# First official broken bone **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 15, 2022, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818 "2022-01-15T01:50:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dbug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dbug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dbug)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/1 "2022-01-15T01:50:15Z")
I was talking to a friend a few days ago. And we both realized we were 30 or almost 30 before we broke something officially . I broke my 3rd toe at 30 she fractured her pinky at 29.75. My mom just reminded me she was 60 something when she broke her thumb. How old were you when you got your first official broken bone? ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/2 "2022-01-15T01:52:38Z")
Fourteen. Slipped on ice and busted an elbow. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/3 "2022-01-15T01:59:19Z")
1. The broken femur was [the _least_ of my troubles.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-was-almost-killed-a-year-ago-this-morning/310368/18) ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/4 "2022-01-15T02:40:31Z")
None, yet, and I’m nearly 60. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/5 "2022-01-15T02:48:13Z")
I was about 50 when I pulverized the bone in my right pinkie toe. Doc said there was very little he could do, the bone was in about 6 pieces. I had a splint for about a week, iced it for a few days and I was walking normal in about 2 weeks. Haven’t kicked a leg of a coffee table since. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/6 "2022-01-15T02:55:06Z")
1. Going up to catch a football in a crowd, smacked right onto the end of my little finger and broke it. ---
**Author:** ![Paintcharge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/paintcharge/32/7946_2.png) [@Paintcharge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paintcharge)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/7 "2022-01-15T03:01:16Z")
1. Haven’t broken a bone, but many ligaments and cartilage tears and screwups. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/8 "2022-01-15T03:02:13Z")
Nearly 65 and none yet. Not for lack of trying. But as an old friend would cheerfully point out, “You just haven’t been hit hard enough yet.” I can’t argue with that. If there is a broken bone in my future, I will say I’d have rather suffered one earlier in life than later. Fingers crossed for no broken hips. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/9 "2022-01-15T03:02:35Z")
Possibly a toe or two, but not confirmed. Front teeth snapped at 12 or 13, though. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/10 "2022-01-15T03:06:52Z")
Define _official_. I’ve broken fingers and toes in my 20s, but never had them xray’d to confirm. The first break I had confirmed by xrays was a broken rib in my 30s. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/11 "2022-01-15T03:14:51Z")
31 I think. Broke my wrist skiing. I’m sure I broke toes several times in my life before (and after) that, but that’s my only “official” break. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/12 "2022-01-15T03:18:43Z")
11 or so. Fell off my bike and smacked my hand into the pavement hard enough to break a metacarpal. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/13 "2022-01-15T03:19:41Z")
I think I was 10 when I broke my arm. Then 13 with the collarbone, and 14 with my ankle. Didn’t break anything again until my late 20s with the collarbone. Same one, and there is a noticeable bump on it compared to the other unbroken one. Those were all official, but since then I think I’ve broken a shoulder and my foot, but I just pushed through those without seeing a doctor. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/14 "2022-01-15T03:25:52Z")
I was probably 8 or 9 years old. But I’m not sure if it counts since it wasn’t my bone. I slammed my brother’s thumb in a door and broke his. As for me, I’m over 40 and haven’t broken any bones. I tore some cartilage in my shoulder that required surgery and _months_ of PT, but that’s it. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/15 "2022-01-15T03:30:11Z")
I’ll allow that. How old was your brother? BTW, in my experience the pain of a broken bone, while not particularly more painful than other injuries, is a unique pain. That’s how I am counting my unofficial breaks, they had that same broken bone pain that other breaks have had. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/16 "2022-01-15T03:48:54Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > I’ll allow that. How old was your brother? If I was 8 or 9, he would have been 7 or 8…and he still brings it up at least once or twice a year (as a joke). ---
**Author:** ![Old\_Wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecccb3/32.png) [@Old\_Wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Old_Wench)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/17 "2022-01-15T03:49:48Z")
5 years old. I was playing in the yard with my brother and 2 neighborhood kids. We were all running around when I fell and a couple of them fell on top of me and my left wrist got broken in several places. It didn’t hurt but I couldn’t move it and it dangled funny, so I just went to the door, held my arm up to my mother and said “I think I broke a bone.” My dad was at work so she took my brother next door to the neighbor, put me in the car and drove me to the hospital. I ended up with a plaster cast from my knuckles almost to my armpit for 6 or 8 weeks in the summer. ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/18 "2022-01-15T05:38:51Z")
I’m 38 and have never been aware of having a broken bone at the time it was broken. But apparently I broke my right index finger as a kid. I got my hand x-rayed when I was a young teen, because I had a weird bump that turned out to be nothing, and the doctor pointed out a thickened area on the finger bone and explained it was a healed fracture. I immediately felt I knew when it must have happened; I remember my mom accidentally closing the car door on my hand. I don’t remember exactly how old I was, but I was definitely old enough to write, and I’m right-handed. It hurt like nothing else I’ve ever experienced in the moment, but I don’t remember it bothering me for as long afterward as I would’ve thought a broken bone would. But I guess kids’ bones are like that; they can get partial, “greenstick” fractures that hardly even slow them down. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/19 "2022-01-15T06:01:00Z")
I was 13 or so when I broke my wrist in PE class. It was just a hairline fracture, so nothing too obvious other than my whining about it. The coach said “move it around, it’ll feel better”, and felt sorry for saying that when I showed up the next day with my arm in a cast. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2022, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818/20 "2022-01-15T06:06:23Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > I was 13 or so when I broke my wrist in PE class. It was just a hairline fracture, so nothing too obvious other than my whining about it. I was coming in to say literally the same thing. A kid tripped me when I was running full speed past him while playing flag football of all things and I did a spectacular tumble. That same kid was in my next class and he got increasingly concerned (out of a bit of worried self-interest, as he realized he could potentially get in trouble) as it started swelling and remained tender. He was the one who convinced me to go see the nurse. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-official-broken-bone/957818.md?page=2)