Have you ever been in a cast? The kind you have to wear if you broke your arm or leg?

[Natasha]

I never have broke anything ..so far in my life.
My poor little Jesse, (he's 6 feet tall now) is in a cast and broke his ankle/ heel bone. We're learning how to deal with it together.
What's your story? How did it happen to you?

 

[jbd]

the 4th metacarpal in my left hand. Spiral fracture. I recieved a very shoddy cast. I was working in food service at the time and was not allowed to work for sanitation reasons. In addition to the lousy casting job the bone was not properly set. I got tired of the cast and not working so I cut it off after 10 days and used it as a splint for about 5 more days.

You can use a wire coat hanger to scratch the inevitable itch that will occur.

It takes awhile to get used to one of your limbs weighing several more pounds

Some years later I broke the the matching finger when I was working with a horse. I reset it myself and it was healing nicely until some bonehead hit that finger and rebroke it. It didn't heal so well after that.

 

[Bob3]

Broke my wrist, not sure which incident took the credit.
Had the plaster variety cast on it for 6 weeks, still didn't heal. Wound up with a nice removeable custom poly jobbie that was even diveable. Cast time totaled up to around a year.
Still wear a brace on it & can't manage anything heavier than 8 - 10 lbs.

Knocked a chunk off my L5 vertabra when I broke my pelvis (different incident). Didn't have a cast for either of those, just heavy belt/brace.

My "bad weather" prediction capabilities were the only positive outcome. :mean:

 

[Green Mountain]

When I was 9 years old I was trying to ride down this road on my snow sleigh. The road ran along side an excavation in a clay quarry. I hit a patch of ice and slid off a 50 ft. cliff.

What saved me from being killed was an old car tire that someone had thrown into the frozen water table. I was only half submerged before the water froze. It broke my fall. I did manage to break my arm however.

I've broken other things in the last 50 years but they were all work related and the stories are not as interesting as when I was 9.

 

[ckharlan66]

I went over the handle bars of my bicycle once when I was about 13. Crushed the growth plates in one of my ankles. When I got to the ER in the podunk town I was in the doctor said how serious the brake was and that I had to be sent to an Orth Surg. as quick as possible.

I was put in the back of a truck and taken to the next town that had a "qualified" doctor. This doctor said that the damage wasn't too bad and that he could set it but then I would have to come back down there (4 hours from home) for follow ups. He put me in my Mom's Buick (I was with my friends family when I got hurt and my parents had finally got there) and sent me home. (we could have sued for malpractice but my parents felt that all had ended well so there was no need to persue it.) We had contacted the Doc in Lexington and he had spoke to the first doctor. He was waiting at the door of the ER in Lexington to meet me. He did a quick examination. My foot was black and he said that due to the swelling I hadn't had circulation in my foot for awhile. He rushed me into surgery and told me on the way in that he would do all he could but with the gangrine that was starting to set in he didn't know if he could save my foot.

He did and told me that I would probably have a limp for the rest of my life. I found a sports medicine doc in town that was willing to work with me at rehab and I ended up playing football, wrestling, rock climbing and diving. I have no limp now and no one could tell this happened if they don't see the scars. (I have 6 seperate surgical scars on one foot.)

But as to the cast. I was in one for about 6 months, after the 3 weeks in the hospital. You learn to deal with one pretty well after that amount of time. I did a 5k run/walk on crutches. Just be careful with wet tile floors. They got me more than once with the crutches.

Wish him a speedy recovery from me.

Chad

 

[A. J. Shark]

I wasn't exactly in a cast persay but a very big brace. I had knee surgery and was in a brace from my ankle to my hip for 8-9 months and on crutches for 6 months!! I had to keep my leg straight for that time and could only take it out during physical therapy. It sucked!!
Wish him a speedy recovery form me
- A J

 

[Crispy]

When I was in middle school I broke both thumbs during my first attempt at snow skiing. Some "advanced" skiier plowed into me from behind on the "novice" slope. The Ortho. Doc. must have took pitty on me because he spent some x-tra time fashioning a set of removable casts. They helped out when I needed to take a bath and take care of certain other "bodily functions". the Casts had a strip of cloth tape that acted like a hinge and the entire cast sort-of clamshelled around the top and bottom of my hand to mid fore-arm. I then wrapped the entire thing with an ace bandage.

-crispy

 

[Wreck/Tec]

Natasha
In 1981 I was going to work on a motorcycle. I had a 2 qt. thermos on the seat, bungied down. I noticed my silouette on the road, and the thermos was swinging back and forth against the tire. About as quickly the thermos got sucked into the wheel and I skidded off the road and hit a tree. I was catapaulted 20 ft. or so to the center of the road where I slid on my front, over the other lane and into a ditch. I'm not sure how long I was in the ditch, before I crawled across the road. I was better than half way across the road when a car, with an elderly man stopped alongside me laying next to my motorcycle in the road. He peered out and drove past and left me there. Some time later a fellow worker from work happened by and helped get into his car, and he drove my motorcycle home. We were at work when I started having trouble breathing and walking. To make a long story short I had punctured a lung and cracked three vertibre in my back. I wore a body cast for 4 months. I am stiff in cold weather, my range of motion has suffered as well. Be happy you missed the party.
Wreck/Tec

 

[Natasha]

Thank you all. Your stories help make me feel like I'm not alone.
Jesse (14yrs) is in a temporary cast now. We were told we have to go to a specialist after the holidays to see if he needs surgery.
So your support helps me.

 

[Butch103]

I was about the same age when I was first casted..about 14 when I dislocated my knee, 8 weeks in a stovepipe cast, second cast was a broken wrist/thumb, and I hace had all my finger in "splints" for breaks over a few years .......Playing 30 yrs of hockey takes its toll..............