I Fell Really Hard On My Foot Could It Be Broken

I dropped something really hard on my foot and now my toe looks like this. Should I just leave it to heal or go to the doctor?

Am a nurse. I worked years in the urgent care. We have seen many of this.Depending on how hard the object (and how heavy it is), the bone in your toe may not have broken, or cracked. But what is happening is that you’ve hematoma, which is basically a bruise. Normally it’s not a big deal, but you’re bleeding under the toe nail-that is causing the pain.Eventually your toe nail may fall off (but it will sooner or later grow back).To relieve the “pressure” under the toe nail, a doctor will use a paperclip (I am not kidding about this), and quickly poke a hole in it. You’re asking how in the world? He’d light it with a lighter first (until it glows red from the heat). This is not something you should do yourself as it is like trying to give yourself a shot, or draw blood from one’s own arm.At the urgent care that I worked, we use this http://www.liveactionsafety.com/...They will certainly x-ray it to see if the bone of the toe is broken. But guess what? You won’t get a cast or put into one. They will “buddy tape” it. You can use a scotch tape and tape it to the next toe. This will stabilize it.Do not wear regular shoes until you’re healed. Normally you’d be wearing an “ortho” shoe (it’s ugly as hell) on that foot. But really, a good sandel will do. Regular shoe (dress shoe, tennis shoe) will be too tight (to put on and off).Keep the foot elevated and if this is ‘fresh’ injury, ice it. It will help with swelling. If it’s a few days, heat will help with the bruise.For pain - tylenol / advil will do.We had a patient who dropped a bowling ball on his big toe when he was home (no shoes on). His toe kinda exploded. He needed surgery to repair it.Best wishes.

I busted (fell really hard) my butt about 13 hours ago and my tailbone hurts really bad, should I get it checked?

As a good rule thumb when it come to asking if you should go to the ER or not, try "When in doubt, check it out".  If you go when you needn't have, all you've lost is time and money.  If you don't go and you should have, you could end up losing a whole lot more.In most cases, there actually isn't all that much they can do to treat a fractured coccyx (the tailbone).  It's not like that can put your backside in a plaster cast!  Women end up fracturing theirs during childbirth with too much frequency, and the only treatment offered is time. [If you're not going to be breastfeeding, you're more likely to receive pain meds.]Every once in awhile, though, you can break the bone at a bad angle-- one that might cause significant problems.  In such a case, it may need to get set properly, which could well involve surgery.As someone who broke his coccyx many years ago, let me add something from personal experience.  Don't tell all your friends about your painful injury, looking for the sort of sympathy you would get for a broken wrist or ankle.  Expect instead, "You broke your butt??? Har! har! har!", which comes off as somehow not quite as sympathetic as they no doubt meant it to be.

From how high could a cat fall onto hard ground and not be injured?

I'm assuming you mean house cats, and by falling hard you mean not a controlled fall.  Cats are natural daredevils.They are pros at controlled falls.  It's quite possible for a cat to survive at her terminal velocity of 60 miles per hour, as demonstrated by a study done on 132 cats falling an average of 5.5 stories, published in The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.  90% survived, albeit many requiring medical attention.  The study suggested cats often have a better survival rate above a certain height due to their ability to relax and spread out more.  In fact, only one of the 13 falling more than 9 stories broke a bone, and the cat that survived the longest fall, of 32 stories, was good to go in two days.However, many a cat fall without the opportunity for "righting reflex".  I remember the worst such fall my cat Luna has made...... was when she was lost in a cloth bag atop a 6 foot cabinet.  I saw her rolling to the edge and shouted across the room (during a party) "Nooooooo!!!!"  But she fell.  Straight down.  Onto a wood floor.Was she screaming and crying in pain?No, she was not...She seemed a little dazed, but still cat-shaped.  I patted her around, looking for some form of reaction, knowing cats instinctively hide injury.  She seemed to check out fine, everywhere.There's a realization that I made over time.  Cats have evolved to better survive accidents than other species.  When a cat hunts prey, they are not trying to go for the jugular.  They're just looking to trip their prey up, whether or not they go down with it.  They know they're good at recovering very quickly.  This ability also helps when they go down with nothing.However, that does NOT mean it's a good idea to facilitate such accidents, or even large falls at all, controlled or not.  Cat bones still break, even from smaller heights than Luna fell from.  While cats do appreciate height, those perches should be sturdy, with an easy way down.   Keep Luna's pals safe!EDIT:There was concern in a comment that this "ground breaking research with cats" was done like this:Noooo... this was a study done on cats that were brought in for medical care.  They were just studying accident reports, and not actually inducing "accidents".