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This is a photo of me minutes after getting my cast off when I broke my arm. So I have broken 4ish bones in my life and it always sucks. This most recent time in the summer of 2018 I was biking down a slope, I hesitate to call it a hill because of where we live but there was some inclination, and I was maybe going a little to fast. And this stick was sitting in the road and I didn't move to avoid it and I hit it and then flipped my bike and I scraped my left arm and broke both of my right arm bones pretty close to the wrist. Needless to say, this threw a wrench in the rest of my summer plans and even school life.
I got the cast off on August 31st but the bone was still fragile enough that I couldn't do any real physical activity. What sucked was I pretty regularly climbing when I broke it. Climbing is a sport that is highly reliant on the forearms to grab the little holds and the like 6 weeks I was in a cast caused a lot of atrophy in my right arm and led to the kinda funny size disparity in the photo. What was also unfortunate is the nature of the break meant that the arm had to be immobilized with the palm facing up, and holding your arm in that uncomfortable position for like 6 weeks made it painful to rotate it back to a normal resting position. Breaking a bone always sucks but this one was probably the most inconvenient I broke because there was a huge amount of additional recovery after the cast came off. Like another 6 weeks of a brace, and tons of slow and painful twists to get my arm back to a normal orientation.
If you have never broken a bone I would recommend at least trying it once so you have the experience because it's hard to describe how it feels to get a cast off. You know the feeling you get if you are lying down on an article of clothing and it leaves lines on you? It's a lot like that, but the entire body part. It feels really strange and it's like the first time air gets on it in like months so it's really hard to not itch it. The other problem is when I got my cast off there was like a whole pound of dead skin that wasn't able to come off while it was in the cast, so it was really gross.
When I broke my arm it was my first chance to go to the new carle wing that went up on Windsor road, and I remember pretty vividly what I felt going in to get my cast off. Like I was glad to get it off but I was pissed I had to wear a brace, I was ready to get back to life as usual but then "jk idiot you gotta wear a brace for another like six weeks. I was also upset because I had to go back to school and I was angling to just go home after the appointment but my mom wasn't feeling it, and she scheduled the appointment so I like only missed my free periods so I was really just mad.
You got your cast off on my birthday!!!! I vaguely remember commenting on that when it happened last year. Your right, breaking bones sucks. The cast and recovering is the worst. I hated having to wrap my cast in plastic bags to take a shower. I have only fractured one bone (my ankle) in 2nd grade. I remember the frustration of being told I was going to have to wear my cast for another 2 weeks.
ReplyDeleteI've never broken a bone, but you've inspired me to break one. It sucks that you broke it and had a cast during the summer. If you broke it during the school year, at least you would've gotten out of PE or something.
ReplyDeleteWhile I've never broken a bone before, I can certainly relate to the unfortunate timing of injuries. My favorite part of this was your description of what it feels like to get the cast off. I am not familiar with the experience, but I think I know exactly the feeling you are talking about and can image the sensation. (also only missing free periods for an appointment is literally the most frustrating thing in existence)
ReplyDeleteI have personally never broken a bone which is kind of surprising because I'm very reckless. Biking down a "hill" is super exciting, and the faster you go the more fun it is, so I can't blame you for that. But the last time I did that, I fell off my bike and scraped up my entire face. So, maybe we should both avoid biking down slopes for a while.
ReplyDeleteDear Grant,
ReplyDeleteMuch like everyone else in the comments, I've never broken a bone. I can't tell if this post makes me want to try it or not. On the one hand, the feelings following the removal of your case you describe sound pwetty epic, but I'm also not a huge fan of pain. If I were to go through with breaking a bone, when do you think is the optimal time for doing so? Please respond at your earliest convenience.
Thanks,
Nic
"If you have never broken a bone I would recommend you try it atleast once" that is an interesting thing to recommend honestly. I think it is definitely an experience though, to break a bone. Although it seems painful and like an uncomfortable process, sometimes I feel like I missed out on some important childhood ritual because I've never gotten a cast or broken a bone. As I've gotten older though, I realize that in the long run its probably better for me to have never had that happen so I'm more or less over it now.
ReplyDeleteYo I just want to point out to you were family. So like I was stuck in a full in a full arm splint, cast, splint again, then brace for like a 4 month period so I know how you feel more then most. I honesty felt this with actual ptsd pain in my arm because you for real made me relive the experience a little bit by reading this, which I kind of hate you for but thats okay because like I said were family.
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