Update 8.23.08: Thank you to all the friendly people who emailed with offers to cast me. I just want to clarify that I wanted a cast when I was 8 and would have gladly taken you up on the offer back then. I’m not looking to be casted anymore but appreciate the offers.
When my arch rival cousin and I were eight, she went skiing and managed to break her leg. In our loco Italian family, this warranted a special non-holiday visit to see her, replete with gifts for the wounded ski bunny.
Somehow my cousin managed to make her broken leg and crutches seem enviable. She was showered with chocolates and stuffed animals, while I stood by braying feeble protests.
The cousin was the recipient of a beautiful set of scented markers, which the family put to use decorating her hip-to-toe cast. I was positively frothing with envy. I wanted a cast and a broken bone–or maybe I just wanted the Whitman’s Sampler chocolates that my aunt gave my cousin.
In all my 34 years, I (thankfully) haven’t broken a bone. Sure, I chipped a bone in my foot during the Sledding Debacle of ‘93 and I somehow fractured a finger in 2005, but I’ve never had a cast with well-wishes and cartoon drawings festooning the facade.
Years later, my cousin admitted that wearing the cast was hell–it was sweaty and itched like crazy–but she didn’t want me to know that. When her cast was cut off, the doctor removed my cousin’s itch-relievers–several pencils, a wooden ruler, and a straightened wire hanger–from inside the cast.
Have you ever donned a cast and was it really that bad? Tell me all about it!!
I broke my elbow a few years back. I fell off a tree stump and according to my doctor managed to break my elbow in a way that only children do (think falling off a fence or out of a tree). They don’t cast elbows, but I did have to wear a sling from time to time. Made it hard to milk it for the sympathy since no one could actually tell I was injured.
To this day I can predict snow thanks to the injury – not very useful her in Los Angeles, but I am quite accurate when it comes to snow in the mountains.
CWG says: i think i would have went out and purchased some plaster and wrapped my arm in it. broken bones that aren’t casted are such a waste! lol.
Broke my right arm and dislocated my shoulder when I was 6. But for some reason I had a cast that people couldn’t write on, so that was pretty dumb. It is so annoying when you can’t use your dominant arm- eating was hard, sleeping was hard, bathing involved trashbags, etc. When they finally removed my cast there were chocolate ice cream stains all around the hand padding, where my treats constantly dripped and ran, ha.
Broke my right collar bone two years later. You get no cast for that, just a brace and a sling. And have to sleep propped up, which left me sleeping on a lawn chair, while my mom slept on my bed so she could constantly adjust me as I slid down through the night. Not fun.
CWG says: oh…another broken bone without a cast. does it get worse that this!? the lawn chair must have been comfy.
Never broke anything, and really, I’m good with that!
Scented markers ARE THE BEST. My favorite was “blueberry”, yum.
CWG says: open your mind to new opportunities…casts could be fun. as for scented markers, i was down with cherry and lurved lemon.
Hi there I am currently in a cast i broke my ankle 2 weeks ago and let me tell you besides the pain thats pretty much gone and the cast discomfort really sucks! The worst i think is getting to work in NYC with crutches! They stare and then they push you! The oh so rude NY’ers,lol.
CWG says: here’s to a speedy recovery! but one thing…the majority of “NYers” are from places like pipsqueak, indiana or farmalot, iowa and just pretend to be native to the city. i wish they would all stop prentending to be so uber-chic…it makes me insane. just embrace your inner nerd, dork, or farmer. now back to our reguarly scheduled program.
i broke my leg when i was 2. my sister (1 year older) and i used our metal dresser drawers (pulled out) as a ladder to get a stuffed giraffe off a high shelf. the dresser tipped over toward us and smashed my leg. at one point while in the cast my parents let me go swimming in the river with no official protection (aka trash bag) and from then on the cast was stankity stank. so my dad cut off the cast with a full sized wood saw. seriously. i often think that one leg is shorter than the other and that it was because of the early self-removal of the cast.
then i broke my right arm about the elbow/below the shoulder in a car accident where a friend totalled my car (he was driving). the cast couldn’t be written on because i had to have it in a sling the whole time. i had to ride the bus to get to my drs appts and this one time the bus was crowded so i had to stand up and hold onto the rail above me and the movement of the bus made me unstable and i kept hitting this poor guy in the back of the head. i said sorry, but really he should have given me his seat. right? i was injured for goodness sake and still had to ride public transportation.
broke my nose. but no cast or good story to go with it.
