Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with toe

My toe continuously keeps threatening to drop out of joint causing much distress and pain - any ideas about what's going on?

Chorus — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 11:49:53 -0800

My toe continuously keeps threatening to drop out of joint causing much distress and pain - any ideas about what's going on? Back in February while out walking, the second toe of my right foot popped right out of joint with no prior warning. After much pain and clutching with both hands, did the toe go back into joint and, while the foot was incredibly tender and sore for the rest of the day, I was up walking fine the next day and... fine also for the two months since. So I just wrote it off as one of those things.

However in the past week, foot-matters have seriously deteriorated - rapidly and out of the blue. What began as the odd niggling 'uh oh here we go again' sensation has now become quite debilitating. It's gotten to the point where if I walk for longer than 5-10 minutes, it feels as if that second toe is going to drop right out of is socket! I get a weird, heavy feeling in the toe, accompanied by a 'knot' of pain in the front/top of the foot or the occasional weakness in the inner side of my right knee. To look at it, the toe doesn't seem swollen or sticking out at a weird angle, nor is it discoloured. When I'm walking, I get the feeling that I shouldn't lift my foot too high [or the toe, you know, drop out] and also the overwhelming urge to scrunch up my toes or grab my foot to keep everything in place. If I DO scrunch my toes, I have to be very, very careful because the dislocation feels like it's going to happen again.

The real weird part is, I can walk around and manage fine if I'm just puttering about the office or house, but the other morning I couldn't complete my usual 30min walk to work and today just walking by the end of the day is making me pause and gasp every few steps, wincing at the pain and what *might* happen. But I've no numbness anywhere and after rest the foot is fine for a while.

I've finally going to the doctor in the morning, I'm just wondering if what's wrong with me will get dismissed as a mere sprain or something trivial [considering I can walk on the foot after resting for a bit and the toe itself isn't, you know, black and swollen], when honestly it feels so much worse. I know what a sprain is like and this is so removed from that. But if it was a break - since February? - I'd certainly know about it before now.

Does anybody have any experience with random dislocation and might know what it is/causes? Or what treatment is ahead of me tomorrow with the doc?

Can you identify what's wrong with my toes?

The bat in the hat — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 02:13:24 -0800

I have chronic toe discomfort/pain. Any thoughts? For as long as I can remember (I'm 26), I have had toe pain. This is almost exclusively in both little toes. It feels like they're being pulled out, sideways, to almost breaking point. Chronically. I can't handle anyone putting their fingers between my little and next-littlest toes.

When I was younger, I had my feet xrayed. There was a slight outward bend to my toe-bones, but nothing that really explained the pain. I almost got them amputated because of this, but I thought I'd just bear it. I tried spongey toe-separators (not sure why, that just pushed them out more!), which didn't help.

When I wear bare feet, and I'm sitting, I often have to turn my knees out so that my toes will be pressing on the ground, to relieve the pressure.

Possibly related, I also grew up with what I thought was a phobia, about inner wrists. I couldn't stand seeing someone's inner wrist, and especially couldn't handle my inner wrists being touched. I still have difficulties here, too. I thought this stemmed from seeing a horror movie where someone slit their wrists, but I'm wondering if this is related to the toe thing. It seems to be more the arteries/tendons (or whatever those cabley bits are that link to the fingers) that most disturb me.

Any thoughts? Is this anything other than a misshaped toe bone and a phobia?

This little piggie went OWWWW all the way home

desjardins — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 06:19:12 -0800

I think I broke my littlest toe. Everything I read online says that basically nothing can be done, so there's no point in going to the doctor, right? This happened about 24 hours ago. It's swollen, bruised, and painful. I buddy-taped it overnight, but it seemed to make it MORE painful this morning. I can handle pain just fine and I have strong (legal) painkillers available if I need them. My life is very sedentary so it will get a lot of rest. My husband is concerned about longer-term complications (he mentioned gangrene, is he full of crap?). This is all his fault anyway because he left the thing on the floor that I walked into.

