Have you ever broken a bone?

[flaggerphil]

Holy moly...you don't want to know.

But maybe you do...

In no particular order:

Crushed right tibia and fibula, compound fractures.
Back broken at T5 and L1.
L4 and L5 discs broken (and removed).
Ten ribs broken in two incidents.
Left wrist.
Left thumb.
Right hand (twice).
Right instep.
Two toes.
Jaw dislocated (ok...it's not a fracture, but it was feeling neglected when I listed all the other ones).

[SMan]

Yes, many.

[svea]

Most recently last May, an avulsion fracture of my left index PIP joint. It is such a tiny bone fracture, yet I still can't play the "C" chord right. It will be up to a year before most if not all of my left hand technique is back.

Svea

[JimC1702]

Motorcycle accident. broken left foot, crushed two largest toes on left foot, broken left clavicle and left scapula.

Jim

[Gmountain]

A rib in high school

A rib when I was hit by a dive boat in rough seas

All the ribs on my left side were broken at the sternum from CPR.

I guess I have a thing about ribs.

[GHS]

Originally Posted by Chicago Sandy

Yeah, had something like that too back in 2009. Had been wearing Crocs all spring. Was walking down a long hospital corridor to visit a friend; my foot suddenly stuck to the tile floor and I pitched forward. Orthopedist said x-ray was inconclusive, so he ordered an MRI which showed inflammation consistent with a metatarsal stress fx. Podiatrist, on a hunch, decided to try comparing the prior non-weightbearing with a “dynamic” series of weightbearing x-rays (standing on my toes, then flat on the floor). She diagnosed it as “cuboid syndrome,” a ligamentous excessive splaying of 4th & 5th metatarsal bones, usually occurring in ballet dancers & basketball players. Spent three weeks in a cast-boot and have been in “sensible" shoes ever since.

Is that pain on the bottom of the foot along the front of the instep just behind the toes? I have been wearing sandals all summer and have lots of pain on the ball area where the toes meet the front edge of the flat instead area. No pain when seated, only when standing. Sounds like me, I'm going to have it checked out soon, been too much to take.

[GHS]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Took my first good climbing fall when I was 21. Entirely my fault. Ego, stupidity, and showing off. I got up forty feel on a sheer wall and hadn't set my protection. Got to a position spread-out over a small knob where I couldn't go upwards or downwards and got "sewing machine knee" after I expended all my blood sugar. Then the shaley rock under my left hand crumbled. I fell the forty feet in a standing position then splatted onto a rock shelf. I collapsed backwards and fell head-first over the edge of the shelf down another ten-foot face. There was a tree growing very close to the wall below the shelf so my chin became a brake pad against the trunk and slowed my fall as I dribbled into the V of tree and cliff and ended up in a pile of body on top of my head like you've seen Wyle E. Coyote do.

Thank God for my climbing helmet and friends who descended and quickly got me out of that comical upside-down position where my head was compressing my windpipe as I suffered diaphragm spasms from the sudden stop at the bottom of the first cliff. Once I could breath again we did an inventory and discovered that I had broken... nothing. Twenty minutes later my friends helped me up and I hiked out to the car. Within an hour all the joints from my waist down had swollen to the point where they were rigid. They stayed that way for three days. The place under my chin that acted like a brake pad won't grow beard. Every morning as I trim the beard it speaks to me:

"Don't be an idiot again."

I won't have that opportunity again. We could compare scars, but on the theme of the thread, I've only broken fingers in football. No painkiller. Suck it up you wimp.

One nice thing about age? The changes in your skin start to hide the scars!

Bob

Used to go the "Gunks" in NY state. People came from all over to climb there. Best piece of granite outside of Yosemite. I'm never going back to do that. Must have been out of my mind. Too easy to get too hurt.

[BananasCentral]

I've broken quite a few but thankfully none were mine.

