The Broken Toe

No, I'm not trying to become a foot model (one look at my foot and you will see there is no chance of that happening!!!).  That's my broken toe in its fabulous "buddy wrap." I wish a I had a really great story to write about how I broke my second toe.  I mean, as you can see it's hugely long so it is sticking and just begging to get injured.  But here is my story---a lady sat on my toe.  Ok, ok there is a little more to the story than that but not much.  So, I was sitting in an auditorium at a dance competition.  A lady sat down really hard on one of the auditorium type seats....you know, the kind that fold up to make it easier to walk down the row.  Well, when she sat down hard somehow my foot got jarred and it ended up in the crease where the seat closes up in the back when someone is sitting in it.  To say this whole thing hurt would be an understatement.  I about vomited because it hurt so bad.  I think the lady felt bad but her comment to me was that she had "broken her toe over 200 times and I was going to be just fine."  Then she got up a left a few minutes later.  Hmmmm, a little sympathy can go a long ways, even if it is a total freak accident.   8 hours later I got home and could ice the toe which was at this point black and purple and bruising which was going up my foot.   And I could barely walk. 

Since I have my M.D. in "self-diagnosis from the Internet" and I live with someone who has some pretty great first aid training due to being on ski patrol, I knew there was nothing to do except ice, take some anti-inflammatory meds, and limp around.  This lasted about two weeks until I met up with my friend at a birthday party who happens to be a doctor.  I have known him for a long time and I have heard his stories about people coming up to him in the grocery store asking him to diagnosis disgusting skin infections, etc, so due to some of his stories, I always refrain from asking any (ok, there are a couple of you who i cannot refrain from so consider your self lucky!) medical questions from my friends in the medical field.  Well, here I am, two weeks of no running which is affecting my mental health (you running friends will understand this!!!!) and still in pain from my toe....so I whip my toe out at the birthday party and force a medical opinion out of him.  He suggests I "buddy wrap" it so I can give the toe a bit of stability and it won't bend every time I walk.  The doc friend is also a runner, so he knows I'm struggling with this no running thing.  He tells me I should stay off of it for six weeks but since he understands the mind clearing side effects, he tells me if I can give up running for three weeks he would be proud.

8 days after having my toe unofficially examined (3 weeks and 1 day post break), I laced up my running shoes again.  This itself was quite a feat since I had only been able to wear flip-flops due to pain in a shoe.  The first 50 yards were perfect.  The next mile hurt like crazy.  Then my toe pretty much went numb and wow...that felt a ton better.  I was back!

***update 6/1/12***
Apparently due to having some pain in my toe, I have changed my gait while running to compensate.  Sunday night I hit my toe on the neighbor's sprinkler head that hadn't gone all the way down, flew into the air and landed hard out in the street.  I cut up my hands pretty good and bruised up my shin and hip.....thankfully I was at the end of my run.  Then last night, I majorly wiped out  about 1.3 miles into a run. I've been running for 20ish years and NEVER taken a serious fall that I can re-call.  On my second crash in 4 days, I re-injured my cut up hands, bruised a hip bones,got road rash on my thigh, and now have some majorly swollen,bruised, and cut up knees.  I went ahead and ran a little over 5 more miles and came home bloody.  To some, I may sound crazy.  But if you are one of my running friends, especially a Mom running friend who knows how those runs are sometimes the only quiet times of your week, you will totally understand!  And the best part, six weeks post break, my toe is feeling a TON better!!! See, I'm not that crazy!