What Is Your Most Traumatic Injury Experience?

[Norman]

So, because misery loves company (even vicariously through the interwebz), what is your worst injury?

I just had surgery to repair a torn Achilles tendon. Painful and annoying since it is my right foot, so I cannot drive.

So what was/is your worst injury?

 

[turbo]

A severe sprain to my right ankle from a fall while ski-racing. My doctor told me that I would have been much better off breaking my leg. He was right. I was in pain for months and months and even years later, I was very prone to re-injury.

I was on the run-out just below the final gate of a very fast GS course on a public ski area and a kid somehow entered that area. I took an awkward fall rather than hit him (probably killing him or at least severely injuring him).

 

[Evo]

I'd have to think, I've had so many bad injuries.

Might be the time i fell down a flight of cement stairs and tore everything inside both of my legs, and have had permanent nerve damage since, that was over 20 years ago, on the plus side, I don't have to shave my legs, the nerve damage killed the hair follicles.

Could be the time I fell on a glass and it shattered when my knee hit it, knocked off my knee cap, the glass cut through the bursa and stopped right on top of a tendon, I need knee surgery.

Or the time I fell downstairs from the second floor, upside down, airborne, injured my hips, shoulder and landed on my head. They think this may be why I have injury to my lower spine now. Back surgery could help, do nothing, or paralyze me. I'm holding off on that.

Or all of the broken bones, the time I fell down cement steps to the garage and like turbo tore everything inside my right foot, the doctor also told me 'the bad news is you didn't break it. Fortunately no permanent nerve damage.

Plenty more, but luckily nothing really life threatening.

Hope you feel better soon Norman, sucks to be laid up and in pain, right at the beginning of summer too.

 

[lisab]

Sorry to hear it, Norman, hope you're up and at 'em soon.

My most painful injury was dislocating my shoulder. It was horrifying, too, to look down at where my shoulder should be and...it's not there. And my arm, it was about 6" lower than where it should have been. I think the shock of the disfigurement made the pain much, much worse.

But the injury that was worst in terms of healing time was plain old plantar fasciitis.

 

[jtbell]

Twelve years ago, a pickup truck sideswiped me from behind while I was bicycling. It broke my left collarbone, left ankle, and a bone in my pelvis. I was unconscious for 10-15 minutes, waking up as the EMS people were strapping me onto a stretcher. Thanks to my helmet, there was no significant damage to my head apart from the concussion. I donated the cracked helmet to the local police department to use as an exhibit in their bicycle-safety talks at schools.

For the next couple of months, I basically lived in a reclining chair in the living room. I couldn't sleep in bed because I couldn't get out of bed in the morning without painful complaints from the broken bones. When it was necessary to move, I used a sling on one arm for the collarbone, and crutches to keep weight off the ankle and pelvis.

The bones all eventually knitted together, but the ankle still bothers me sometimes, for example during the trip out West that I recently finished.

 

[brushman]

I'd have to think, I've had so many bad injuries.

What's with you and stairs?

 

[OmCheeto]

I was the passenger on the back seat of my best friends new motorcycle about 30 years ago. A drunk pulled out and we hit the front of the car at a 45 degree angle at roughly 50 mph. I lost my left big toenail.

My friend spent several months in the hospital.

My toenail grew back. Just kind of a little bit different for about 20 years. Now I can't tell my feet apart again.

 

[lisab]

I was the passenger on the back seat of my best friends new motorcycle about 30 years ago. A drunk pulled out and we hit the front of the car at a 45 degree angle at roughly 50 mph. I lost my left big toenail.

My friend spent several months in the hospital.

My toenail grew back. Just kind of a little bit different for about 20 years. Now I can't tell my feet apart again.

So now you have two left or two right feet?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

It happened in the six grade. It was a horrific incident involving a girl named Diane. She broke my heart.

 

[estro]

It happened in the six grade. It was a horrific incident involving a girl named Diane. She broke my heart.

I feel lucky here.
Broken arm. (played soccer [You should posses talent to do that])
Broken finger. (in the army, crazy arab hit my hand with stone)

Full recovery!