CWG says: i’m sorry…did you say your DAD cut off your cast with a SAW? i couldn’t focus on the remainder of your comment i was so hung up on that line. that is classic.
Hi there, I was in a full leg cast and it came off 2 days ago!! It was so big and the biggest problem is that the doctor didn´t allowed me to use crutches, I was lying on bed the most of the time and in a wheelchair some time, it was totally boring!!(I´m 11 years old). If you want to read the story here it goes: I like to climb the doorway of the bedroom and jump, but I have never reached the top of the doorway and made a big jump I wanted, but this time I could and I reached the top of the doorway and when I was ready to jump I slip and the jump went bad, I jumped some distance but it was more like to a fall than a deliberate jump and I landed with my right leg and I fell a huge pain and when I tried to get up my leg hurt a lot and my dad tried to see my leg searching for a injury but no one was visible. I was rushed to the ER and luckily the room were with no emergencies and they put a splint in my leg and took me to the x-ray room. The x-rays revealed a bad spiral fracture in my tibia, the gave me some drugs and I fell asleep, when I was awake I had an IV and another splint in my leg, the doctor said that they had to wait to decide whether I needed surgery but thanks to heaven I didn´t. They sent me to home and 3 days later I got a big green cast(full leg cast) and I was told that I could not put a ny weight on my leg during the 6-8 weeks with the cast. This time was very boring, I spent the first 4 days trying to sleep at night, I barely slept a few hours because of the pain at first and then I couldn´t sleep because the cast. My parents got the wheelchair 1 week later but something was wrong with it and I got a new one 3 weeks later. To make the story less long, I spent this time in the couch or in my bed at night. Things went better when I got the wheelchair and I got used to it, I was much more mobile, in the cast removal I was very nervous. Now I´m walking a little, I still have a little pain and my knee is still bent, I´m going to therapy, they gave me crutches to walk with it, I can´t walk with it either but are a great support, the doctors said that my leg will be perfectly healed in 2 months and then I will be able to play sports(I love soccer) with any problem.
If you want to share experiences, make questions or talk with me, sure you can email me to freechrisn@yahoo.com.
Sorry for the big story…
CWG says: climbing doorways?! spiral fracture?! just a few more reasons i don’t have kids! hee hee.
but seriously…climbing the doorway? i don’t even know what that means. i hope you didn’t scuff the paint.
Just strains and sprains and no sympathy…oh yeah and those damnable heel spurs! No broken bones…so far so good.
CWG says: you and i will have to garner sympathy some other way. let me know if you think of something.
P.S. since you are on your way to a “HAWT blog”…I saw something recently that got massive remarks…”What is the most embarrassing song on your IPOD?”
CWG says: i am?! lucky me. lol. i was actually tossing around an i-pod themed post recently–something along the lines of taking a picture of my screen to show my eclectic musical taste…and ask about yours. hmph. a day late and a dollar short, as usual.
The only bone I have ever broken is the tip of my pointer finger. And the doctor said, “Well, it looks like you’re lucky and we’re not going to have to amputate it.” But that’s it so far!
CWG says: i’m hoping the doctor was joking…right? did you at least get one of those blue foam and metal finger spints? those are good for some minor sympathy.
I broke my collar bone in a car accident when I was 16. That was worst summer ever. No cool cast, just a stinky, padded foam brace and lots of humidity.
I got to watch my sister and cousins swim at the beach while I sat in the shade and popped Tylenol 2’s.
