For those that have broken bones-question

[RingDing]

Well I had a double fracture, burst fractures of T9 and T12 but I did have painkillers so I will gladly concede 'The who's felt the most pain' award!

I have no intention to challenge for this title in the future either!

[RingDing]

Originally Posted by Ed

It's funny but you can break your back and be discharged from hospital the same day. There are varying degrees of injury. A compressed fracture, where the vertebrae gets subjected to a force along the spine, can 'just' result in it being shortened but remaining stable. In which case pain relief is all that can be offered and you can go on your way, slowly. A burst fracture tends to occur for the same reason but results from more force. This can be very serious as the bone does more than just compress, it can fracture into many small pieces becoming unstable. I was lucky as although my bone shattered a bit the important parts of the structure remained stable. 3 months bed rest whilst the little bits all lump back together though. I think the worst injury must be when the force is applied perpendicular to the spine, like a shearing action, if the vertebrae breaks then this tends to unstable and is likley to cause damage to the spinal column.

At least that's what I recall from all the internet searching I did at the time, I'm no expert!

Sorry for the derail Paws!

GWS!

[yorkie_chris]

When I broke my wrist they gave me a party sized pack of codeine phosphate, these did make me feel very wierd, bad stomach, no apetite etc.
This was considerably better than the pain in the wrist though, which was quite sore.

GWS

Chris

[TSM]

Originally Posted by RingDing

It's funny but you can break your back and be discharged from hospital the same day. There are varying degrees of injury. A compressed fracture, where the vertebrae gets subjected to a force along the spine, can 'just' result in it being shortened but remaining stable. In which case pain relief is all that can be offered and you can go on your way, slowly. A burst fracture tends to occur for the same reason but results from more force. This can be very serious as the bone does more than just compress, it can fracture into many small pieces becoming unstable. I was lucky as although my bone shattered a bit the important parts of the structure remained stable. 3 months bed rest whilst the little bits all lump back together though. I think the worst injury must be when the force is applied perpendicular to the spine, like a shearing action, if the vertebrae breaks then this tends to unstable and is likley to cause damage to the spinal column.

At least that's what I recall from all the internet searching I did at the time, I'm no expert!

Sorry for the derail Paws!

GWS!

Burst Fracture, sounds like what happened to me a couple of years ago, i came off and travled infront of my bike which then happened to hit me in the back (i had a tyre mark running up my back and helmet), one of my vertebrae looks like a bit of a wedge where some bits of bone have broken away, i was stuck up in hospital on my back for about 1 1/2 months then i was sent home with a neofract upper body cast thing that stopped me bending my back and forced a certian curve into it,but told to take it easy and lay down as much as i could, i was able to take the cast off at night or when i wanted to have a shower, in total i was off my bike for about 3/4months. I still suffer the affects now.

[RingDing]

Originally Posted by TSM

Burst Fracture, sounds like what happened to me a couple of years ago, i came off and travled infront of my bike which then happened to hit me in the back (i had a tyre mark running up my back and helmet), one of my vertebrae looks like a bit of a wedge where some bits of bone have broken away, i was stuck up in hospital on my back for about 1 1/2 months then i was sent home with a neofract upper body cast thing that stopped me bending my back and forced a certian curve into it,but told to take it easy and lay down as much as i could, i was able to take the cast off at night or when i wanted to have a shower, in total i was off my bike for about 3/4months. I still suffer the affects now.

I was sent home with an upper bodybrace after a week. They must have been worried about the stability of yours. I still have aches and pains from mine and should constantly do my physio. Doesn't always seem to be the time though so I find it flares up soemtimes. Hence my comment to Paws about tackling physio properly.

Ain't fun but oddly was one of the best things to happen to me. It brought me and my wife closer and I spent a lot of time assessing my life and what I want out of it. As an experience I wouldn't say I regretted it.

Hi,

I broke my leg playing football a couple of years back.

Took me about 3 weeks before I was walking, then another couple of months on crutches and finally a stick for about another 6 weeks. I had a titanium rod rather than a pot. Couple of things to look out for...

My leg went black,really black, so much so I went to the doctors to see if there was something wrong. I was assured it was the bruised muscles and stuff just doing their work. The hospital didn't tell me this though....

Make sure you get some physio, I had real trouble figuring out how to work my ankle again, at one point I wondered if I was destined to permanently walk with a limp....but after a few physio sessions it was fine.

As I say that was 2 years ago, there were alot of low points along the way, but now all I have is a nice scar, lots of six million dollar man jokes and thats about it. I'm back playing again, but admit I don't go in for as many 50/50's as I used to.

My consultant was good, but did make it sound like I'd be running around like a spring chicken 3 or 4 weeks after the op, but in reality it was close on 6 months before I was walking properly again.

If you want a chit chat drop with a fellow sufferer when it seems like you'll never walk again then feel free to drop me a pm.

Gordon

Update: Just broke my left little finger playing last night. These new footballs are a nightmare, swerving about all over the shop. Dived right and at the last minute the ball dipped off to the left, stuck out a hand and the ball smacked into the top of my finger...

No motorcycle or footie for 6 weeks. Hospital didn't even bother x-raying, just strapped me up and sent me on my way....

37 years and not a broken bone, now I've had 2 in as many years...

As you can imagine SWMBO is NOT happy.

Fortunately it won't affect work as I can go in the car....

[northwind]

Honestly, my advice is "Do not take advice on medical matters from the internet" If you're having trouble with possible side effects, raise it with your GP or consultant, there's plenty of different options for pain relief and anti-inflamatories.

Dicloflex is kind of known for digestive side effects, they took me off it after about a day as it was giving me constant feelings of nausea... Tried it again later to the same effects. You are taking it whole, right? The tablets are coated...

Cocodamol can also cause nausea, but I never had that.

[dizzyblonde]

I have a severe reaction to Codeine....when the instruction says may cause drowsiness, in my case it means.......YOU MAY HAVE TO HIT HER ON THE BACK OF THE HEAD WITH A FRYING PAN TO WAKE HER UP
If i'm ever in hospital I have to wear a red wristband..All painkillers and anti inflammetrys give me a similar sort of result with either being cabbaged or giving me severe gut rot, to which they give me tablets to counteract the gut rot......If you shake me i rattlle won't take tablets these days unless forced. So i put up with bad back the hard way and gave birth to my son with no pain control eitheri'm hard!!)
Im indoors has the same philosophy with painkillers....a titanium clad head of femur gives him permanent pain...and he's a hardnut too

Kap ake? think its called and co codimal have near to no effect on me, i still take them tho because i'm a good boy