Hopefully my toe isn't broken! (UPDATED)

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein) 02/06/2016 at 14:17 • Filed to: None

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My gym has a random assortment of weight plates. Some of them are your typical metal plates, others are these Weider ones with colored rubber bumpers on them. Tonight I dropped a 10 lb plate without the bumpers on my big toe. Slightly gnarly pic after the break.

(This photo is not my gym, just an example of the weights with bumpers.)

I was going about my business doing some bench presses, and wanted to add a little more weight to the bar, so I went to grab what I thought were two 10 lb plates (the yellow one in the pic above). Only problem was, someone had racked a regular metal 10 lb plate in between two of the yellow bumper ones, and the bumpers were totally hiding that third plate, which promptly fell directly on my right big toe. My thought process after that was roughly:

FUCK, WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED? THAT HURT!

Ohh there was a third 10 lb plate hiding between the bumper ones. Dammit fuck shit assholes fucking mixing the plates!

Hmm maybe I can still do this next set?

I did not do the next set, and instead put some ice on my toe for a good 20 minutes, after which my toe looked like this:

Hopefully the nail doesn’t fall off.

SATURDAY MORNING UPDATE: My toe is definitely sore today, a bit more than last night, but I can walk fine and it’s not super painful. I took some more ibuprofen and put ice on it, and it’s not terrible in the scheme of things.

Rather than go straight to urgent care, I tried to talk to someone at my doctor’s office. Their answering service connected me to the on-call nurse. She said unless I’m in excruciating pain, I shouldn’t bother draining the nail, and my body would likely re-absorb the bruise after a while. But the nail still could fall off. She also said it’s fine for me to run and do leg exercises like squats as long as it’s within my pain tolerance.

Normally I work out 3 days in a row then take a rest day, and today would be my 3rd day in that cycle. So...I’m probably going to skip my run and legs, do a good upper body workout, and think about legs on Monday depending on how the toe’s feeling.

Y’all had me worried with all this talk of draining it but I think I got lucky that it was only a 10 lb plate and didn’t do more damage.

I am going to talk to a manager at the gym about them trying to do something about those plates with bumpers on them being mixed in with the other regular plates. And you can be damn sure that’s the last time I take more than one plate off a rack at the same time!

crowmolly > Textured Soy Protein 02/06/2016 at 00:26

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1.) This is dangerous. Tell them to fix the GD bar before somebody gets messed up.

2.) Looks like a subungal hematoma. If it throbs you may have to get it drained and you will lose the nail.

Source(s): Have had both happen to me.

Leadbull > Textured Soy Protein 02/06/2016 at 00:28

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I jabbed my toe real hard on the bottom of a pool once. A year later I realized that it looked kinda funny and I figured it probably broke and healed wrong, so I went to get it checked out. The doctor told me that a tendon that holds the toe straight was gone... it had torn, and my body just resorbed it over time. So now I have a permanent hammer toe.

Moral of the story, if in doubt see a doctor.

Textured Soy Protein > crowmolly 02/06/2016 at 00:30

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That bar isn’t at my gym, I just was trying to find a pic of the type of weights with the bumpers on them. None of the bars at my gym are like that.

Right now it’s not throbbing so much as it’s a dull pain. We’ll see how it’s feeling in the morning. With how quickly it turned purple and blue, I’m thinking losing the nail is a definite possibility. But hey maybe I’ll get lucky.

crowmolly > Textured Soy Protein 02/06/2016 at 00:32

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Gotcha.

Good luck man. If you end up going to get it drained it’s no big deal.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > Textured Soy Protein 02/06/2016 at 00:36

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I broke my toe one time in the Marines, then I cracked some other bones in my foot. They told me to wrap it if I could and there was nothing to do anyway, just suck it up! True about draining, I was told to stab it and squeeze, then put iodine on it... I had a tooth abscess in the field once too, they told me to stab it, and make sure to squeeze it and disinfect it every day with a rinse.

slipperysallylikespenguins > Textured Soy Protein 02/06/2016 at 00:38

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I would definitely drain that, you can do it at home if you have a little drill like a dremel, or even a needle or knife point. Just make a little hole or 3 directly over the blister. It’ll make a big difference in how it feels and recovery time

Textured Soy Protein > slipperysallylikespenguins 02/06/2016 at 00:43

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Yeesh, that sounds terrible. No self-surgery for me. I’ll leave that to a doctor.

slipperysallylikespenguins > Textured Soy Protein 02/06/2016 at 00:46

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It is. This happens all the time in construction so I’ve gotten used to seeing it. It’s the way to go if you are a cheap ass though.