CWG says: that damnable collar bone. it seems to be a painful break without any benefits. i’ll have to avoid that one.
I had to wear a full leg cast in the 1st grade for a month. Our class was playing tag and a boy tagged me just a bit to hard. I went flying and landed on a beer bottle right in my knee. I had a to have surgery and was in the hospital for a week. I remember enjoying the attention but it was a pretty itchy and awful. I have also broken a finger playing basketball with my brother. I had to wear a finger brace. Also not fun.
CWG says: ahh, but you admit to enjoying the attention, proving my theory.
your family is pretty good at injuring siblings…didn’t you break your sister’s leg while playing basketball?!? that’s what she told me…
I broke a lot of things but never got the cast. I always got the “fakey cast” thing so classmates never believed my stuff was really broken. Once I dislocated my elbow and got a sling. I broke my wrists twice and got a special brace. Broke my ankles and got to wear some splints. Never got a real cast, the kind you can’t get wet. No fun at all.
CWG says: well, i think the fakey-air-cast has more merit than the ole’ ace bandage…and just a thought here, maybe you need to drink more milk?
I have never broken a bone in my body in 22 years. That sounds a bit crazy and I promise it wasn’t because I’m careful.
CWG says: well, that’s the spirit! *knocking on wood*
In 27 years I have never broken a bone (that I’ve known about). I have sprained several things, though, resulting in several slings and air-casts. The most traumatic one was a hyper-extended knee after overdoing it on a rowing machine during my high school years. The resulting tendonitis required an air-cast from ankle to butt, making it next to impossible to walk properly, or sit at a desk in school.
The problem with air-casts is that 1) people don’t believe that you’re really injured, 2) you can’t sign it, and 3) if you do take it off for any reason (like a bath), you have to be extra careful not to re-injure yourself without the support of the cast. Definitely not as fun as a real cast, which I always wanted when I was a kid.
CWG says: i feel so vindicated–i just always thought i was an attention-strarved little kid but now i see that wanting a cast was completely normal. blogging is so much more effective than therapy. as for the air cast, i’m telling you: air cast trumps ace bandage.
I, too, have always wanted to have a cast but was never so lucky. Plenty of stitches but no cast. I always thought they were so cool – made people look like daredevils!
CWG says: OOOOH! stitches! another one of my dreams. i’ve never had them for a real injury–only when i had my wisdom teeth removed. i toyed with them constantly–it’s a wonder my mouth ever healed.
I broke my ankle in 8th grade playing basketball and by chance, the girl who landed on my foot during an attempted lay-up was none other than my lovely, lanky, little sister. It immediately swelled to the size of a small watermelon and I had to wear a cast AND use crutches (far worse than the cast in my opinion) for a couple of months.
Good thing we were able to overcome that mishap
CWG says: you people were too active. it must be a wisconsin thing.
Be careful what you wish for. CWG interjects: i am getting a bit nervous, i will admit. i feel like i’m inviting trouble. And they do indeed cast elbows.
I’m 51. At age 7 and 1/2 I was riding my bike and was sideswiped by a car. I tumbled forward, 360 degrees plus, and landed on the pavement with all my weight on my outstretched arm.
When I regained consciousness seconds later, my arm was bent at the elbow in the wrong direction. The lower third or so of the ulna was sticking out of the forearm.
At the hospital I gradually learned that I had a compound, complex facture. There was what I believe they call crush damage to the elbow, which was more problematic than the fractured ulna.
They hauled me into surgery and put me to sleep.
I woke up in traction, and later was told there were two pins holding the bones together.
The cast didn’t go on until day three. I was placed in an adult ward the first night, but the adult in the bed next to me decided to commit suicide. On day two I was transferred to the pediatric ward.
While in traction, the offending arm was placed in a form fitting (sort of) fiberglass brace, and wrapped in two different types of bandages. One layer was a self-adhering ace bandage, the next layer was a regular ace bandage.
