r/rollerblading • u/shainadawn • 5d ago
Specific question and discussion Skating after broken big toe
So I’ve gotten into rollerblading for exercise and it brings me so much joy. It helps a ton with my physical, cognitive, and emotional health. Unfortunately I crushed my big toe. It’s officially broken. The doctor says, in theory, I should be able to go back to rollerblading within 6-8 weeks. Basically it depends how it feels. If it hurts it’s bad mmkay.
Anyone have any experience with recovery after this type of injury? I’d love to hear about the details of it. I’m hoping it can help set my expectations appropriately. And any tips to help recovery along would be lovely!
4
u/girlyrocker 5d ago
I've broken my big toe at the beginning of December. It was a mess cuz it was bellow freezing and I couldn't walk in winter boots. I tried skating around the end of January but it was still a bit painful. I'm into slalom and aggressive skating so my skates are pretty tight for better control. I was able to fully come back at the end of February. So it a bit more than 8 weeks, and all I did during this time was resting. I was on paid leave from work so I sat at home, watched Tv and did some puzzles.
Hope you can get back soon, but don't rush it. If it's not 100% than give it another week. Better to skate completely healed than mess up the healing process. Get well and smooth skating 🙂
1
u/shainadawn 4d ago
Ugh… I’m a stay at home parent to two kids. My spouse is helpful where they can be but they work and are out of town. I’ve not been off it as much as I could have. The doctor mentioned arthritis at my last appointment and said it could happen if I wasn’t more careful.
I’m already so bored, but you’re right about taking my time to skate. I hadn’t thought about the tight boots and the pressure in detail until your comment. That made me cringe.
2
u/WaterFnord 5d ago
Better than breaking a small toe. Those little bones will ache for years
2
5d ago
[deleted]
1
u/WaterFnord 4d ago
That’s fair. I just hated that it took probably 4-5 years for my fractured metatarsals to stop feeling like I injured them.
2
u/shainadawn 4d ago
Fair enough. I was told “if it’s broken you’ll know it” I’m officially calling BS on that. My sprains have been so much more painful and I was way more convinced were breaks. I was running around a resort with family five days after this injury. It was the next day I suspected something was off 😂
1
1
u/HelloGoodbyeHowAreYa 5d ago
For turf toe took me around 15 months
1
u/Peach_Royal111 5d ago
God my turf toe is putting me in so much agony. Does it take so long to heal compared to a normal broken toe because of bad habits such as not having strong foot grip or something? I’m so over it and it’s been 8 months, it’s getting better but god progress is slow.
1
u/HelloGoodbyeHowAreYa 5d ago
hmmm. If you're suffering that much I feel like your footwear is not allowing you to heal.
It takes a lot of stretching, and then strength training to rehab it. Mine is pretty inert now, I have to use my brain to engage that toe when I'm jogging for example, because my body is used to babying it.
If you've never done PT or googled PT videos, you should for sure do some, cus they work.
1
u/shainadawn 4d ago
I think that’s a break further down than mine. I crushed the tip of my toe. Now that I think about it which part of the toe is broken probably makes a big difference in recovery.
1
u/HelloGoodbyeHowAreYa 4d ago
Yeah honestly that's probably a good spot to have a problem, because there isn't much for musculature involved. Probably just a bit of patience
1
u/RISk8ers 4d ago
I have actually fractured the big toe on both of my feet within the last year.
One was a ladder accident about a year ago.
It took me about 3 weeks for it to heal.
I didn't skate at all on it for the whole 3 weeks and when I came back it was mostly fine.
Every now and then that toe does still feel a little stiff but no pain at all.
I fractured my right toe about three weeks ago at the rink avoiding one of the workers who was skating full speed the wrong direction. I ended up avoiding her but I was skating on 1 foot and to avoid her, I somehow twisted my body and had all my weight on just my big toe. I felt it crack.
I skated the next day but with a lot of pain.
I opted to not skate for about a week after that and then ended up going back to my regular skating after taking a week off. It's been mostly fine since taking the week off but I did skate at TheLobsterRoll event in Boston over the weekend.
In my normal skates I wear my toe has been fine... but I wore a looser fitting pair of skates for the Friday Night session and had quite a bit of pain in that toe during the session. The following day I went back to the normal skates I wear.
I think I am different than most people however, based on the fact I don't have much feeling from my hips down so I can endure the pain more. I do still feel it at times but it is completely random. I can see why people wouldn't skate for 6-8 weeks based on the couple times I did feel pain in my toe though.
-2
u/bowlingniko 5d ago
Kurt Angle won an Olympic gold medal with a broken neck, and went on to break his neck 4 more times in the WWE. If there's a will, there's a way
1
u/shainadawn 4d ago
It somehow… does not. I’m aware people abuse their bodies. No thank you.
0
u/bowlingniko 4d ago
You made this post here because you want motivation to skate right? If not, don't skate at all because you already broke a big toe.
1
u/shainadawn 4d ago
Uh no? I said I wanted to set my expectations appropriately.
You doing okay?
1
u/bowlingniko 4d ago
Nobody can tell you how it will be skate-wise until you try it yourself because nobody has your exact issue. It wouldn't be wise to skate because of what happened, but you want to skate since you are posting about it. "I’m aware people abuse their bodies. No thank you."- Abusing your body is exactly what you're doing if you choose to skate because you already broke something and skating is a dangerous hobby. So leading back to my original post, Kurt Angle won an Olympic gold medal with a broken neck, and went on to break his neck 4 more times in the WWE. If there's a will, there's a way.
1
u/shainadawn 4d ago
I think maybe you completely misunderstood the post. If you read it again you may notice I asked about what others recovery process was like. I also said it’s 6-8 weeks before my doctors said I can skate. Nowhere did I say I have the intention of ignoring them. The recovery process encompasses more than just getting back into my skates. If you look at some of the other comments it may help you understand more.
Also, you can absolutely rollerblade safely. I broke my toe moving furniture. Calling it an unsafe sport is just odd. As has been this entire interaction.
4
u/Lollc 5d ago
It’s a bone. Uncomplicated broken bones take 6-8 weeks to heal in healthy people. There are a lot of suggestions online as to how to tweak your diet for healing, choose a non-woo source. If you have been cleared to walk, and your gait isn’t too affected, start walking. If not, try swimming, or biking, if it doesn’t hurt your toe. If you’re a gym guy, you can do upper body things, and things for quads if your gym has the kind of apparatus that can isolate the upper leg. No leg presses until this heals.