Technically two but I chose one. Changed casts halfway through a torn Achilles tendon. First four weeks with the toe pointing down and not able to put any weight on the leg.
Then they took the cast off and pushed my foot as close to right angled as they could “It’ll feel like you’re tearing the tendon again!” said the nurse breezily and accurately.
Second four weeks in a walking cast. Because it was faster, I got into a bad habit of leaving the crutches and hobbling with the plastered foot sideways - which I’m still trying to break three months later.
Left forearm as a 12 year old (playground launch from swing)
Right forearm and left leg as 22 year old (auto accident)
Left forearm as 28 year old (motorcycle accident)
Twice; left forearm near the wrist (both bones) whe I was about 14; almost exactly the same injury to the right forearm in 2005, when I was pushing 50. Interesting to note the differences in healing; first injury had me in a cast about three weeks and full recovery (no loss of range of motion) without much of anything in the way of physical tharapy.
The second injury, bones started healing twisted, so about three weeks in, treating physician had to install a steel plate and six screws, with a total of about six weeks spent in a cast. Even with six months’ followup phys. therapy, permanently lost about 20% of my pre-injury range of motion, and the later rupture of a small tendon apparently related to the original injury means that I can no longer fully extend my thumb. Best to have these things happen before 40, I guess.
Once: the now-notorious late-campaign ankle-breaking story. (It was actually a walking cast, a Robocop-boot-shaped affair with inner cushions you could inflate to hold the foot immobile, and allowed me to walk on the foot, supported by crutches, once it had healed enough for that, as well as take the cast on and off for purposes of bathing and sleep.)
Cast on my left arm at 15 (broken radius playing softball)
Cast on my left leg/foot at 16 (auto accident, still have the screws in my foot)
Cast on my right wrist at 17 (tripped, fell and broke my wrist catching myself)
(I had a rough patch with regards to breaking bones in my late teens)
Cast on my left ankle/foot at 24 (broken ankle playing volleyball)
I’ve also broken fingers at various times, had a stress fracture in one of my lumbar vertebraes, fractured my right shoulder, cracked my right kneecap, had a hairline fracture of the right ankle, a broken nose (more than once) and currently have a broken right little toe, none of which required a cast.
Cast never. I had to wear a brace that kept my right arm flexed and unmoving for the day and a half until I could go for surgery. I then had to wear a soft bandage around my whole arm for a week and a half following the open reduction, internal fixation surgery to repair my cracked humerus.
Once, when I was a kiddie. Broke some bone in the wrist which wasn’t detected until weeks after the fact. They still insisted on putting the cast on. Spoil-sports.
Also broke a finger and a toe at one point, but the former only necessitated a splint, and the latter- some tape. :<
Actual cast,only once, for a sliced tendon in my left middle finger.
Various walking boots and knee splints too many times to remember. I calculated that from all the knee and ankle injuries, ACL, meniscus, both achilles tendons, sprains etc, I’ve spent over two years on crutches throughout my life.
Actual cast,only once, for a sliced tendon in my left middle finger.
Various walking boots and knee splints too many times to remember. I calculated that from all the knee and ankle injuries, ACL, meniscus, both achilles tendons, sprains etc, I’ve spent over two years on crutches throughout my life.
I’ve had staples in my head, but not a cast or stiches either.
I’ve had EEGs, a CAT scan, MRI tests, and several other odd test for my epilepsy (including one where they basically turn off half your brain at a time) but never even sprained an ankle. Go figure.
Yep, the bones I broken have also been my tailbone and a toe. AFAIK you can’t cast the former, and with the latter I think they only do that for big toes.
I’ve always thought it’d be interesting (if slightly dangerous) to ask a hundred or so random people how many bones they’ve broken, and then give them a full-body x-ray series to see if they’re right. I suspect a lot people break bones, especially tailbones, fingers, toes, and ribs without ever knowing it.
I voted 1 (for a broken army at age 6). I have worn plaster splints (same material as a cast, but not enclosing the whole limb and only to immobilize it for a couple of days) on two other occasions: a sprained ankle and a broken elbow.
Closest thing I ever had to a broken bone was a stress fracture in one of the metatarsals of my right foot. No cast, just a little pad I had to wear in my shoe to provide counter-pressure to keep the bone from further splintering.
Broke my arm hang gliding. Caught a wingtip on landing and spun in. Didn’t realize it was broken until the next day, when it hurt like hell to open a doorknob.