The cast came on day three. The first obvious problem was that all this took place in August, which means perspiration, which means you cannot believe how intensely your skin itches underneath a plaster cast. And not a damn thing you can do about it.
They don’t bother telling you not to scratch, because the plaster has you totally defeated.
I vaguely remember people signing the damn thing. I recall using the cast as a battering ram to some kid’s solar plexus because that kid thought my injury would enable him to poke me with pens, pencils, etc. while we stood in lunch line. He left me alone after that. Also, the ends of the cast started to get crumbly and frayed.
This was 1964, and I’ve noticed that cast technology has improved since then. The crumbling problem seems to have been reduced through some secret ingredient in the plaster mix. There are casts nowadays that don’t appear to have much actual plaster in them at all.
Sound like something you’d like to experience? Stuffed animals and more attention than your cousin — are you kidding me? Trust me, you are not deprived. And since ‘64, I have had less serious fractures in one thumb, one rib, and one foot. But lack of insurance eliminated the need for a cast in each case.
It’s not the cast. It’s what you might have to do to get one.
Here’s one solution: go to http://www.woodlandscenics.com. Under “Terrain and Landscape,” then “Plaster Materials,” you will find a product called Plaster Cloth. It is used by model train enthusiasts to create scale landscapes, but it is very similar to plaster wraps used to apply a cast to somebody’s broken limb. Apply some Plaster Cloth to your arm or leg and live with it for a few days.
This way, you can get it out of your system without actually fracturing anything.
CWG says: a COMPOUND fracture! the mother of all broken bones!! the bone breaks through the skin! i always felt that the name was a bit tame for the actual injury–it doesn’t conjure up such dramatic thoughts. thanks for the head’s up on the plaster cloth. i’m looking into it.
People used to invite me to break a leg whenever I went on stage. Don’t know how it compares to an actual broken limb, but it was still a pretty damned painful experience.
CWG says: ahh, so you’re a thespian. tell me more!
I broke my collar bone when I walked in front of a swing (with a swinging child on it) when I was three. Worst thing ever! I could not sit up on my own or anything. The immobility for a 3 year old was sheer torture. I have broken other things, but that was the worst by far!
CWG says: the dreaded collar bone again. i will assiduously avoid breaking that one.
yes…cut. it. off.
under no ones authority but his own. and my mom totally went along with it like it was a totally normal idea.
CWG says: but surely your dad was a doctor or something?!
Haha, when I was young I thought I was the only one who wanted a cast, and I never managed to break a bone! I was in the Dominican Republic one year and a sweet little girl there told us she wanted to have a cast and then wear braces, so apparently this desire is not restricted to the States.
Anyway, on to my story….
I am now twenty and have somehow developed tendonitis in my wrist at the base of my thumb. They told me that this particular type was usually seen in new mothers with newborns. So at first to avoid injections or surgery I opted to try immobilization for a while and they gave me one of those velcro and neoprene braces that covered my wrist and thumb. Problem was, I am thin and have big, bony hands and the brace just didn’t fit well. pressure at the base of my pinky caused my hand to go numb and whatever that round bone on your wrist is called… yeah, that hurt really bad. I called the office several times and they tried adjusting it, but finally I was so tired of the crappy fitting thing I asked if they had anything a little more custom fitted. So I got a cast for a week.
Now, I know people with real broken bones get stuck with a cast for three to six weeks, so maybe thats why mine wasn’t so bad, but I actually enjoyed it for the most part. Since they knew how much pain the brace had caused me they added plenty of padding to the cast and all in all it was quite comfortable. I did have to dance in a show the first weekend I wore it, and I won’t lie to you, it did smell a little bit by the time I got it cut off, but it never really itched (They told me that was mostly a plaster problem, now they use fiberglass)
When the took it off it hadn’t really helped so a month later I went back in and had them inject it and wore another cast for a week and a half. This time I knew that it could get stinky so I was a little more careful and had even less problems with this cast, it did get annoying at times not being able to move my wrist or thumb, but it was very comfortable, didn’t really slow down my life that much (typing was a b&^@ though!) and it was fun having people sign it.
