice. I broke the smallest toe once tripping
over my slideboard (yes I need to clean up my apartment) and stayed off my
skates for a week, and kept my foot taped for a month after that. I taped
around the entire front half of my foot.
I broke the second largest toe at a competition last Thanksgiving at a
meet. I was taking off my skates and putting my shoes back on when a
little brat came running by on skates and accidentally stomped down very
hard on my foot. She wasn't skating down the carpet, she was actually
*running*. I still had two outdoor races the next day, so I taped my foot
and skated. This time I did double layer tape: one layer around three toes
- the broken one and one on either side, and one layer around the entire
front of the foot. It worked pretty well
I do have skates that protect my feet very well - I've gotten away with
skating with a sprained ankle more than once.
Annette
P.S. You don't have to tell me that I'm nuts - I already know that.
Shawn Powell
> I ended up with a broken toe twice. I broke the smallest toe once tripping
> over my slideboard (yes I need to clean up my apartment)
Incredible! That is EXACTLY how I broke one of my toes! I tripped over my
slideboard in the dark. Who knew those things would be so dangerous? :-)
Anyway, I don't see any problem with skating with a broken toe, as long as it
doesn't cause any sharp pain to do so. It hurts me more to walk around in bare
feet with my broken toe than it does to skate on it.
Gerhard Gruber
From: Gruber Gerhard
Group: rec.sport.skating.inline
Date: Mon, 21 Sep 1998 16:57:50 GMT:
>Incredible! That is EXACTLY how I broke one of my toes! I tripped over my
>slideboard in the dark. Who knew those things would be so dangerous? :-)
>Anyway, I don't see any problem with skating with a broken toe, as long as it
>doesn't cause any sharp pain to do so. It hurts me more to walk around in bare
>feet with my broken toe than it does to skate on it.
Probably because this way you bend it. While skating your toe should be pretty
fixed in position unless you cramp it when you are a starter. The only thin, I
imagine, that could be hard is to get in and out of the shoes, though.
--
Bye,
Gerhard
email: spar...@eunet.at
g.gr...@sis.co.at
Spelling corrections are appreciated.
ICQ#: 18578771
Jacco van Zandwijk
got in the way and my toe didn't agree with that...). The 1st week it hurt
like hell, but after five weeks I could actually get in my skates again and
after six weeks I was skating like nothing ever happend.
Shawn Powell schreef:
> Stan wrote:
>
> > How long does it generally take for a broken toe to heal?
>
Amber Robinson
Shawn Powell <smp1@*home.com> wrote:
>Annette C. Hollmann wrote:
>
>> I ended up with a broken toe twice. I broke the smallest toe once tripping
>> over my slideboard
>Anyway, I don't see any problem with skating with a broken toe, as long as it
>doesn't cause any sharp pain to do so. It hurts me more to walk around in bare
>feet with my broken toe than it does to skate on it.
>
It is not a wise decision - it could swell in your boot
while you're skating, and it cause the healing to take
longer.
I would suggesst that the original poster, the poor fellow
with the broken toe, discuss this with his/her doctor and
get professional advice.
Kallum
af...@my-dejanews.com
Hi Mark,
Thanks for offering information for me and for others who might have a broken
toe in the future.
> It varies a lot from person to person, and yes you do heal slower the older
> you get. Was the break in a joint or on one of the 'long' bones of the toe?
A little while ago I called the hospital where the X-rays were taken on
Friday 11 Sept. The nurse practitioner I see at this hospital checked the
computer record made by the rheumatologist and radiologist who looked at the
X-rays. [I did not meet with these 2 doctors, only the nurse.] The record
reads: "Comminuted fracture 2nd distal proximal phalanx [i. e. toe]. Fracture
extends intra articular surface." She said this means that the fracture does
extend into the joint.
> If a joint you're probably also dealing with a sprain on the toe which may
> slow things down as well. Sprains are ligament damage and heal quite slowly.
