How often do you think about your big toe? I bet not often unless you hurt it. For many of us, the main way we would injure our toe is to stub it. Hurts to even think about it, right? We all know that feeling.
Turf toe – a painful sports injury
But if you play sports, you can injure your big toe. One such injury is turf toe. While it is named turf toe due to the number of injuries on the grass or artificial turf fields, you can also be a victim of turf toe on the basketball or tennis court. Turf toe is one of those injuries that you love to hate. Mostly because it seems like it should not be such a big thing. So you bent your toe too far either going forward for backward. How can doing that hurt so much?
It does and it can be an ongoing problem if you don’t take care of the issue. Imagine that you are about to run down the court. In your mind, you are going to make the basket that will win the game and the adoration of the crowd. But as you push off to start running, you feel intense pain in your big toe. That pain, if it doesn’t stop you, at least slows you down. Then to make it worse, you feel the pain every time you go to step on that foot. You know that you need for the pain to stop but it is just your big toe.
It is just my big toe, it will be fine.
It is a big thing. You use the flection in your foot each time you move – especially when you start to move. Your foot bends and puts pressure right on the place where you over bent your toe. The joint affected is the joint between the big toe phalange and the metatarsal bone. The joint capsule and or the ligaments around the joint have been stretched or torn.
Okay, I will sit out for a day and it will be fine, right? Just put a little ice on it and it will be good as new.
I wish that were the case but it isn’t. You need to really rest the joint – sometimes up to three weeks. If you play on it when it is not healed, you will re-injure yourself and what is worse, stand the chance of a major problem later on. This is one of those injuries that can become what might be called a nagging injury that will haunt you as time goes on.
Should I go to the Doctor? It is just my big toe.
You should go see your friendly local podiatrist as soon as you can. Why? Turf toe and the extended problems that it can cause are best treated quickly to prevent further problems. The doctor will check the area and may suggest that you use a cushion or orthotic in your shoe to help stabilize the joint. It is possible that the doctor may order an x-ray or MRI of the joint as a baseline picture of the injury so that in the future you can see if it has changed.
So, please take care of that big toe!
Your Pal,
The Foot Blogger Chick