Pain At Three In The Morning

"Toe: A part of the foot

to find furniture in the dark."

Unknown

I woke up because I felt as if my toe was on fire or maybe not on fire, but a bone deep ache. Today the doctor looked at it, shook his head and said, "It doesn't matter if it is broken or not, there is nothing I can do for it other than to tape it up; that is all we do for toes."  The toe did not get x-rayed but he did suggest I wear a shoe with a stiff sole that would not bend when I walked. I was wearing my brand new Ecco sandals and he looked at them and tried bending the sole and when he couldn't, he said, "These will work just fine." He taped the small toe, the "broken toe"  and the middle toe with a tan material that looked like tiny waffle or fish net material. "This works great," he said as he wrapped the three toes, "because it is not sticky yet sticks to itself." I took his word for it.

All afternoon the toe felt as it had since last Tuesday when I stubbed it. Felt fine when I was off of it, but pained me when I walked. I went to bed and when the pain woke me, I got up and fixed myself a baggie of ice. Walking around it does not seem to hurt as much but in bed it hurts me which seems to be like a reversal of what I had felt before. I am going to try the baggie of ice and see if that helps, but if it doesn't relieve the pain I will have to get into my stash of pain pills.

Four to six weeks, I was told, is how long toes take to get back to normal. He then said something I did not want to hear, "Sometimes, arthritis sets in on a broken bone and it may ache sometimes." All I could think about was my ankle ached at times, my toe seemed to ache all the time, and if arthritis was rearing its ugly head I could look forward to more future pain.

I did manage to sleep, off and on, until nine in the morning. Nodding off, I would be awakened between trying to keep the ice pack on my toes or the burning sensation in and around my toes. The pain is different than any other I have ever felt but I do remember being asked when I broke my ankle, "Is the pain sharp, dull, roving or burning?" Since I did not have a burning sensation with my ankle I did not know what they were talking about. Now, I do.

Once up, the pain subsides and I am able to hobble around. I find it strange that when I went into the Doctor's office I seemed to be better and when I left the Doctor's office, the toe seems to hurt more. Go figure!