So, should I see a doctor, should I DTMFA, and do I need a lawyer? :)

It's big and it's standing at attention

saysthis — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:11:31 -0800

Broken tibia & fibula, 3.5 months ago, clean snap. I got an intramedullary rod in the tibia, screws at the ankle and knee, and absolutely no recommendations for PT other than some exercises to do at home from the doctor. Everything else seems to have healed well enough, but - my big toe ain't movin', and it's stuck in permanent "up". Specifically, my big toe won't recline past a certain elevation, and I just can't move it up past a 90 degrees from my ankle. And when I move my foot downward, the toe sticks up. I can't push it down. Even when I'm resting, it's just sticking up, saluting the sky. I do have some movement in the toe, just...not much, so it's not like the muscle is dead or gone. The best way I can describe it is that it feels "shortened". Everything else seems to be healing well enough, but this is frustrating.

I've heard from some more athletically inclined friends that this is a common sports problem, but that it goes away after a day or two. I'm just wondering if any of you out there have had this experience, and how you deal with it. What stretches do you use? What is this a larger symptom of? Specifically what muscles are involved, and what are they doing? How did I end up with such localized atrophying? Did the surgeon slice something he shouldn't have?

Physical therapy, believe you me, I'm going to ask for as soon as I go for my next checkup in two weeks. In the meantime I'm doing the recommended stretches and exercises. But any more suggestions on how to tame my toe are appreciated.

There is nothing in the chemistry of a toenail that predicts the existence of a human being.

mindsound — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:55:12 -0800

I need treatment advice or doctor advice for my ingrown toenail. Difficulty: desperate rock climber. I see there've been a few threads about jacked up toenails in the past — I would love a one-two punch of palliative advice and physician relationship advice. I saw our family doc about the toenail back when it went south (it was already weird and then my lady love stomped on it). He helped clear up its infection, but it's been a month and it's still got a painful hemorrhoidlike 2mm flappy bit that hurts and bleeds when I poke it. GROSS.

So on to goals. I'm trying to figure out how to unjack the toe while still being able to rock climb. I have kept climbing between sitz baths but it's painful enough that I'm starting to flip my shit. The doc said he would do a wedge resection if it didn't clear up by now, which he said his athlete daughter took four weeks to recover from. My first child is due in July and it's gorgeous weather outside. Slothful recuperation seems immoral in such circumstances. As for my doctor, while he's a distracted general practitioner who I feel isn't really on top of his game, I have had bupkiss luck finding a better doc in my area.

So what would you do? I am completely failing to think outside the box here.

Why is my toe tingling?

EKStickland — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:25:05 -0800

My pinky toe has been tingling for two days; what does it all mean? So, since last night (Wed. 26th), the pinky toe on my right foot has been tingling, a pins-and-needles kind of feeling. The sensation is strongest on the underside of the toe, towards the tip. There is no obvious sign of injury/abnormality, and it is similar in color and temperature to my other toes. The sensation isn't strong, as I'm able to sleep without problems and it's not particularly distracting. But it's damn weird, and I'm wondering what might be going on.

Any ideas?

Appendages O' pain

cashman — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 13:16:25 -0800

How to treat possibly broken fingers and toes? Not going to a doctor. Please avoid suggesting that.

I'm pretty sure I broke or tore something in my pinky. It's been weeks now, but it got all swollen right after, and turned black & blue. The swelling has mainly gone down (I iced the crap out of it), but is focused in the knuckle area, on the inside (touching my ring finger). I can move it all around with almost no pain. But if I try to, say, grasp a handful of change, OUCH!OUCH!OUCH!OUCH!.

I was buddy taping it at first, and that just seems to have little to no effect. I wonder if it isn't a break, but some kind of torn ligament. Should I still be icing it? Or putting heat on it (and how am I supposed to get heat on my pinky knuckle)?

Separately, I have pretty much the same questions about the "ring toe". Same deal except little swelling, but there was the black and blueness. Taping seems to make this one worse too.

How do you treat these injuries on an ongoing basis - icing? heat? Taping? I know it will take 8+ weeks to fully heal, if not longer - I'm just wondering how to best treat it while it heals. Buy a splint from a drug store? What?

Can't afford x-ray/doc's visit. I also read prior questions and didn't find sufficient information. Please help. Thanks!

What's this lump on my toe?

otherwordlyglow — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 10:35:21 -0800

What is this weird painless lump at the base of my toe? In the last year, I've noticed that I have a small-ish (maybe 1/4") hard lump at the base of my middle toe on my right toe. It's on the side, so basically between the 2nd and 3rd toe (counting from the big toe as toe 1). It doesn't hurt at all, isn't discolored, and doesn't seem to affect my walking. I don't have anything like this on any other toe of either foot. It's possible that it's gotten slightly larger since I noticed it but not significantly. What could it be?

