How Necessary IS a Big Toe Anyway?

At the end of April, I broke a couple of toes on my right foot when I gave it a good whack against a wall that was a lot harder than the bones in my foot (see here for that post).  Well, although I'm honestly and truly not accident prone, I've had another...well...incident.

On Monday, while at my parents' cottage, I sort of fell.  Well, to be frank in a somewhat humiliating kind of way, I did fall, ok?!  There'd been a bit of rain that morning and I guess the rocks down to the water were still a bit wet.  I learned the hard way that wet, moss-covered rock does not enable the traction on one's sandals to work effectively.  Down I went onto my butt, splat (gracious to the last, I am) - doing something nasty to my right foot (again!) in the process.  It appears that I broke my big toe this time, and the whole inside of my foot, right up to where my foot joins with my leg, is throbbing and painful.  I must have mashed it on a rock and twisted it at the same time.  Oh, and once again, the accident chipped the lovely, red "I'm-Really-Not-A-Waitress" polish from my big toe...just a week after getting a long- overdue pedicure - aaahhh!  Anyway, there I sat, moaning and groaning (not swearing, in case anyone's interested), for at least five minutes, trying (with gritted teeth and through a few tears I couldn't seem to stop) to tell Geoff, Matthew and my niece that I would be ok.  Matthew looked a little freaked out at the outset, and came running up with my niece to see if I was going to live; but when I managed to eek out that I would be ok, his interest turned quickly to whether there was any blood involved in the injury and then, when I disappointed him by telling him that there was none, to whether or not he could get back to doing his flips into the lake.  He has a little ways to go on the empathy front...though I suspect that, had I not said I was ok, he would have been all over me with his wet bathing suit and soggy life jacket.

How silly the whole thing seems.  I hate hobbling around - with all of my achilles stuff of the past two years, and the plantar fasciitis struggles I've had in one foot for twenty+ years, you'd think that I'd have experienced enough foot troubles already.  But clearly not!  Just after resuming my post-achilles-healing exercise, this happens.  I'm afraid I'm going to be a bit on the slow side for another few weeks.  So, if you see a gimpy-looking woman hobbling along at the side of the road sometime, be sure to stop and introduce yourself...just, please, don't run over my foot in the process.

* Thanks for the comment (and sympathy!), Joy.  Yes, you know, just after I fell, I thought to myself that it could have been so very much worse!  I'm thankful to have broken nothing else...which would have put a far bigger crimp into summer.  I'm sorry YOU had to go through such a horrid fall!
* Kendra, I laughed when I read your comment about big toes and flip flops - thx!  I've never heard of Keen shoes - will check them out!
* Carolyn, Carolyn, oh how you made me laugh with your comment.  Yes, I have had three broken-toe incidents in my life, and you were definitely involved in the first of them, when I took you down the concrete stairs with me!!  Oh, how terrible I felt.  I can't believe YOU didn't break something!