Broken bones

Have you ever broken a bone?

Yes, but not saying which ones. It took them a while to heal. All were caused by various types of fall.

Broken bones in young people can cause greenstick fractures, that’s when the bone is broken like a soft twig and can be reset. Simple clean breaks are manipulated back into place then held in place with plaster of paris bandages. Some breaks, like a broken finger can’t be plastered but are just strapped up. Broken ribs cannot be plastered so it’s just painkillers and sometimes strapping? The worst break can be a compound fracture where the bone penetrates the skin. This will require some form of surgery with pins or even plates to hold the bones back in place. Then there are skull fractures that require operations to fix bones back in place. Sometimes pe have plates put in their head if the bone of the skull becomes necrotic. XRays and other types of imaging can be used to locate and realign bony damage.

Yes

Have you ever broken a bone?

I’ve broken a few bones in my life. Luckily they mended.

I don’t know if I should give personal information out about my health, and yet I have shared before. So I will talk about something that happened more than thirty years ago.

I will talk about one injury which was very painful. I slipped on the top stair of a friends house and bumped down every single step on my bottom. Instead of sympathy all my friends just laughed! I realised I had hurt myself, so went to the accident unit at the hospital., in those days you could get checked over much more quickly.

After about four hours of standing up (I couldn’t sit) the doctor diagnosed a fractured coccyx (your tail bone). He said he wouldn’t xray the area, but that it would take six to eight weeks to get better. In the meantime I needed padding to support my weight, so I bought a blow up swimming ring. It was very strange going to work and sitting on a blue ring covered in goldfish. I got some smart and silly remarks from colleagues. But eventually I was OK…