 

[Proton Soup]

got into a fist fight with my brother once and my hand swole up and got a bit purplish. don't know if it fractured, but it seemed to heal OK. worst ongoing thing is some kind of damage to my right ear. i do believe that driving with a bum ear is one of Dante's levels of hell.

 

[Jack21222]

I had a fractured left clavicle when I was 15. It was a complete fracture.. the part of the clavicle nearest to my neck was completely overlapping the other half, and it healed that way. Now I have a neat little "step" in my bone.

 

[haael]

I played a soccer game once and my friend kicked me instead of the ball. I participated in the match to the very end, despite pain. When I got home, I fell on the bed and couldn't move anymore, it turned out that my leg was broken.

We won that match.

 

[Math Is Hard]

I had 3 months of excruciating pain in my hip that kept me in bed most of last summer. I still went to work, but had to adjust myself into a position with my leg propped up so I could get through the day. Driving was agony, and as soon as I got home, I had to get into bed and lay flat. I think I must have had a fracture, but my doctor never x-rayed me.

 

[waht]

One time I was playing golf and cut my hand on something sharp sticking out of a golf bag. I think I used a band-aid.

 

[Chi Meson]

I took a bad fall while rock-climbing at Seneca Rocks, late 1980s. Injured my pride something awful.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I have a torn ACL (knee injury) from being hit by a truck while crossing the street. I had surgery but they can not completely fix it of course.

 

[rootX]

I got a paper cut

Other than that my toe nail corner grew into the skin and that continued for more than a year while I continued experimenting with it; I was very obsessed with it. I finally got over with that obsession after having a surgery, the doctor just removed half of my toe.

 

[Evo]

Wow, I had no idea that my fellow PFers were so klutzy!

 

[Kerrie]

I got a mild concussion from making an angel food cake 2 years ago.

I am a DIY kinda gal, and instead of splurging on shortcake for our summer dessert, I decided to make angel food cake from a mix. Being that I am barely 5'3", and I get sick and tired of dragging my step stool to the cabinet to reach my mixing bowls, I decided to stand on my toes to reach the heavy glass bowls about 18 inches above my head. There was a glass lid on top of the bowl, which came off the top of the bowls and knocked me on my left temple. My 13 year old watched in horror as a bump on the side of my head grew to the size of a small egg in a matter of seconds.

My napping husband was awakened by screams of my pubescent daughter, and he promptly took me to the emergency room where I began to feel very weird and disconnected. I was given some sort of Oxy-drug (I can't remember which it was of course), and suddenly felt just fine. It did leave a nasty black eye for a couple of weeks.


For several months after that, I began to smell very foul scents-burning rubber, feces, nothing pleasant of course. Shortly afterwards, I would experience horrific headaches lasting a day or longer. Thankfully, I don't have those anymore!

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

I was in a car crash when I was 20 and suffered a subluxation (slight dislocation) of the neck. About 10 years ago I fell down the stairs and broke my shoulder blade.

 

[BobG]

Indoor soccer when someone slammed me into the boards. Worst was having his knee slam my right knee into the board. I tried going back into the game after a few minutes, but there was definitely something wrong, so I quit the game and went to the emergency room.

The doctor said it was just a contusion, so I played the rest of the week (it was a tournament). The knee still didn't do what it was supposed to do. I wound up committing about 4 fouls in the first period alone just because my knee just wouldn't move fast enough any more. I wrapped it with an ace bandage for the rest of the tournament and I made it through (in fact, I had a couple very good games), but then I had to stop playing for about three months. In spite of what the doctor said, there was just something wrong.

I did develop a very good left footed shot during that time, though.

 

[wolram]

Deaf in left ear due to falling down stairs and hitting my head on a old fashioned sewing machine treadle, i had an infection afterwards which ate away the anvil bone, i broke the treadle too.

Railing spike in my right armpit through fooling around on a half brick half railing wall, nearly lost the arm.

Right ankle, knee, pelvis due to car accident, 3 months in traction and another 3 months to walk properly.

plus a few odds and sods.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Not exactly an injury per se, but I had a spontaneous retinal detachment (at seventeen, seriously) a while ago. Took surgery to patch that up. And now I walk around with a rubber band around my right eye.

