My Own Story - A Crushed, Broken Big Toe

I play Japanese Taiko drums. These drums are big and heavy, and on this particular day, I had to play an extra heavy drum. (It probably weighed about 100 lbs.) We were going to play a song where the drum sits on a small rack in a diagonal angle. Because the angle was wrong, I needed to shift the drum further back into the rack, but instead of sliding back, it tipped forward instead. As it was going down, I tried to hold it back with my hands, but it was too heavy. It kept slipping and landed on my big toe, edge first, and of course, I wasn't wearing any shoes! (Now, I know better!)

The Damage

The first thing I experienced was shock. I felt myself going pale and sweaty and knew I was going to pass out. So I lay down on the floor and asked for someone to get my homeopathic remedies that I always keep in my car. I took some Arnica 200c and started feeling a bit better. We wrapped up the toe and called for help. Since it happened on a Sunday, and I didn't want to go to the emergency room, I called a local midwife friend and asked if she could help me clean it up and assess the damage.

The Super Glue Solution

I had no idea how bad it really was. The nail basically became a knife and went right through the toe on the right side. (The side of the toe was on top of the nail!) The other side was also cut, but not so deep. The bottom of the nail had been ripped out and was sticking out. My friend looked at it and said there was no way she could stitch anything as long as the nail was still in place. So I had the option to go to the emergency room and have my nail taken off, or we could try super glue. I opted for the super glue solution since I didn't want my nail taken off, and since I also didn't want to be forced to have a tetanus shot, which is routine in hospitals after this kind of injury. So she cleaned it up and was able to put the side piece back where it goes. The dried up stuff you see in the first picture is a mixture of superglue and blood. Notice that there is very little swelling or bruising - the Arnica is already working!

Homeopathic Remedies for Pain

By the time I got home, the pain was radiating all the way up to my thigh, which is not a good sign. It sometimes indicates the beginning of tetanus. So, I started using more homeopathic remedies. (I don't know how people can live without homeopathy!) First, I alternated Hypericum and Ledum. Hypericum is specific for crushed fingers and toes as well as any kind of nerve damage and it also covers shooting pain that moves up the nerves. In addition, it is also an excellent remedy for tetanus. The other remedy, ledum, can also prevent tetanus, so the shooting pain up the leg quickly went away after a few doses of these two remedies. Ledum is also excellent for reabsorbing swelling and internal bleeding, and it is also a fantastic pain remedy. I have found that if it is given in a high potency, it can effectively relieve any kind of pain and throbbing in crushed fingers and toes. So, whenever the pain was bothering me through that first night, I took another dose of Ledum or Hypericum and went back to sleep. The next day, there was no pain whatsoever! The toe still looked awful, and it was bleeding for about 7 days, but NO PAIN! After a couple of days, when I was sure that there was no infection, I added Calendula to aid the healing. One day the toe became red, shiny and hot, which is not a good thing. At that point, I took a few doses of Apis, and the color and temperature went back to "normal," which at the time was a slightly bluish color, like a bruise.

Walking on the Foot Again

After a couple of weeks, I put away the crutches I had borrowed, and started walking on the foot. I had a really hard time finding any comfortable shoes to wear and ended up with some very soft sandals from walmart. As time went by, I was starting to wonder why I couldn't bend the toe. It was still somewhat swollen and blue, and if I put any kind of pressure on it, it hurt like hell. So, 5 weeks after the injury, I finally went to a foot specialist and had an x-ray taken. The doctor was shocked to find that the toe had been broken off completely. It was almost amputated! In addition, the bone at the tip was broken lengthwise into two pieces, and there was a crack into the joint. He told me it was the worst break he had ever seen, and he coudn't believe that I had actually walked on the foot for over 3 weeks, and that I wasn't in any pain. He told me that the pain for this kind of injury should have been absolutely excruciating, and I hadn't even taken a tylenol! I told him about my powerful, magical homeopathic remedies, and of course, he didn't believe a word I was saying. He told me that an injury like mine rarely heals on its own, but because the bones were perfectly aligned (another miracle after walking on the foot for so many weeks), he was going to give me two more weeks to heal before he would have to do surgery. He showed me how to bandage the toes together and told me to wear one of those horrible stiff shoes for the next two weeks. By then, he would know if it was going to heal, or if I was going to need surgery and pins to hold the bones together. I told him I would put some more remedies in my witchy brew, and that it would be healed by the next appointment.

Two Weeks Later...

That day I went back and added Symphytum and Calcarea Sulphuricum for bone healing and pain, and Silicea for slow healing bones. In addition, I was still doing Calendula, too, for healing and to prevent infection. Two weeks later I went back for another x-ray and the bones had then fused together as one piece. The doc shook his head in disbelief and told me I didn't have to wear the stiff shoe anymore. So, I told him he should consider switching to homeopathic remedies instead of the allopathic ones, and he didn't know what to say...

Now, 8 months later...

The nail is finally growing back. The strangest thing is that there are almost no scars! The only scar I have is where the nail cut right through the toe, but below the nail, and on the other side, there is no sign of what happened! The only thing that hasn't healed is some stiffness in the joint. It still doesn't bend as well as it should, but that is just a small thing, considering how badly crushed it was. At least I got to keep the toe, and the homeopathic remedies made the healing process almost completely painless.