Snap!

[Ozymandias]

I broke my left wrist skateboarding on Sunday. When I fell on my wrist I actually heard the bone snap. It sounds kind of like breaking a big stick in two. When I was getting my cast put on there was a little kid next to me who broke his shoulder when a running back fell on him in pee-wee football. Does anyone out there have any good broken bone stories to make me feel better?

 

[rokitflite]

Um, OUCH!!!

 

[cjl]

Sorry, no broken bones here. Done lots of stupid things, but have miraculously wound up without any major injuries to show for it. Ouch.

 

[SecretSquirrel]

I haven't broken anything but my wife did. Just over 2 years ago she slipped on a freshly waxed floor. Compound dislocation of the right ankle and broke her leg in 3 places.

She still wears a leg brace from that injury.

 

[sunward]

Ouch!

Closest I came was getting a chip in the foot when I was working in a warehouse years ago. Got caught between a pallet and power jack. Hurt, a bit.

Follow directions and get therapy when the cast comes off. You'll be back to normal.

 

[Fishhead]

I broke my ankle playing cards a few weeks back.
Actually I was coming back from a card game and there was an accident that had my street blocked. I walked out to talk to the police lady because we've had situations before where someone in one of the rental units was found to be planning a bank job that involved dynamite. I just wanted to make sure there was no danger to my family. As I turned around and started walking back to my yard, I rolled my ankle in a hole in the road. I've had bad ankles for years, but this was the worst I've done it since my senior year of high school.
My FAVORITE broken bone story only involved me to the extent that I was playing in the ballgame that it happened in. I was playing third base and the other team had a man on third and no out. The batter hit a slow one-hopper to me that I picked up easily. I turned to look the runner back to the base, but he took off for home. I made an easy lob throw to the catcher and he slid right into the tag, but his foot caught the exposed concrete lip that anchored home plate into the dirt. I heard the snap clearly, and our catcher just stood up real quick and started walking away. The umpire was laughing at how stupid the guy had been and called him out. "Never mind that! Call an ambulance!" the guy yelled. He broke his ankle so bad that his sock was the only thing that was keeping his bones from being visible. It took forty five minutes for them to get him off the field, and after that his team was done. It really took the sand out of their undies having one of their own carted off on a stretcher.

 

[Pippen]

Ouch is right!

When I was five we moved to the country and my parents decided to buy a horse. The first day we had it they had me up on it but the thing took off running on me until a neighbor caught up with us about a half mile down the road. I'd never ridden before so the fact I stayed on and wasn't hurt through that little episode was fortunate but it gets better. My family caught up with me at the neighbors and they hiked a 5th grade neighbor boy up in front of me so he could guide us in a nice gentle walk. Horse wasn't moving so I gave him a kick right in the flanks (where I hadn't been informed you should never kick a horse) and he promptly bucked us both off. I hit the ground sandwiched in between the rocks and the 11 year old. I broke my arm high near the shoulder and dislocated my elbow and spent the summer in body cast that covered my entire torso and held the arm forward in a slightly bent upward position. It was uncomfortable in the best of circumstances but on those 95 degree nights it was sweaty and itchy and smelly and my arm was always falling asleep--yuck, yuck, yuck!

They made me get back up on that horse but they sold it shortly afterwards and got an older gentler horse. I got thrown off plenty of times after that but never again was really hurt.

I hope your wrist mends well.

 

[AlexM]

Broke my collarbone once when I fell, and my shoulder came into contact with a table corner. That hurt a ton. Also, I broke my wrist when I was two, but no one knows how I did it.

 

[Jase]

When I was 9 or so, I was climbing over a 6 or 8' chain link fence and somehow, my shoe lace got caught up on the V that sticks up a the top.

I went to jump down and ended up just hanging there for a couple of seconds by my foot. I can only imagine that I looked like a rag doll hanging there.

Anyway, the shoelace broke and down I went. My right hand hit on the knuckles and bent my wrist a full 90 degrees.

Went to the hospital to get my wrist looked at and at first the docs couldn't see anything on the xray, so they splinted it up and sent me home.

The next day, it throbbed so bad, my mom took me back in and this time they saw the split in a lower arm bone that went up about an inch.

Lucky for me, there was no setting of the bone required, but I guess I was less than a centimeter or so from hitting the growth area of the bone which could have prevented my lower arm from growing!!!!