 

[EnumaElish]

Having the type of parents who didn't have my abdominal (peritoneal) hernia removed as a child.

 

[leroyjenkens]

Not exactly an injury per se, but I had a spontaneous retinal detachment (at seventeen, seriously) a while ago. Took surgery to patch that up. And now I walk around with a rubber band around my right eye.

For some reason I read that as "anal detachment", so that last part really had me confused.

 

[mcknia07]

I broke my arm when I was in Kindergarden. The bones were hanging out of my skin, one came out through the top, and the other through the bottom. Blood was everywhere, but I did not cry, I was one tough kid :)

Sad story as to how I did it... and it goes a little like this...
I saw my daddy walking on a roll of carpet, so I tried to be cool and do the same thing... bad idea, lol, I did it and fell, not to mention, that was also where a small step is to our living room, so that made the fall about 6"... and BOOM! down I went. Then... while I was in my cast, one Sunday morning, I was getting back into the van, I tripped and broke it again. The doctor could hardly believe it, guess that's not common, let alone for a little child.

 

[wolram]

Wow, I had no idea that my fellow PFers were so klutzy!

We still need an average of 1 accident more per year to catch up with you though

 

[Borg]

About the worst I've ever had was a bad sprain or tendonitis for a few months. I have never broken anything but it sure wasn't because of a lack of trying.

I once crashed a motorcycle into a car and did $2000 damage to the car. I didn't get a scratch.

When I was a kid, I jumped off the roof of my house all of the time. I thought that it was fun the way that I could roll from that height.

While shooting a small movie in high school, I purposely threw myself down a flight of uncarpeted, concrete stairs several times for one of the shots. I knew that I could do it without injuring myself.

I could go on...

 

[Insanity]

I've had a few;

3rd grade, broke my radius in my left arm in a bike accident vs. suburban truck.

some years later, split my scalp from a self-induced accident on the stairwell. Blood was coming down over my eyes. Still young, though can't recall exactly when this happened.

Gouged my right knee on a metal tent stake while crawling around on all fours looking for something.

Cut my right knee on the couch when younger due to me jumping onto it such that my knee pushed down the cushion along the back and when it rebound, my knee got "shaved" by the wood frame there. I think this was before the tent stake, which rescarred over the scar from this.

Deeply cut my left knee on stone when I slipped on a wet hillside after setting up a tent. By the time I gotten first aid and bandages, the blood had run down my leg into my shoe.

 

[DaveC426913]

Never sprained let alone broke anything.

When cleaning a tabletop as a teen I put a 3/4" penny nail through the tip of my finger. That's pretty much the worst.

 

[arildno]

My fight with an apple tree.

Some 5 years back, I was to help my Dad to cut an apple tree in my parents' garden.

He made the reasonable suggestion that we should tie a rope to the tree, one of us pulling in the direction we wanted it to fall (my mother wouldn't want her plants&bushes destroyed), the other using a motorsaw in a careful manner on the stem.

I however, all enthused, said that "Rope is not necessary, I'll push on the tree while you cut".

End result, due to me forgetting all I've ever learned about moments, the lower end of the cut-off tree smashed into my forearm on the inner side, the top neatly brushing my Dad's hair. The tree DID, however, land exactly where I wanted it, though.

As for my injury, no muscles, nerves or even major blood vessels were torn, but my skin split was wide open. (Funnily enough, it was not painful at all).

My doctor had a fine job sewing me together, and eager nurses came in during to the process to see how such a large split was handled.

 

[pallidin]

My worst injury, in the sense of sustained discomfort, has been recently.
I caught a bad cold, and in the middle of the night coughed so hard that it "pulled" one or more diaphragm muscles/connective tissue stuff.
Hurts like heck. Like I have been shot. Hard to sleep. Very painful to cough.
The doc told me it would be 6-8 weeks to heal.

