Trials with Toes

Life was getting dull around here (ha-ha), so I decided to stir up things a bit. It was perhaps a painful way to do it, but it has made things more interesting, to say the least. What exactly did I do, you ask?? Well, I broke my little pinky toe on my left foot: snapped it like a twig in fact.

You can pretty much be sure your toe is broken when after you stub it really hard, you look down to see it sticking out from your foot at a 65+ degree angle. How disheartening. It was enough to make me cry, more from sheer and utter frustration than pain, though the pain was certainly there too. I think the thing that was most annoying to me beside the obvious inconvenience is that I did the same exact thing to the pinky toe on my right foot five and a half years ago. That time the toe stuck out almost to a 90 degree angle and I broke it when I made contact in the wrong way with my dog’s leg. No, I did not kick the poor animal; I tripped on him!

When I broke the toe yesterday it was no amazing sports injury, just a bad interaction with a plastic Little Tikes slide that I tried to walk past too quickly and obviously, too closely! This time in the emergency room there were no numbing shots before the doctor manipulated my poor toe. I recalled from my last broken toe experience that the shots were much more painful than the break and was determined I would not allow the medical personnel to torture me in the same way again. Instead I opted for them to “set” the toe minus the anesthesia. Well…..that hurt……a bit.

The doctor tried to talk to me about staying off my feet but after I laughed and informed him that I am the Mommy of three children aged four and younger he just told me to do my best not to overdo it. And thanks to some wonderful help from some wonderful folk, life has gone on fairly smoothly. Jay, despite heavy work commitments and critical meetings and presentations all this week due to Nortel’s periodic User Groups, raced home immediately when I first called him to take me to the Emergency Room. What a blessing to have him with me throughout the most painful part of my ordeal. Mommy/Grammy Horne has helped tremendously with several aspects of child care and transportation to various activities, greatly supplementing in Jay’s unavoidable absences due to work. Our friend Kimberly took Abigail with her earlier today to do some grocery shopping for us and after she returned, she made lunch for all of us and saw that we were settled for naps. We had several additional offers of help which I actually turned down because we were really ok. So thanks to all of you who were ready and willing…how comforting and encouraging to know there are many people who care for us so tangibly.

As for me, after two seriously broken toes in a few years’ time, I am contemplating the wisdom of wearing shoes around the house from here on out, but have no firm plans toward that end. Sorry, Jay!!!

4 Replies to “Trials with Toes”

  1. I made another comment on the toe on your previous entry. But I just had to remind you to revisit the flylady website where she advises the wearing of shoes in the home. I, like you, have not yet adhered to this advice fully, though.

  2. Trish, as with the ladder incident, I wonder if you could please paste together a three or four photo montage reenacting the events leading up to your broken toe. I don’t seek to indulge myself by observing you suffer in pain, I just thought the ladder thing was hilarious and that this story certainly merited visual illustration as well.

    Also, did you get a special shoe to wear for toe-support, or are you braving the house with a simple tape-job?

  3. Andrew, I’ll attest that she got a very nifty special shoe. I, on the other hand, had to settle for tape when I broke my toe in 1996. Of course, I was in small-town Cookeville, TN, at the time, and they don’t have all the big-city niceties!

    I actually thought of suggesting Jay snap a picture before the hospital trip, but being the mature woman I am, I thought better of it and kept my mouth shut.

    Myself, I almost always wear something on my feet around the house (usually toe-enclosing slippers) because I have such a dread of another painful toe accident, so I think the flylady is on to something.

  4. The flylady is right – sort of. I love being barefoot, but I always put my shoes on when it’s time for housework.

    Kelly
    who spends a lot of time sitting with little kids, reading books and talking

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