 

[rabidsheeep]

I have the worst skating story ever.

I was going down a hill to the local mall, and I rode off a curb. There was a guy pulling out of this intersection when he didn't have the light (he was behind a security barrier no less ) who honked and screamed some... vulgar things to me.

I turned around to give the guy a "friendly american gesture", my wheel got stuck on a pepsi can lying near the curb, I fell off and landed on my toe. All of me, right on my toe, that was entirely unprotected (shoes had a hole)

And thats the story of my broken toe. I also break my fingers alot...

If you wanna feel better, we put my cousin on a deck and let her down a hill, on which she broke not one, but both of her legs (thats a sick time to laugh).

 

[Reed Goodwin]

Sorry about your pain, Ozy. I am proud to say that I have never broken, fractures, or chipped a bone in my body (knock on wood). I have my fair share of scars, bot nothing ever broken. It is probably due to the fact that I don't participate in many dnagerous things, but it also might have to do with the fact that I drink, on a good day, close to a gallon of milk. Got milk?
Reed

 

[jerryb]

8th grade... the day we were getting out for Thanksgiving vacation... i was standing at the bus ramp of the school. One of my buddies thought he'd scare me... came up behind me and gave me a shove... what he didn't realize was that there was a 4 foot drop off ledge he just pushed me over. as i fell, i put out my right arm to break my fall. SNAP SNAP! both bones snapped in my forearm about 1/2 way down... the force of the fall caused my arm to bend at a 45 deg angle... it stayed that way when i got up... really sick looking.... 9 weeks in a cast and no PE for the rest of the year. story ends here right..... nope...

next year..... TWO days before the thanksgiving holiday.... In PE playing flag football... someone hands Jerry the ball on an end-around.... running down the sideline... when one of these guys thats flunked 9th grade about 12 times decides to body tackle me.... flag football remember?? leads his tackle with his head.... right on the wrist of my right arm..... SNAP SNAP!!!

BOTH bones again... this time 1 inch from my wrist... coach commented that I didnt fumble the football until after the play....
another year in the library for PE....

several years later, i decided to take up boxing in college.... different times over several years broken several finger bones in each hand of my little fingers.. got to the point i didnt cast the last time i broke the bone in my little finger...

now as i'm older... seasonal changes bring on a whole experience of aches

Never will forget the smell of a freshly removed arm cast.... cross between a gym locker and 4 week old sweat socks.... yum yum...

later
Jerryb

 

[cmmeyers]

Earlier this year, I broke my little toe. You wouldn't believe how something so small can cause so much pain. For about 4 weeks, everytime I put on my shoe it was an adventure in pain.

 

[Tucker5246]

Originally posted by Ozymandias
I broke my left wrist skateboarding on Sunday. When I fell on my wrist I actually heard the bone snap. It sounds kind of like breaking a big stick in two. When I was getting my cast put on there was a little kid next to me who broke his shoulder when a running back fell on him in pee-wee football. Does anyone out there have any good broken bone stories to make me feel better?

My son Matt did the same thing about 6 or 7 years ago. Skateboarding in the driveway, put his hand out to break his fall. Matt has had many broken bones and has had shoulder surgery to repair a dislocation. He is now playing high school football with a fractured wrist. I think he has a high threshold for pain. The good thing is that he and you will heal quickly.

My only broken bone was my NOSE! When I was 11 or so I stupidly stood behind a friend swinging a golf club. Needless to say I have a large bump on my nose.

Hope you feel better!

 

[loopy]

Broke my wrist sliding into home plate during a little league game a long time ago. I've broken about 8 toes at different times, and three of my finger in seperate incidents. None too bad, but I get some pretty bad aches when the weather changes.

 

[rocketkyle]

no broken bones...very suprising. I can't even walk down the stairs without tripping over my own feet. I have sprained my left ankle about 5-6 times. The reason my left ankle is so bad is because when I was playing baseball in 5th grade, I got hit by a pitch at 55mph. It hit on the bare bone of my ankle. When it hit me, I "flew" into the air, doing a spin move at the same time. I landed on my back. I was crying. They had to stop the game for 15 min. while they got me on my feet. I couldn't stand up. I had to go to the hospital.

 

[vjp]

Anybody here remember when Joe Theismann's leg got broken during the 1985 Redskins vs. Giants game?