Good thing it wasn’t the worst experience of my life too, because now a year later the pain never went away and I’ll have to get another injection and cast this winter….
CWG says: wow…i hope you get all fixed up this time around! you reminded me of something else i always wanted–a RETAINER!! i never had to wear braces or the more stylish “night brace” either. i could do without both of those, but i really wanted a retainer. they reminded me of jolly ranchers. i know…i have issues.
he was a farmer.
oh and he was, at the time, the mayor of our little podunk town. so he might have proclaimed himself to be a doctor for the moment. mayors can do that, right?
Just so you know….I didn’t intentionally mean to break my sisters ankle and I had to use crutches too….sis!!
I twisted my ankle when I was in 3rd grade. I was away on a Girl Scouts camping trip. We were playing Follow the Leader and I tripped over a rock. What a klutz. My ankle had swollen to the size of a jumbo grapefruit by morning. Thankfully, we were leaving that day. My folks picked me up and took me straight the hospital, where after X-rays they determined the sprain was too bad for bandaging. So I had to wear a cast from my toes to my knee for 3 MONTHS. Instead of making me use crutches all that time, they stuck a rubber stopper into the bottom of the cast so I could walk on it. For some reason I remember feeling cheated. Crutches always garnered waaaay more attention. Fortunately I did have the type of cast that you could write on. So everybody signed it for me. It was pretty novel for a while. But it got itchy as HELL quickly. I lost one or two rulers down that sucker, probably a pencil or two as well. When they finally took it off my leg was all nasty and shrunken. The skin on my foot had taken on the consistency of pudding and just peeled off. It was GROSS>>!
I’m wearing the cutest little nose cast right now.
No real casts on my medical rap sheet, but I did
dislocate my right shoulder my first (and last) time mountain biking (Flagstaff, AZ 1995). It’s a mildly entertaining story so I think I’ll save it for my winky-dinky blog instead of donating it to your well-endowed one. nyeh.
dislocate my right index finger while playing catch on the beach (Rockaway, NY, 1986). I didn’t realize it for a few minutes, until I looked down at and saw it was shaped like this: ¯\_. I showed it to my friend and he looked at me gravely and said, “you know what has to be done.” I said yes and, all by myself, pulled it forward and >ploop!< it went right back into place with no pain at all. It was October, so I stuck my hand in the ocean in lieu of ice. It kind of worked. I saw an orthopedist soon after, surgery was inadvisable, so it was just a “buddy taping” job. To this very day, that index finger and the neighboring middle finger bicker like adolescent siblings when I’m not watching them.
Wait wait wait!
I didn’t dislocate my shoulder, I separated it.
And I messed up the bulleted list thing again. I am so hopeless.
Don’t feel bad Panny – that thing you do w/ the giant quite is MAGICAL.
Your quote ain’t bad either.
CWG says: ha. i laughed at the “quite”…it was very amusing to this tired curly wurly gurly.
hi i would like to break my arm or leg so i could stay off school firstly because i hate it
When I was 9 years old I broke my shin bone and it was a nasty break and I had to wear a cast for three whole months!– Nothing glamorous or daredevil about it–I simply fell (go figure because I was a very graceful child who had studied ballet for years)…Anyway, I had an old fashioned plaster cast with a little heel and toes hanging out, from my foot up to the top of my thigh. I got around on crutches. It was very itchy and uncomfortable.Thank goodness for mom’s knitting needles. When it was taken off, I was shocked and horrified. The skin was horribly dry and gross, and my whole leg was thinner than the other one!! There was no ‘physical therapy’ back in the 1960’s, so it was up to me to rework the leg and muscles, and to ditch the limp–which took years. Eventually, my leg ddn’t look as horribly deformed, but it remained ever so slightly thinner than the other one until this day…
Has anyone else experienced this? I suppose that three months is a long time in one’s growth years to have one’s muscles immobilized in a cast?