 

[turbo]

In the sense of sustained pain, I vote for broken ribs. There was absolutely nothing that my doctor could do, so I "rode it out". You have no idea how many times in a day you have to take a breath and expel it until you feel like you're being stabbed in the chest every single time. Lying down to sleep was not an option - I had to sleep in a chair. I'd take broken legs over broken ribs any day.

 

[BobG]

In the sense of sustained pain, I vote for broken ribs. There was absolutely nothing that my doctor could do, so I "rode it out". You have no idea how many times in a day you have to take a breath and expel it until you feel like you're being stabbed in the chest every single time. Lying down to sleep was not an option - I had to sleep in a chair. I'd take broken legs over broken ribs any day.

Yeah, for pain, I'd go with rib injuries. Mine weren't broken, but it was still painful.

It wasn't that bad once you were loose and were hit once, but getting loose and the time before you got hit the first time were hard to deal with. Plus, it took just about nothing to knock the wind out of me for over a year.

 

[Evo]

Once I had thought a large gathering of PF'ers would be a fun idea. Now I think if we do have one, it should be in the parking lot of a trauma center.

 

[pallidin]

Once I had thought a large gathering of PF'ers would be a fun idea. Now I think if we do have one, it should be in the parking lot of a trauma center.

Good plan. Strong minds tend to slam into hard walls...

 

[Evo]

Good plan. Strong minds tend to slam into hard walls...

 

[dlgoff]

In the sense of sustained pain, I vote for broken ribs. There was absolutely nothing that my doctor could do, so I "rode it out". You have no idea how many times in a day you have to take a breath and expel it until you feel like you're being stabbed in the chest every single time. Lying down to sleep was not an option - I had to sleep in a chair. I'd take broken legs over broken ribs any day.

I would agree with broken ribs as being the worst; I've had the pleasure. But a couple of winters ago when I got the Type A influenza, the virus must have somehow settled into my hip joints where they join the spine. It took just a long to heal as broken ribs but with lots more pain. You basically couldn't walk, set, or lay down for more than a few minutes at a time. From then on, I've gotten the flu shot.

 

[Evo]

I would agree with broken ribs as being the worst; I've had the pleasure. But a couple of winters ago when I got the Type A influenza, the virus must have somehow settled into my hip joints where they join the spine. It took just a long to heal as broken ribs but with lots more pain. You basically couldn't walk, set, or lay down for more than a few minutes at a time. From then on, I've gotten the flu shot.

Hip pain, really bad.

 

[Norman]

As a competitor with ribs for most painful sustained pain, a broken clavicle is right up there. Very similar to ribs, since there is nothing that can be splinted/cast. You just ride it out. Probably not as bad as ribs since you don't feel it with every breath, just deep ones. But I couldn't sleep on my left side for a year after it happened.

 

[lisab]

Reading this thread hurts.

 

[turbo]

Reading this thread hurts.

I have a badly ruptured (herniated) disk in my lower back. It happened when my friend and I were loading my motorcycle onto a high trailer and he lost his grip. I was crippled up for over a year, though I managed to work through it. When I had a stroke, my German neurologist ordered some MRI's and saw the damage and asked "how did you manage to deal with all that pain?". I told her that I didn't have any insurance and couldn't get it fixed. She just shook her head. Europeans have much better health care. I didn't even have pain-killers. My wife and I were quite poor at the time.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Sustained pain... Well, in some rare cases, acid reflux can get incredibly, incredibly painful. It's not uncommon that people mistake it for a heart attack. I've never broken any bones, though.

 

[Gib Z]

Circumcision.

 

[DaveC426913]

OK, can't really argue with that one... Then again, not sure about anyone remembering it, so not sure if it counts.

Sustained pain for me: strep throat. After a couple of days of havng my body wracked with shudders of pain each time I swallowed, I finally just decided to stop swallowing at all, and took to leaning head down, clutching a drool cup at all times.

 

[Gib Z]

OK, can't really argue with that one... Then again, not sure about anyone remembering it, so not sure if it counts.

I had mine when I was 14 :( Nothing else so far in my life has compared to the experience of changing the bandages.

 

[Moonbear]

I'm staying far far away from all of you accident-prone lightning rods!