I was at a friend's house watching the game that day. My friend's dad, who HATED Joe Theismann, had been shouting "break his leg, break his leg!" from the moment the game started. When he got sacked and his leg was nearly snapped off, all I can remember is the weird, evil grin on my friend's dad's face. (cue "Twilight Zone" music here....)

If you've never seen that play, don't watch it unless you've got a strong stomach.

 

[OARJeepr]

Ninth grade...I made it through an entire season of high school football only to break my leg in a pickup game a couple of weeks after the season. It was a weird break as my tibia was split from the lower end about 3-4 inches. It really worried the doc because I split the growth plate and it could have stunted that leg. Guess I got lucky.

 

[loopy]

Originally posted by vjp
Anybody here remember when Joe Theismann's leg got broken during the 1985 Redskins vs. Giants game?

I was at a friend's house watching the game that day. My friend's dad, who HATED Joe Theismann, had been shouting "break his leg, break his leg!" from the moment the game started. When he got sacked and his leg was nearly snapped off, all I can remember is the weird, evil grin on my friend's dad's face. (cue "Twilight Zone" music here....)

If you've never seen that play, don't watch it unless you've got a strong stomach.

I saw that one. Tim Krumrie in the Super Bowl was pretty bad, too. As was Bryant Young a couple of years ago on Monday Night Football.

 

[wwattles]

3 broken bones for me.

First was during my senior year in high school during a PE class (tennis). At the end of class, I was heading off the court and decided to hurdle the net (as a member of the track team, I had a lot of experience hurdling much higher things), but as luck would have it, my foot slipped on take-off, my lead leg cleared the net but my trail leg didn't. When it caught the top of the net, it snapped my upper body down onto the court, where I skidded on my knees and hands. My knees were a bloody mess, and hurt like crazy. My hands were skinned up, and hurt a little.
That afternoon, my wrists were pretty sore, my knees hurt, and I was limping everywhere. By 4pm, my right wrist was swollen, and I couldn't move it, so I went to the hospital, where they told me I had broken my wrist. Not only had I broken it, I had broken the slowest-healing bone in the body, and that if they put a cast on it, after 6 months I had a 50-50 chance of it being healed properly. Or they could do surgery, put in a 2cm steel screw, and I could be out of a cast in 6 weeks. Since I was reporting to the US Naval Academy in 8 weeks to start training, surgery was my only option. So I've got a steel screw holding my wrist together even to this day, but my hand doesn't bend back past 70 degrees, so I had to learn to do pushups on my knuckles instead.

My second broken bone wasn't nearly as bad, unless you count the circumstances. I was playing volleyball with some friends on the beach in Pensacola, when I took a step backwards, my foot got caught in the sand, and when I put my weight on it, my ankle was turned sideways and snapped. I thought it was just a bad sprain, and it wasn't until 3 days later that I went to the hospital and discovered that I had indeed broken it. Not badly, but broken nonetheless.
Okay, so I'd broken bones before, no big deal. Except that the day before, I'd been in a car accident (not my fault) and I was driving a compact-sized rental (all my insurance would pay for) and my crutches didn't fit into the car. Throw into the mix that I'd flunked out of Naval Flight Officer school that same day, and my girlfriend had dumped me the day before (it was Valentine's Day weekend), and I was a miserable son-of-a-gun! People heard about me and just wanted to stay away lest the bad luck rub off on them!

Third one was just a simple broken nose that I got during my mandatory boxing class at the Naval Academy. Not even a bad break - just enough to throw my septum askew a little when it healed.


Okay, now on to the worst broken bone story I've ever met: my brother. He was running in the youth national championships for cross-country in Texas one year, when he stepped into a pothole and shattered his heelbone into 6 pieces. He was on crutches for 3 months while that healed. During the last 2 weeks of his recovery, he was wearing one of those walking boots, and figured he could participate in PE as long as he wasn't moving around much. So he played goalie for the soccer game. He went to kick the ball at the same time as another guy, and he broke the big toe on his GOOD foot. So he had a broken (but almost healed) heelbone on one foot, and a broken toe on the other. 4 more weeks in a cast. 3 weeks into that healing process, he was getting pretty good on those crutches, and he was moving pretty quickly. Until he swung through and hit his little toe on the first foot (the one that had originally had the broken heel) on the crutch, breaking the toe. Broken big toe on one foot, and a broken little toe and a mending heel on the other. We think that the hospital might have named their new orthopedic ward the "Wattles Memorial Wing" to make him feel more welcome the next time he came through.

