Have you ever broken a bone? Describe what it REALLY felt like..

In My Humble Opinion
21

I broke my ankle when I was 16, and didn’t know it until I was 43, when it “went out” on me-- it would every so often behave as though it had a bad sprain, even though I hadn’t done anything to it, except maybe bump it slightly, or step down a little hard.

Anyway, there was a loose bone fragment and evidence of a very old fracture.

It must have been the very bad “sprain” I had when I was 16. I jumped down hard on it, taking too many steps on a long staircase at once. It hurt, but I could walk on it. Then it went numb. So I continued to walk on it. The color was fine, and the foot had a pulse, and it was warm. I iced it, and wrapped it like it was a sprain. I slept with it up, and the next day was a Friday. I couldn’t walk when I woke up. My aunt called into school for me, and did everything to drag me to a doctor, but I said I’d had sprained ankles before, and I was sure that was all this was. There was some distraction, like my cousin having chicken pox, or something, so she didn’t force me to go.

By Monday, I could walk. I limped, but I walked. It took about two weeks before I wasn’t limping, and I bought one of those heavy-duty braces at the pharmacy, but it get better.

I biked all over S. Indiana on that ankle in my 20s, and hiked all the state parks. I did Army basic training on it, including the running, and never thought twice about it. I wore heels flats, took some dance classes, lifted weights over my head, got a blue belt in Judo, and just once in a while, maybe every other year, it would “go out” on me. It got worse in my 30s, until it happened when I was at home with my toddler son while my husband was away on his two weeks with his Reserve unit. When he got back, he dragged me to the doctor. They put in an aircast and gave me crutches, asked me if I needed codeine, and referred me to an orthopod.

So, it is apparently pretty easy to mistake a break for a sprain.

I had surgery, and my ankle no longer “goes out.”

ETA: Worst pain I ever had was my tonsillectomy when I was 34. C-section was in between the tonsillectomy and breaking the ankle. The post-surgery pain on the ankle was actually worse than the break.

22

I’ve broken toes on two occasions, and once my tailbone. Toes aren’t too bad, although I screamed the second time it happened because having a heavy object fall on you from a height of 8 feet hurts. After the initial pain from however you injured yourself, it’s mostly just sore and then aches when it gets damp for a couple of years.

But a broken tailbone hurts a lot more (I broke mine roller-skating, which is a “popular” way to do it). It hurts some all of the time, but when you sit down, stand up, or have to move your bowels the pain becomes horrible. Like get sick to your stomach and feel a little faint horrible. And it’s been over 20 years but it still will ache if I spend too long sitting in an uncomfortable chair, so I have gel pads for my office chairs at home and at work that help.

23

Half-fell from a horse 30 yrs ago, dragged in one stirrup, horse ended up stomping on my ankle before stopping.

Yeah, it hurt. But the ambulance arrived pretty quickly and I was off my tits with nitrous oxide before too long, chatting up the paramedics apparently!

You want pain? Try either an unmedicated birth, a prolapsed disc or, from what I’ve heard (but thankfully never had the joy to experience) KIDNEY STONES.

You’ll be praying for a broken bone…:smiley:

24

Cracked, or broke, my big left toe once, walking barefoot into a table leg. Hurt like hell for a while, pain subsided. Put on my shoes and went to a movie. When I got up the pain lanced up my leg. Got home, took off the shoe and boy did that toe start swelling up. The bruising was spectacular. I didn’t get it treated because hey, what can be done for a toe? Splints? It is to laugh! My mom, a nurse, bound it up and I suffered until the swelling an bruising finally went away.

I had kidney stones and I don’t think I’d wish that pain on Donald Trump.

25

I broke my foot in 3 places messing around with a four wheeler in my teenage years. Felt almost no pain, but it was sore for sure.

The thing I remember specifically is being very cold, and this happened on a very hot, humid day.

26

Excellent description! That was my experience when I broke my nose too. Only, I wasn’t in a fight; I was just a clumsy kid.

At various times, I’ve broken other bones, but none hurt as much as a broken nose. Oh, they hurt, but more in the sense of “Ow! I’d better get that looked at,” rather than screaming in unbelievable pain.

27

I broke a fair amount racing motorcycles; enough that I had Xs painted on my leathers for most of them. Stuff like my nose, toes and fingers were beneath notice. Still are for that matter. Usually when I actually broke it the pain wasn’t too bad especially in my arms and legs. I got this odd shot of adrenaline and dizziness that got me through the initial stages. It was afterwards that the pain really set in; come about the time I hit the hospital and knew it was just the beginning of the process of getting treated. The absolute worse from the moment it happened throughout, and to some degree even today, was a couple cracked ribs and a crack to my sternum. When that one happened I was wishing I would pass out or go into a coma or something. It really was off the pain scale for me. But something like a leg? Heck – soak the cast off the next week and go racing again. It was the 70s, I was young, and immortal - much different than I am today.

28

Only my pinky toe when I swung a little too wide and banged it on the baseboard heater. It never healed properly, of course and can still give my some pain after all these years. It at least taught me to wear shoes in the house.