I'm not sure. I've only had two or three injuries that are memorable, neither was severe enough to require any medical intervention. I sprained an ankle climbing fences on a farm late at night for a research project (with my hands full). That took a while to heal, but I didn't bother going to a doctor for it. I figured I could bandage it and put ice on it just as well as a doctor could and they'd just tell me to stay off it, and I wasn't planning on doing that. I limped for a few days, then it was just sore when I overdid the walking or dancing.

There was the time I smashed a finger in a barn door, also at night doing an experiment (you'll notice a pattern here). That one was bad enough that the fingernail fell off and is still a bit misshapen today. I think that injury hurt the most until the nail finally broke loose and relieved the pressure of the swelling under it, and then it was kind of disgusting that it oozed fluid from under the nail for a few days. That was shortly before one friend's wedding, because I had to try to hide the finger behind the bouquet for the wedding photos (I was a bridesmaid).

The other one was a mildly jammed wrist...not really sprained, just sore...accompanied by a bruise that ran the length of my forearm, again, from working with animals during an experiment, but this time it was during daytime. That was trying to hold a deer still for someone else to get a blood sample when the usual helpers weren't available. That wasn't such a bad injury in the grand scheme of things, but memorable because it's part of the story of how I met my boyfriend. That was another wedding I was in (again, trying to hide the bruises in wedding photos). Until we got to talking more that evening, he saw the huge bruises and thought I might have been in an abusive relationship and wanted to befriend me in case I needed help. (This is the part of the story I didn't know about right away...he admitted it to me later in our relationship. I referred him at that point to my sister who at the time was working as a social worker who used to tease me that the only way she knew I wasn't abused is that I was all too happy to share the stories of how I earned every bruise, and nobody would make up stories quite like mine.)

So, *knock on wood*, I've been lucky so far. Nothing more serious than bruises and mild sprains. And I've sure done enough things that could have resulted in broken bones, so I don't know how I've avoided it so far. I think I'll just keep drinking my milk and eating my spinach and hope my bones stay so strong.

 

[Chi Meson]

So, *knock on wood*, I've been lucky so far. Nothing more serious than bruises and mild sprains. And I've sure done enough things that could have resulted in broken bones, so I don't know how I've avoided it so far. I think I'll just keep drinking my milk and eating my spinach and hope my bones stay so strong.

I'm also feeling a little inadequate here. I have had quite a few cuts from woodworking and rock-climbing. I had a green-stem nose fracture from teen-age rough-housing, but that's it for bone-damage. I have tried hard to be reckless my whole life. I enjoyed skiing fast through glades (in the days before helmets), I took up back-country telemark skiing when downhill strted getting to safe; I commute to work on a bike in an area that has 3" wide bike lanes; I engage in foot races where my big skill is running full-tilt down steep, rocky trails, but the injuries simply have not come through. I think that my luck may run out soon. I fear that something huge is about to fall (on my leg).

So, * knock on wood* indeed. (I'm not superstitious, but I am a little stitious).

 

[zomgwtf]

I've broken my nose a couple times.

First time I was throwing a fit when I was younger. My dad was really mad at me and threw me into my bed. My bed was a wooden car frame with the matress inside covered in some sort of protective plastic sheet in case I wet the bed. I slid across this plastic covering and whacked my nose off the bed frame. Good job dad.

Second time was my first time skateboarding. Funny thing is: I didn't get hurt skateboarding. I was messing around and went to throw the skateboard between my legs for some reason. Anyway the grass was springy and so was the skateboard so it bounced off the tip of the board and right back into my face. Broken nose. That was the worst feeling I've ever had before, and the amount of blood was mind boggling, my nose was like a flowing tap and the grass was COVERED. It took about 3 face clothes dripping wet in my blood to bring the flow to a stop.

I've never broken any other bones I don't think, I've had knee problem which effected me playing baseball but that's just me looking out for the long term condition not a short term painful injury. There have been times where I've thought I broke my foot or fractured something but I never go to the doctor. For some reason I don't like bothering them with stupid little pains, I'd rather just live with it.