How Can You Mend A Broken Toe?

Flash Back Friday

I have little, tiny, white scars on all the toes of my left foot. You would never notice them. I don't ever think about them. But they are there. They are there because, when I was about six years old, I broke every single toe on that foot. Yeah. I bet you are thinking, "Every toe? How does someone break every single toe?" Well, it wasn't hard. It was actually pretty easy. It happened in an instant.


They were redoing the storm drains in my neighborhood and had brought in these big, huge, cement (uh, I mean concrete, sorry Tom) pipes and left them strewn around in this grassy field. What great toys! (And wouldn't the parents have been horrified to know what we were doing?) They were big enough for a kid to run through but mobile enough for another kid to stand on and roll. Can you see where I'm going with this? As I ran through one, another kid rolled the same pipe. My right foot made it just fine but my left foot was trapped under the pipe as it rolled.


In hindsight, I guess it could have been worse. I could have fallen under the pipe and had something much worse than my foot crushed. Like my head. But just my foot was trapped. I'm sure I made a sound like a thousand cats having their tails rocked on by a rocking chair. I don't remember all the details. I do remember falling down in pain and looking down to see that my shoe was absolutely crushed.


There really isn't anything the doctor can do about a broken toe. It's not like they can put a teeny tiny cast on it. You just have to let them heal. And they did, finally. But the healing left tiny white scars across my toe. You have to look hard to see them. But I can see them. I can see them VERY clearly.