> Feet heal slower than most other body parts in general as the blood supply
> isn't as good. A sprained toe can take a couple of months to be back to
> normal, easily, though you can often do quite a bit long before that.
The nurse told me today that it could take several months before my toe is
back to normal. She's glad (and I am) that I can ride my bicycle. I wear the
stiff hiking boot while riding my bicycle and my left foot and toes are OK
while riding.
> Breaks
> are similar though sometimes quicker than sprains.
>
> The best way to handle it is to guage entirely by how it feels. Skate a bit
> and see how it feels, WITHOUT ibuprofen or some other painkiller in you. Is
> the pain severe, minor, non-existent?
In an accident not related to skating, I broke the toe on 13 August-- yes, I
did skate in pain on 15 August because I did not know that the toe actually
broke on 13 August. [I can get myself into trouble with injuries, with doing
physical things when I shouldn't do them.] While I gave up skating on 15
August, I'm a bit reluctant to try skating now. Sometimes from walking or
some sort of flexing of the left foot, I do still have great pain in the
broken toe.
> Does it cause swelling to skate? Is
> the pain in the joints of the toe or in the bone itself? If you're taxing a
> joint with the skating and it causes inflammation then you should back off a
> bit and let things heal more. Working it some but not severely is ok just
> make sure that you control the swelling with ice and ibuprofen. And you have
> to judge for yourself if you're working it so hard that it's impeding
> healing. Some work is good, too much isn't and every body is different. In
> general, the older you are the gentler you have to be (this getting older
> stuff sucks).
>
> If it's the bone, broken bones ache when you stress them much at all.
When I looked at the revealing X-ray taken in the hospital on 11 Sept. I
could clearly see the broken bone in the 2nd largest left foot toe. So I
suppose Mark that the bad pain - from certain flexing or bending while
walking - was the pain from a broken bone in the toe. It was a severe, sharp
aching sort of pain that subsided after a short while.
For weeks now the toe has looked a bit odd to me-- in the segment closest to
the main body of the foot, it looks fatter and very slightly off color. On
the side of this toe -- the side by the next smaller toe -- there is a hard
ridge that I'm sure wasn't there before my toe accident. I think this ridge
is the broken bone in the toe. [I have cotton between the broken toe and the
middle toe, and I have tape wrapped around the two toes, keeping them
together.]
> As
> long as what you're doing isn't flexing the break, and hence getting in the
> way of the healing, it's no big deal and more an issue of how much the pain
> bothers you.
I saw my nurse practitioner on 17 August- 2 days after skating with the
broken toe. While the X-rays of course had not been taken yet [not until 11
Sept.], she told me I had so much pain while skating on 15 August due to the
muscles that pull on the toes even though my foot is confined in a skate
boot. [I also did not start using ice and ibuprofen until after the painful
skating of 17 August. I've not used ice for weeks now-- I suppose it wouldn't
do much good now.]
I'll just have to wait to see how the healing proceeds.
Thanks,
Stan
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Mark Abbott
> some sort of flexing of the left foot, I do still have great pain in the
> broken toe.
Which is your body's way of saying "back off". If you don't let a break or sprain
heal properly before severely taxing it you can prolong the healing or even keep
it from ever healing back to normal.
> For weeks now the toe has looked a bit odd to me-- in the segment closest to
> the main body of the foot, it looks fatter and very slightly off color.
>
Breaks often have quite a bit of discoloration around them, especially toes and
fingers. Bruising seems to just come with the package. The ridge is probably the
line along the break
> she told me I had so much pain while skating on 15 August due to the
> muscles that pull on the toes even though my foot is confined in a skate
> boot.
That makes sense. As the toe heals you'll probably find that you can do a fair
amount in stiff shoes or skates long before you're truly comfortable in soft shoes
or barefoot.
Ice IS still useful though. Everytime you work the toe a bit you'll get some
swelling. Ice can help reduce that swelling.
Mark