Last night I was tidying the kitchen at about 11:30 and I stepped on something. I knew immediately something had gone into my foot but it didn't hurt right away. I called Dh in and we looked at it and it looked like something had gone in there pretty deep.
It started to hurt A LOT. I cried and cried and Dh tried to get in there with tweezers but it REALLY hurt for him to just touch the surface.
We went to the ER and on the way, it really hurt- I was sobbing. Dh started speeding with his hazards on.
The doctor saw us pretty quickly. (thank you God!) and couldn't tell what was in there. He took an X-ray and said there didn't appear to be anything in there - maybe something just punctured it but didn't stay in there. I really thought there was something. It felt pointy.
He gave me three really PAINFUL deadening shots right in my foot. (I screamed at the last one - I'm so glad I don't have to go through childbirth!) Then he started digging around, with a scalpel, Dh said. The doc found over a centimeter of a toothpick (including the pointy part) in there.
So, I'm laid up for today and a little bit emotional about the whole experience. Did I mention it hurt?
Dh has to take me to the Doc for a tenanus shot today because they forgot last night.
Angi, almost the same thing happened to me when I was 15-(I only remember that's how old I was because it happened the night before I had to drive to the "big city" for drivers ed).
I was screwing around in the kitchen, and slid my foot over, and ouch! It didn't break off, so I had part of a toothpick sticking out of the bottom of my foot. Mom tried to yank it out and she screamed almost as loud as I did, and so dad came running in and tried twice before he got it out. It was in there pretty good, all the way to the bone on the big toe side, on the ball of my foot. We soaked it and watched it close for a couple of days, and I got the tetnus shot the next day.
So I wasn't cleaning, and I didn't have to go to the ER, so like I said, almost, but not exactly. But I definately feel your pain!
Angi - must be something in the air...I stepped on a metal clasp on my son's Army surplus backpack while doing laundry. It took a lovely 1" diameter chunk out of the bottom of my heel and it hurt like the dickens! Luckily, my tetnus shot is still good. (I got a booster shot in 1999 when I was getting some sort of shot that my university required for enrollment.)
oh angi... that's awful and sooo painful. thank goodness you got medical attention immediately!!! one of my sisters got a needle - an entire needle - in her big toe a couple of weeks before christmas [about 20 years ago, though], and came home with a rip roaring infection. she ended up on crutches for a few days!!!
Sorry, I had to laugh. I had the same incident with a toothpick when I was around 12. However, my mother was a RN at the hospital we went to. She kept whispering to me, "Stop screaming. You're embarrassing me!" I'm glad to know I'm not the only one this has happened to. More importantly, I can tell my family I'm not the only one!
Toothpicks can be bad for you
Get better soon!