Hope this helps you commiserate, Ozy!

WW

 

[Miss Riley]

Never broken a limb, but I fell off my bike when I was seven; fractured my skull, broke both cheekbones and dislocated the cartilage in my nose.

Now I come to think of it, maybe the fractured skull did more damage than I thought......there has to be some reason I married Starbug!

Hope the break heals quickly and cleanly!



Angela

 

[hokkyokusei]

Originally posted by Miss Riley

Now I come to think of it, maybe the fractured skull did more damage than I thought......there has to be some reason I married Starbug!

This explains so much!


Only ever broken one bone myself, my left femur. Got knocked off my (badly maintained) bicycle by a car.

 

[JRThro]

I've never broken a bone, but I have dislocated both of my knees.

Right knee, junior year in high school, running around in the chemistry lab w/ 3 other guys after class, squirting each other with those little wash bottles. Floor was wet and slick, I tried to turn a corner while running, my knee went out from under me and bent sideways (knee in, foot out). That was by far the worst pain I've ever felt. I stayed in school the rest of the day because I didn't want to get in trouble for screwing around, even though I couldn't straighten my leg, could barely walk, and my knee has swollen to a really big size. My dad took me to the emergency room that evening and the doctor drained a LOT of bloody fluid from the knee. Next day I was put in a cast for 4 weeks. I had ongoing trouble with that knee for the next 6 years. It finally buckled again the day before I graduated from college, and i finally had surgery on it, which involved relocating the point at which the patellar tendon attaches to the front of the tibia about 1" to the left (or inward) of its normal position. This was meant to increase the stability of the knee. Ten months later I had surgery again to remove a big calcium deposit that caused the knee to intermittently semi lock up so it wouldn't straighten for a while. So I now have two 5" long scars on the right side of my right knee, about 1.5" inches apart.

My left knee was injured last November while I was volunteering at the "Thanksgiving feast" for the kids at my son's grade school. It had stormed that day, water had come in under the doors, the floor was wet, and you can guess what happened. Actually, I slipped and fell twice but somehow didn't hurt myself the first time. The second time, my right knee went out from under me, sliding forward on the floor. My left knee buckled under me and (duh) bent sideways. This time I tore both the medial meniscus (slightly) and the articular cartilage beneath the lateral meniscus. Those were supposedly trimmed and repaired via arthroscopic surgery this past March, but I'm not convinced. I was walking (badly) that night with the help of a brace since the anesthetic hadn't worn off yet, and things have improved slowly since then.


As for broken and shattered bones go, my wife was in an auto accident when she was 18. Her brother was driving a pickup truck and my wife was in the passenger seat with the window open and her arm resting on the window sill. Her brother hit a horse that managed to wander onto the road, and my wife's forearm was shattered, compound fractures with bones sticking out, the whole nine yards. She has multiple plates and screws in it to this day, can't rotate it more than maybe 45 degrees, and has a huge jagged scar almost the entire length of the underside of her forearm.

My 8 year old son broke his forearm, both bones, about an inch from his wrist, his first week of kindergarten. He was on a piece of playground equipment, was going to jump/drop off, said "Hey, watch me!", landed on his left hand and broke his arm. He was in a nice purple cast for 6 weeks.

 

[MissileDaughter]

Hmm. I was born with a cleft palate (birth defect). When I was in fourth grade, the doctors had to break my nose to reconstruct it. It hurt a bit. Bleed a lot. In ninth grade, both my jaws were broke, as well as my nose (also had my chin sculpted and bone implants done on my cheeks). My lips were very swollen to the point that two-thirds of what I ate ended up on the make-shift bib (towel). I was on two pain killers and slept about 22 hours a day for about three weeks. Due to those two experiences, I now know exactly how blood smells (and it ain't pretty)

On the lighter side, you know your toe next to your big toe? Well, I broke both of those. First one, I ran in the house answering the phone and slipped. The second one was harder to break. After dropping about 4 big cans of vegetables/fruits and stubbing it rather hard on a corner of the wall a few times, it finally broke.