Yes, I'll ask a doctor about it but since it's painless and not causing any discomfort I wonder if it's okay to wait until the next time I'm in there. It seems sort of silly to make an appointment just for this. If it matters, I'm 39, female, and in good health.

I want better finger control!

milestogo — Mon, 21 May 2007 07:22:05 -0800

Help me develop better finger control. I have never been able to fully bend my pinky without also bending my ring finger. For some reason, this frustrates me to no end, giving me no relief and hours of torment whenever I get caught up trying to do it.

I can't give the finger too well, because my other fingers clump up around the middle one. If I try to extend only my ring finger, the result is laughable.

This doesn’t interfere in my life in any way (other than playing piano would probably be easier with better finger manipulation) but it is something that has always irked me and frustrated my brain.

I would like to develop better independent finger control (and toe mobility while I am at it).

Is this possible to practice? Does anyone have any tips for this odd request?

I promise never to walk for miles in flip-flos again if this pain goes away.

mwachs — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 05:12:05 -0800

I walked around in flip-flops all day, and now my big toes really, really hurt. So I´m doing one of those "backpack-for-awhile" trips, and while in Barcelona I ran out of socks. "Easy enough, " I thought, "I´ll just walk around in my flip-flops and do laundry tonight." So I walk all day (Thursday)--with a bit of mild hiking up to the big park there--and my toes really started to hurt. I took it easy that night and pretty much stayed in, walked in shoes the next day and the same thing happened. I guess, technically, the pain never went away.

It hurts most when I try to rub my big toe on top of the toe next to it. I´m not sure if that´s a common thing to do, so I understand I could be freakish for that, but the same movement/bendability is also needed for walking. So basically it hurts to walk. This morning when I tried to flex my big toes it really felt like my tendons running up the to of my feet were dry rubberbands. It was painful (and mildly nauseating).

My questions are:
A) What did I do?
B) If I spend a couple of days off my feet will it go away?
C) Can I rub out the pain/put leeches on my feet/etc. to get out the pain while I´m travelling?
D) If I can't do anything to solve it, will I do any pemanent damage by continuing to walk without treatment?

I 'm travelling until May 2nd, so this will be quite the bummer, potentially.

I also realize someone might have asked a similar question a few months ago, but perhaps are problems are different/maybe there's some new toe-pain specialist to the scene.

Kids: never walk all day in flip-flops,
Mike

My toe hurts

Anonymous — Mon, 12 Feb 2007 22:27:50 -0800

Please help me Dr. Metafilter, my swollen toe hurts and my real Dr. has failed me! I first noticed my two had swollen up a bit after a night sleeping in a cheap motel. I put the swelling down to a bug bite (I get bitten frequently) and went about my life. Problem is after a week the swelling didn't go down and the skin around the toe hardened and it became uncomfortable to walk on. My doctor looked at it, declared it corns, and had me use salicylic acid on it. The acid turns the hardened skin white and cracks it, but after doing this for about a week the toe is still swollen, and occasionally leaks a clear liquid from the hard skin area. I'm stumped trying to figure this out because it does not itch, it's not broken because I can flex and walk fine, and it's not plantar warts because there is none of the discoloration. Please help.

Numb toe

Arcaz Ino — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 18:54:05 -0800

The tip of my left big toe* sometimes gets numb, down to the point about half-way down the nail, all around the toe. I can't see any cause for this. It's not injured or gangrenous. "What's up with that?" * someone else's left big toe

Why can't you move toes individually?

fogster — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 18:38:55 -0800

Why can't you move your toes individually? I feel like I'm blowing my question of the week, but it's something I've wondered for a while. I can point with my index finger, give someone the middle finger, give someone a thumbs-up, etc., but I can't move an individual toe. (I have no reason to, but that's not the point.)

Why is this? Do we just not learn to control the muscles? Do the muscles atrophy? Is it just not possible for some biological reason? (And why don't more people wonder things like this?)

What are some good home remedies for an ingrown toenail?

drezdn — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 22:56:58 -0800

Toefilter: Besides going to the doctor, do you have any good cures for a hangnail, especially if there's not much visible nail to cut off?

Do my feet look weird to you?

e^2 — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 16:27:27 -0800

What's normal for feet? Toe length/shape/etc? Google has not settled the argument.