Ever drop anything on your toe? Pic included - don't look if you are squeemish

shoegal715

OBVIOUSLY not wedding related. I've had a bad year in terms of injuries. First it was the concussion from the car accident, then the bad ovarian cyst, and now I dropped a large plate on my stupid toe!! 

I smashed it last Thursday and was in so much pain I couldn't catch my breath. I went to the ER where they drained my hematoma and it helped a bit. It was still painful enough to keep me up. I didn't sleep Thursday night. 

It's now Monday night and my toe is still swollen, red, painful and tender. I can't walk or drive, and I'm just chilling on the couch icing it, elevating it, taking advil and taking it easy.

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this. When did you feel back to normal? The doctor at the hospital was useless and only said "everyone is different, I don't know when you will feel better."  They doctor never took xrays, didn't give me pain meds, and basically told me to suck it up and go home.

Think my nail is going to come off? This picture was taken tonight - still look pretty bad? 

goheels05

Ouch!  I don't have any experience with that.  It seems like he could have at least prescribed some pain meds. 

aggiebug

Be thankful he didn't do xrays, all that would have told you is if it was broken or not but his recommendations would still be the same.  No casting, no pain med (recommend OTC stuff) 

Its hard to tell for sure if the nail will fall off but it is quite likely that it will.  If you are feeling a lot of pressure in your toe, it is probably due to build up of blood under the nail.  This means the nail will probably fall off.  You can relieve that pressure by sterilizing a sewing needle (in a flame for 30sec) and poking it through the nail.  It sounds creepier than it hurts, but it can relieve some of that pressure under there and may help with the pain you are feeling.  

I hope it feels better soon

snoangel79

The toenail will probably fall off, I have had two instances one with a brick and another with a fat drunk guy haha

Just ice and take tylenol. Not to be gross but there will be another toenail that grows under that and if it doesn't fall off the other will push it off.

Hope it gets better quickly!!!

[Deleted User]

I dropped an oak tree root on my foot and big toe before, which resulted in crutches and a hell of a lot of pain. There was nothing I could do but ice it and take Aleve. And yes, the nail will likely fall off, nothing you can do about that.

Hope it gets better soon!

strbt

I feel your pain!!!!   When I was 9, my horse stomped on my foot and wouldn't get off.  I pulled my foot out from under her hoof and when we took my boot off, the toenail just came right off.  I was taken to the Dr., who told me that I needed to go have x-rays to see if it was broken---and that, if it were crushed, I would have to have surgery.  My mom was livid that the Dr. was giving such a grim outlook to a 9 year old.  I was terrified it was crushed all the way to the ER.

The x-ray tech couldn't tell us if it was broken and that it would take a week to get the results back from the Dr.  He did tell us (since we were leaving on a 1 week vacation the next day) that I wouldn't need to worry about it.  Even if it were broken (we found out later it was), there was not much to be done about it.  I recall not being able to walk around the entire vacation and I hobbled around for a month or two.  The toenail took about a year to grow back. 

Hope it feels better soon! 

snoangel79

I think my toenail grew back quickly about 2 months, I was ok after a few weeks with the brick, the heavy guy wasn't as painful.

momofayden

I broke my toe last year on vacation when i  jammed it into the leg of a couch and then proceeded to hit it literally a dozen more times throughout the week.  Sucked!  it took a few weeks to feel 100% again. And it still gets sore from time to time.

shoegal715

Ok.. this might be a stupid question, but when you say the nail will fall off  - how exactly does that happen? 

Omg I'm getting queasy just thinking about it. LOL

Will I wake up and my toenail will be completely gone? So there will just be skin and no more nail at ALL? 

Will the new nail push the old nail up and cause it to break off? 

Or will I be in so much pain I'll have to go and have a doctor remove it? 

Also, when did your nail fall off? A week later/ month later? right away?

Thanks girls! You can tell I'm a wimp with this kind of stuff lol

JenniferC2010

I've had a similar injury and two toes looked just like yours. I didn't suffer any broken bones but in the ER I requested they remove the toenails of the ones that pressure was unbearable. They did and while it took a good 8 months go have a nail again the pain was lessened as soon as the pressure was relieved.

I'd say I couldn'dt walk for about a month without elevating it every 30 mins.

BrendaAndEric

Eeew. I did that to a fingernail once when I slammed my hand in a car door. Also my dad once caught his hand in a winch that was for dragging boats out of a lake... he had a couple of purple nails, and a broken finger. The fingernails do fall off and grow back relatively normal.

fairy_diva

Been there myself, and it did fall off. Mine was from a trolling motor on a boat. The pain is from the build up of blood under the toenail, you can soak your toenail in peroxide and then use a sewing needle to poke a hole in it.  This will let the nasty yuck come out, your pain will go away but the nail will fall off sooner.