I had a foot injury last year which ended up getting x-rayed, they found nothing up with the bit that hurt but did note that I had a sesmoid bone in my big toe, and it was broken. We agreed to ignore it as it wasn’t doing any harm.

Started running in an effort to get fit and lose some of the weight put on last year and I think I’ve done it a mischief. BEJEEYYYYSUSSS IT HURTS, and this is from someone who broke his arm three times and refused painkillers except when they were trying to manipulate the floppy mess out of a 661 pressure suit! Alternates between a sharp stabbing pain under the joint of my big toe and a feeling like I’ve tied a bit of cheese wire round the toe really tightly and it’s cutting in.

Realistically is there much they can do for a bit of bone that’s not even supposed to be there?

Weirdly, it didn’t hurt this much whilst running!

BEJEEYYYYSUSSS IT HURTS

There’s your clue right there.

It could be that, even if they can’t do much for you directly, you might benefit from a podiatrist looking at your foot position and whether you can find a way not to aggravate it during exercise.

I busted a thumb, nothing done and now my hand goes numb after an hour on the road bike. Sort it out

Alternates between a sharp stabbing pain under the joint of my big toe and a feeling like I’ve tied a bit of cheese wire round the toe really tightly and it’s cutting in.

Gout?

Gout

Oooh. Possibly. Does the joint look inflamed/red/swollen, or just bloody hurt?

In my younger days when playing football I managed to break my big toe by kicking the studs of an opponents boot. My word it did smart. I carried on for a few minutes before having to go off. I took myself to A&E and waited for 5 hours to be seen (It was a Saturday night and by the time I got seen it was after 9pm). The doc that looked at it said to me after examining the x-ray – ‘You’ve made a right mess of it. The bone’s just smashed to pieces. However, we can’t do anything with it so just strap it up and take some pain killers. Come back to the fracture clinic on Tuesday’. It really, really hurt for a couple of days then subsided. I couldn’t kick a ball for about 4 months but it all settled down eventually and is now shorter and fatter than my other big toe. I’m sure there will be some discomfort down the line though, but it’s been OK for about 15 years. So on reflection, I’d probably just suck it up and get on with it.

I struggle to understand why you need to ask the question (indeed all the ‘should I go to the doc/hopsital/A&E’ questions)

Your toe really really hurts and you wonder if you need to get someone who knows about this stuff to have a look and give an opinion.

anecdote alert!

a few years back I had a frankly ridiculous crash, completely avoidable, slow motion and stupid, but in the course of crashing I caught my thumb in between the shifter paddle and brake lever and (unknown to me at the time) snapped it. Initial symptoms were simply that my thumb would not work, it didn’t hurt but I couldn’t move it, about 30 mins later of me being totally bemused sitting in the cafe trying my hardest to bend my thumb it suddenly moved, and then locked, and hurt like buggery!

I self diagnosed a tendon issue and ignored it for a few days, then it went purple and black, so being a man, I ignored it for a few more days, before finally going to the local walk in centre after a week as it was still very hurty and not very movey, who sent me round the corner to A+E, where I waited for quite a long time, finally to be told off for not coming in sooner, got X-rayed, told I had broken it but that it had already started to heal so unless I wanted them to re-break it I just need to wait and hope it was OK, and got another proper telling off for not going in sooner because they ‘might’ have been able to do something with it. Now it’s mostly back to normal but doesn’t quite bend as well as it used to.

2nd Anecdote alert!

About a year later I clipped a tree stump while on a practise lap for an XC race, I hit it quite hard, felt something ‘go’ and was in agonsy, refused to take my shoe off as I knew if I did it wouldn’t go back on and race would be a no-go, so being a man, I raced anyway, it hurt a lot (which I think helped as fuelled by pain and adrenaline I came 3rd), got home, shoe off, toe already going red and black, cried a little then hobbled round to A+E, who looked at it and said ‘yep that’s broken, not sure why you bothered to come in though as there’s not a lot we can do, strap it up and use painkillers’

So there you go, make of that what you will, the only two times I’ve ever broken a bone, once they told me off for not going in to get it looked at, the other time they basically told me off for wasting their time.

If I break anything else (minor) I think I’ll flip a coin to decide whether to go or not*

*I am not a Dr, I suggest you seek medical advice.

Oooh. Possibly. Does the joint look inflamed/red/swollen, or just bloody hurt?

No, just pain.

I struggle to understand why you need to ask the question (indeed all the ‘should I go to the doc/hopsital/A&E’ questions)

Reason for asking was they weren’t concerned by it last time as it wasn’t causing any discomfort. And being a sesmoid bone is there anything they can even do about it? So if all I’m going to get is instructions to take ibuprofen (which doesn’t agree with me long term anyway) then it’s wasting half a day off work and the Dr’s time seeing someone they can actually treat (or another whiplash form for an insurance company).

Note the important point is it’s a sesmoid bone in my foot, it’s not even supposed to be there. And I presume sorting it out would involve removing quite a lot of tendon from my big toe, which might just be even more painfull and inconvenient than the pain right now!

Short term pain, long term gain? Get a specialist to take a look at it rather than self-diagnosing (assuming you’re not a qualified podiatrist)

I’m terrible for not going to see the doctor.
One time after breaking some ribs in a crash on the MTB, I woke up in the middle of the night in agony and went to the bathroom to walk it off a bit and get a drink of water.
I remember reaching the sink and then the next thing I knew, I was coming round on the floor, soaked in sweat with the missus slapping my face and looking anxious.
Should have gone to get that looked at I guess – just to be on the safe side…

If you’re going to go, go sooner rather than later.

I’ve smashed my hand in a couple of times on exactly the same piece of trail falling in exactly the same way (slippy boardwalk, fingers caught between the slats – possibly different slat, possibly the same one, and bent back, hand about 3 times normal size, hurts like ****). I didn’t go to the doc on the basis that there’s not a lot they can do, their approaches differ (some docs seem to advocate immobilising, some keeping it moving), and everything movey/feely worked ok, just hurt like **** for a bit.

It got better both times (though using the rear brake over bumps was painful for quite some time). I partly didn’t go to the docs cos I didn’t want to be told not to climb or cycle, as I like both these things and the pain was bearable (though some holds were out of the question for a while.). I have full range of movement and no remaining pain. If it limits your movement (beyond what the swelling is doing) I would definitely see a doc, though, straight away.