PushToStart > Textured Soy Protein 02/06/2016 at 00:55

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The nail is almost definitely going to fall off. I've smashed my toe pretty good a couple times before too and it fucking sucks... And as others have said, draining probably isn't a bad idea.

Frank Grimes > Textured Soy Protein 02/06/2016 at 01:01

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I dont want to ever do this. I was suprised after doing deadlifts how banged up my shins are. price of swol.

Textured Soy Protein > slipperysallylikespenguins 02/06/2016 at 01:20

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I’m going to try and make a doctor’s appointment in the morning. My primary care doc is part of the University of Wisconsin health system so maybe they’ll at least be answering the phones on the weekend and can get me in sometime soon. Probably won’t bother with urgent care though. I’ve never really had a good experience with urgent care the few times I’ve gone.

Textured Soy Protein > Frank Grimes 02/06/2016 at 01:24

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So far I’ve yet to mess up my shins with deadlifts. Not that I’m some expert deadlifter with amazingly perfect form, but I at least watched several videos on proper form and worked on getting decent form with lighter weight before going for anything significant.

Frank Grimes > Textured Soy Protein 02/06/2016 at 01:26

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thats where i am. watched rippetoe a few times. thing i memorized it.

Textured Soy Protein > crowmolly 02/06/2016 at 01:29

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I think it might be starting to feel like something resembling throbbing. Just a tad. It’s also gotten more blue. Gonna call the doctor in the morning. They’re decent at working existing patients in for short visits as needed. I don’t want to mess with urgent care though. The last few times I’ve gone there, I’d wait and wait and wait and it always ended up being some not-particularly-urgent issue.

Hoccy > Textured Soy Protein 02/06/2016 at 04:42

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Smashed my own toe while playing football a few weeks ago, and it looked quite similar. Ended up draining it (you don’t have to if it’s not too swollen), but the nail died and fell off this week. With some help I’l have to admit, I hate to have a loose toenail that is pushing towards the skin and root. After the nail went off I’ve almost forgot about the toe and it seems to be growing back nicely.

Have to say that I’ve lost toenails almost every year since high school, so this is becoming a routine for me now. Just make sure that you have clean hands and feet if you start tinkering with it.

Dusty Ventures > Textured Soy Protein 02/06/2016 at 07:03

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Using a Dremel is a terrible idea. I’ve actually been through this before, the correct method is to take a large needle, get it red hot, and just touch it to the nail. The needle melts a hole in the nail and allows the nail to drain. You never feel a thing in the process because the blood under the nail protects you from the heat.

Tohru > Textured Soy Protein 02/06/2016 at 14:29

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I always grab one weight at a time. Heal up soon!

Dusty Ventures > Textured Soy Protein 02/06/2016 at 14:33

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Meh, I’d still drain it. It’s super easy, takes less than a minute, and you honestly don’t feel a thing. But the pressure relief is immediate and significant, it feels soooooo much better.

Textured Soy Protein > Dusty Ventures 02/06/2016 at 15:01

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It doesn’t really hurt all that much. It’s tender but nothing major. I get skeezed out at the thought of poking holes in myself. Maybe I’ll change my tune if it doesn’t improve in a couple days but for now I’m going to leave it be like the nurse says.

XJDano > Textured Soy Protein 02/06/2016 at 16:03

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Here is my smashed toe story.

Before I was 10 we found and kept a frog of the tree kind with sticky toes. My sister & I went into the garage to look for crickets, hey there is a 2x12 board likely 10-12' long, I guess I was stronger than my older sister so I lifted from one end. What I thought was a cricket or roach crawling on my hand, I drop the board, without warning or yelled without enough time. Smashed her toe like yours is, and sometime later it fell off, it fell the fuck off.

Idea for gym, paint the weight edges

Edit: the toe nail, not her whole toe.