 

[11bravo]

VJP, you are a bad man.
A VERY BAD MAN!
Of all the things you could have NOT brought up, that ranks high.
I still get the shivers when I think of that.
Do pushups.

Me, a total of 16 bones(mine) broken over the years; I have multiple multiples, one including 5 ribs.
I've broken, all accidents, a total of 4 bones in three other people.
Worst was a friend's pinkie playing volleyball in HS gym.

Most unfortunate broken bones story I know-
I was running a cash register one 4th of July and a mother and two kids come through my line.
Daughter is maybe 10 and has casts on both arms from the knuckles to the arm pits.
I ask how she did that and she sheepishly says, "I fell off my bike".
I ask when she did that.
She says 3 days before school was out.
I ask how long she had to have the casts on.
She says until September 16.
HER WHOLE SUMMER TRASHED!!!
Her mother says that the 16th of SEP they are all ready scheduled to see an orthopedic surgeon as doctors are worried about how one of the breaks healed.
I got to thinking after they left; she couldn't feed herself, dress herself, go to the bathroom herself.
Nothing.

Greg

 

[Ray Dunakin]

Ow!! Ow!! Ow!!! All these stories are making me cringe!

I've never had a really bad break, thank God, but had one that was really painful and could have been much, much worse. It was also the result of something fairly dumb, so it makes a good story.


My brothers and I were with some friends out in the desert, at a place where there's a long, winding cave. The cave entrance is at the bottom of a canyon, and it comes out on top of the mesa. It was summer, very hot except in the cave where it was only mildly hot. Everyone was taking a break just inside the entrance of the cave, and having lunch. My brother and his friend were talking about how they supposedly had traversed the entire cave without any lights, just going by feel. I had my doubts about their story.

I decided to take a walk down the canyon. I followed a branch of the canyon and after much climbing I ended up on top of the mesa. I was also running out of water, and not looking forward to the long, hot hike back. So I figured I'd find the cave and go down through it -- it would be shorter than the way I came, and at least I'd be out of the sun. Only problem was, I hadn't brought a flashlight with me.

Well, I figured that if my idiot brother and his goofball friend could get through without lights, I could too. And if worst came to worst, I had a few matches I could use for the tough spots.

Well, I quickly found out that it's virtually impossible to go through that cave by touch. The cave is just too uneven. So I had to use my matches, and hope I didn't run out before I got to the end.

At one point was walking along a narrow ledge that ran out. The match was almost down to my fingers and not producing much light. It looked like the next level was only about a foot down. So I stepped off the ledge... and fell sideways into darkness.

The drop was "only" about 4-5 feet, but that was bad enough. Landed on my hip in total darkness, with an incredible pain in my lower back. That's when the incredible stupidity of it all really hit me -- hiking farther than my water supply would last, trying to navigate a cave without proper light, and even if anyone got worried about me, they'd be looking for me outside and in the wrong direction.

Eventually determined that I could still move my legs, although any movement of any part of my body was excruciating. Walking was pure agony -- but not only did I have to walk, I still had to walk through that cave in the dark. Not fun.

Luckily a couple of the guys had tired of lounging around and decided to go up through the cave again (with flashlights). I met up with them after making it about halfway through the cave.

I didn't know it at the time but it turned out I'd cracked a vertebrae in my lower back. Actually chipped a corner off it!

------

My one other experience with a fracture was when I accidentally closed the car door on two of my fingers. What really sucked was that the door was locked and I had to get out the key with my left hand to unlock the door before I could extract my throbbing digits. I never had it x-rayed so i can't be 100% certain but I'm pretty sure I had a compression fracture in my index finger.

 

[JRThro]

Originally posted by Ray Dunakin
My one other experience with a fracture was when I accidentally closed the car door on two of my fingers. What really sucked was that the door was locked and I had to get out the key with my left hand to unlock the door before I could extract my throbbing digits. I never had it x-rayed so i can't be 100% certain but I'm pretty sure I had a compression fracture in my index finger.

For some reason that sounds worse than the cracked vertebra. Probably because you had to unlock the door with your other hand in order to get your fingers out. OWW!!

 

[JRThro]

Oh, my wife also had a compound fracture of her lower leg when one of her brothers fell on her while they were playing or fighting or something. The broken end of the tibia stuck out of her shin, and she still has a scar where it came out.

Ouch!

Ozymandias, we all feel your pain. Best of luck with your recovery!