pinky toe

bullyboy wrote: Ouch, sorry.

Ice, Advil, elevation, beer...

Wine. Pinky toes need wine.

Flexichick wrote: there isn't too much they can do for a little toe. Sometimes they tape it to the toe next to it.

Keep your foot elevated when possible, don't wear tight shoes and take some Aleve or other pain meds.

True. An x-ray would tell you if it's in fact fractured, which would let you know that this is going to take a few weeks to get better, not a few days, but the only treatment is "buddy taping" the toe (using the 4th toe as a splint for the 5th). Use a piece of gauze between the two toes as padding. Here's a picture showing the 2nd and 3rd toe buddy taped. Same principle.


Ice is good for the first 24-48 hours after the injury to minimize swelling, but not that useful after that. Elevation and NSAIDS (motrin, aleve, whatever) are also good. Sandals are a double-edged sword. They reduce pressure on the toe, but provide no protection from bumping it again. If you have (or can get) shoes with a wide front that won't put pressure on the toe, that's probably better.

If you think there might be any injury to the foot itself rather than just the toe, or if it's numb, pale, red, if there's a cut over the injured part, or anything else weird where you're not positive what's going on, you should see a doctor.

Wow..sounds like a broken toe to me. My sister returned from Barbados and was in excruciating pain.She said she hit her pinky toe on something and it was swollen and hurts.She too thought the swelling would go down and it would stop hurting. After a few days she couldnt take the pain anymore and with my pointing out that it looked awfully weird went to the doctor to find it indeed was broken. They cant do anything for it. Told her to wear open toe shoes and it would heal itself in about 6 to 8 weeks.It has been 5 weeks and it is still swollen.Still hurting too as my 18 month old niece greeted her with a kiss and a step on said big toe 2 days ago .Ouch.