[Alex Matthews]

11 the same time: 5 ribs, 4 vertebrae, collarbone on both ends, fractured skull, and the collapsed lung and swollen brain. The last two don't really count.

[Photojeep]

I broke the end of the bone in my foot that is connected to my left pinky toe (did you know the end farthest away from your toe isn't connected to anything? I didn't!) I did that two months before my wedding. Luckily I didn't have a cast during my wedding or my wife said she would have broken more bones...

I broke my right big toe falling UP some stairs. Actually it was the end of the bone the flares outwards. I had the piece removed so now my right big toe points ever so slightly to the right and if I'm not careful I start drifting to the right as I walk. My kids used to tell me that if I lost my mind they wouldn't worry about me wandering off because I'd just walk in a big circle.

I broke my right shin while pushing an anvil type case along a sidewalk. The front caster caught in the crack in the sidewalk, tipped forward and I slammed my shin into the bottom metal edge. Luckily I was on my way into a karate tournament and they had a medical booth setup so they taped a bag of ice to my leg and off I went.

PJ

[heni30]

Mine actually enhanced my guitar playing. Broke my pinky playing volley ball;
dad says it's nothing, just a sprain..............So my finger heals bent outward. And now I find I can easily do all these stretched out chords. (started playing when I was 11)

I always had trouble with my pinky involuntarily moving along with my ring finger.

So now when someone tells me they want to learn how to play the guitar I tell them the best thing they can do is hit their pinky with a hammer and set it outward and then snip the tendon that connects their ring finger to their pinky and they'll have this huge advantage before even starting out.

[jeanray1113]

Little finger of left hand twice in the same year! First time I fell on in-line skates, second time bike crash. The second was just a hairline fracture. Ortho said the first fracture would probably leave it with so residual stiffness, but as soon as it was healed I worked like crazy and at 35 years later it works as well as ever. May of 2020, of all times, I slipped on tile at home and fractured my left humerus at the proximal head(shoulder). In a nanosecond my plans for playing music, gardening, and riding my bike at a time when we couldn’t do much else were wiped out. The fracture healed quickly, and without surgery, but the rotator cuff froze and I spent close to a year going to PT. Now, I am fully recovered, but I’m told that this was a fragility fracture so the medication I’ve been on for the past 8 years is no longer adequate for my osteoporosis.

[tinnitus]

Yes, more than a few. I won't say where, but Mrs. Tinnitus and I both have titanium plates and screws (Phillips head in fact, I've seen the x-rays).

One of my boys was playing football (Army PT) last week and got a mallet finger injury (fingertip droops and cannot be actively straightened). Makes me cringe, glad I don't have that, especially on my fretting hand - yikes!

He's stuck in a splint for 6-8 weeks, and hopefully it'll be healed then. He held a guitar once last year and could grab basic guitar chords (G, C, D) right away. Not sure when/if he'll be able to explore that again.

[Dragonbones]

The lead trumpeter in HS band around '81 was prepping to star in a trumpet concerto a couple weeks later, when an elephant smashed the bones in his right hand (he worked PT at the zoo). Had to relearn how to play left handed in two weeks' time or so, and did a fine job soloing! Just had to share that.

As for me, just two hairline fractures in karate during sparring; right little toe and right thumb. I'd say the thumb healed up fine, but I want to be able to blame my bad playing on it, so let me tell you, it's never been the same since!

[Mandobart]

I was in 6th or 7th grade. I had just finished tryouts for the all-city orchestra. I was riding my bike home and cut through a vacant lot that had a few BMX jumps in the trail. Took a jump, wiped out, broke my right arm (both forearm bones). I still remember we were a little delayed on the way to the hospital while a cinnamon bear crossed the road in front of us.

Fortunately, I'm left-handed. Luckily, none of my teachers remembered this so I didn't have to do any written assignments. Sadly, I did well on the orchestra audition and was selected first chair in the 2nd violin section (3rd overall). But I couldn't play violin with a plaster cast on.