29

Taking a dump after an anal fissurectomy is no walk in the park. I’d prefer another radial head fracture. That only hurt if I tried to torque my forearm. I still can’t straighten that arm.

30

I broke my right big toe three weeks ago - very similar story. Swung my foot to kick a dolly into place under a desk, missed the dolly, hit the corner of the desk. It hurt so badly that I went into the living room and laid down on the floor so I wouldn’t pass right out (I heard the crunch as I kicked the desk - I had a bad feeling about that). Two weeks later, it wasn’t really painful at all, but the swelling and bruising was quite amazing, as you said, so I finally went to the doctor. He took one look at it and pronounced most likely broken, but we won’t bother with x-rays or treatment since none of that would change anything. (I could have gotten x-rays if I really wanted them, but there doesn’t seem to be any point.)

So to answer the OP’s question, breaking your big toe hurts A LOT when you break it, it swells up a ridiculous amount (like, think cartoon big toe), and gets really bruised under the toenail and stays that way for an extraordinarily long time (and I’m not an easy bruiser). It doesn’t hurt much at all after a couple of days, and there isn’t really any treatment for it except time. And wear loose shoes and try to stop banging it into things.

31

I walked around with a broken radius for two months before realizing something was wrong. the break was right below the wrist. Discovered it was broken because I suddenly couldn’t lift anything at work and I thought I’d somehow strained my forearm muscles. As long as I didn’t move my arm, I was fine. If I did, the pain was so sharp that I wanted to shoot myself through the roof screaming for mercy.

To this day I don’t know how I broke it. I’d stumbled while walking my dogs one day and had caught myself against a tree. Other than that, no falls, nothing :shrug:

My orthopedist put me in a Munster case to keep me from moving my arm and most of my hand. I likened it to being one of those woodchopper figures on a cuckoo clock, LOL. I was out of work for a month and could only use my other arm/hand. I never want to go through that again. Asking somebody to help you with the most basic things you normally take for granted is very humbling…and embarassing.

I still get residual pain if I lift something more than 5 lbs. with that hand. I have to be very careful at work or else the same thing could happen again.

32

I shattered (surgeon’s description) my right femur falling down a flight of stairs. I also suffered a concussion and have no memory of the fall or the ambulance trip to the hospital. I have vivid memories of the recovery from the surgery: I honestly wished I could just die to escape the pain. It happened about six years ago; I had to use a walker for close to a year and still use a cane. There is a dull ache in the leg nearly constantly and there are times when it hurts to beat hell.

33

I broke my collarbone in a couple of places in a cycling accident. Immediately after the prang EVERYTHING hurt, I was winded, my chest hurt, my shoulder hurt and I’d ripped a nail off a finger, that REALLY hurt. Once I’d settled down and got over the initial shock, the collarbone just felt dull and “wrong”. My finger still REALLY hurt though. My lasting impression is that fingernails hurt like hell; bones, not so much.

I’ve also broken a finger in a few places from a mountain biking accident. It hurt a bit, though I could ride back to the car, I couldn’t use it for braking and taking my glove off was painful. Over the next few weeks it didn’t really hurt unless I put pressure on it in the wrong direction, then it was pretty sore.

34

Complete fracture in my dominant forearm…the hand-side part of the bone actually pushed up alongside the elbow-side a bit. (I landed palm-down when I fell.)

It…didn’t actually hurt that much. An annoying ache, for the most part. Spraining my wrist hurt more.

35

I guess this doesn’t include having my sternum sawed in half for heart surgery.

36

I have broken bones in my wrist and my clavicle at different times playing football. With my wrist I fell awkwardly making a tackle and thought I had sprained the wrist. It hurt quite a bit but was hardly agony. The wrist was so badly broken I had to have it set under a general anesthetic when I finally went to the hospital later in the day.

When I broke my clavicle I tackled an opponent and heard the crack as the bone snapped. I knew that I had broken the bone but it didn’t hurt a great deal. I ran over to the referee to inform him I was injured and ran off the field. I don’t recall anything worse than an annoying dull ache that persisted intermittently long after after it had healed.

I badly sprained an ankle playing tennis and was in absolute agony. I assumed that I had broken my ankle but the doctor, after x-raying it, told me that unfortunately for me I hadn’t. It was many times more painful than either fracture.

37

I broke the 5th metatarsal in my foot a few years ago. I didn’t so much feel it as hear it. I knew instantly it was broken. I walked on it for 6 months until I had a bone graft and a pin put in. Now that hurt!

38

I’ve only ever cracked a rib, and it was small enough where it didn’t show on an X-ray. it was ok unless I breathed in sharply and/or deeply, at which point it felt like I was being stabbed.

39

This thread describes my experience with snapping off my wristbone.

Was it painful. You betcha. However, I eschew pain killers, due to a very addictive personality. They had to shoot something really good into my arm to set the damn thing, but after it wore off, I took aspirin and Aleve for a while, gradually weaning off.

40

Two tarsal fractures a few years ago and I’m sure I broke the ‘bird’ finger in my right hand when I was a kid. Never told an adult about it when it happened and as a result it ended up setting a bit funny.