Ask Lemmy

In 2017, on a snowy January day, I was supposed to go to the gym before work. When I got to the subway station, the service was interrupted. I thought "I could just take one hour to briskly walk to work, and not go to the gym".

But it was fresh snow and it was abundant, all the sidewalk were still covered. And I didn't have proper boots for a 1 hours+ brisk walk in the snow.

I got to work, changed, and started working. After 2 hours, I want to get up, but I immediately fall back on my chair.

I had hurt both my Achilles tendons at the ankle. My tendinitis in the right ankle healed well, but the one in the left ankle still hurts when I walk for too long. And sometimes just hurts because.

Torn foot ligament just because I went too hard too early after winter of no exercise. Since then every year I have swollen foot at least once and am unable to walk for few weeks.

Tried to open a can of ravioli in tomato sauce with a pair of pliars. Bad idea, 0/10, won't recommend. Still have the scar 30+ years later.

I let my back round while leg pressing too much weight in college. Blinding back pain. I didn’t tell anyone and never got it looked at but I probably bulged a disc or something. Anyway, ever since then my back has been my weakest link. I’m not in constant pain, but it can go out on me pretty easily.

Don’t lift more than you can handle and observe proper form when doing heavy lifts, kids!

In high school I pierced the webbing of my left hand between my thumb and forefinger with a stud to look cool.

I hit nerves and destroyed the muscles in that part of my hand. It’s my dominant hand and still works okay, but I had to learn to do a few things with my right hand afterwards due to issues with lack of strength. Like, I can’t open jars and shit now with my shitty hand.

In second grade I was at a school track meet. Didn’t have an event soon, so I was fucking around running up and down the bleachers.

Tripped and fell teeth-first. Broke a few of my front teeth. Fortunately many were still “baby” teeth, but not my two front teeth on the top.

Those two have been a constant struggle ever since. Crowns made of bonding material, then eventually root canals, posts, real crowns, then surgery going through the gums to shave down bone required because of a bad root canal, then a new crown because of a poor seal on one of the crowns…

I haven’t bit into an apple in decades, because I just know that if I do I could lose a crown. Last time I lost a crown was while eating a damn breakfast burrito.

I was playing with some kids I was babysitting in McDonald's play tubes when I was 18. I bent my ankle weird. I'm turning 30 in a couple months and there's literally not a single day without ankle pain. Sometimes it's disabling. Several times they haven't actually found anything wrong with it but last time they said it had something (can't remember) and it made a lot of bad clicking sounds when the podiatrist handled it. I've tried lots of things to help.

I broke my wrist rollerblading when I was 14. I didn't even fall super crazy or anything; I just got tripped up on a rock getting stuck in my wheel and fell forward while not moving very fast. Even after it healed, I didn't really skate anymore and every now and then to this day, I feel it hurting like it was freshly broken for a moment or two on random occasions.

I had also taken a few tumbles directly onto my knees without sustaining lasting injuries, but I do recall a doctor telling me if I took a fall or two like I had for one time when I thought I broke something that I may need surgery because there was an issue with the cartilage in both my knees.

It wasn't until a few years later while playing racket ball that I pivoted to hit the ball and just felt something pop and hurt like hell in my knee that another doctor said I had, if I am remembering the name correctly, Ozgood Slater's and a deficiency of cartilage in my knees so things that normally aren't supposed to rub together were rubbing together, causing inflammation and pain in the area. I still struggle with this and some days my knees just hurt like fucking hell.

I was rear ended in my 20's while at stop light and got whiplash. Neck is constantly sore from that. Doctor told me it never really heals and just to do stretches. And I have carpal tunnel from shitty posture and playing games.

Skydiving, once, in my 20s. Not sure if the chute was on wrong, being slightly over the weight limit was a factor, or if it was just genetics, but when the chute opened, the jerk caused a loud enough pop that my instructor asked if I was okay.

I lied of course, the adrenaline kept me from knowing the deal, anyway.

The first time I threw my back out, after, it was from picking up a piece of paper. These days, when I have the least pain I can still tell my back muscles are as tight as a garage spring.

I had never known a moment of back pain before that day, and I don't know what it's like to walk a mile without back pain now.

Was eating soup after a long day of work. Tired. Figured I'd drink the last bit out of the bowl.

Crashed it into my front tooth and a piece of it flew off. Enough to be visible, not enough for the dentist to do anything about it. It'll just stay like that forever.

Not so bad compared to many other stories, just really really pathetic.

I never felt my hand break.

The tip of my opponent's long sword snapped into the back of my right hand, just behind the pinkie. There was no flash of incandescent pain, no stars in my sight - my mind was too focused on the swordfight. My opponent had scored a hit - and it had hurt, even through my glove - but adrenaline, as they say, is a hell of a drug.

After the tournament, it became clear that something was wrong. My hand began to swell and deform, my right pinkie levering itself inward across my palm until it was sitting at nearly 30° off true. Its nail sat jauntily behind the second knuckle of my middle finger. Making a fist was impossible.

Unfortunately, I was nineteen and had neither cash nor insurance for a doctor. So I did the next best thing - ignored it and told people it was probably just a bad sprain. When people suggested I see a doctor i responded, "What's a doctor gonna do? Tell me it's broken and take it easy? I'll save the money."

After a few weeks the swelling had gone down enough that I could finally feel the bones in my hand. Where there had once been a single line from wrist to knuckle, I could now feel an 'x'. An 'x' which had clearly spent the last few weeks knitting together at a now permanent bad angle.

It occurred to me then what a doctor would do - set it properly. But now they'd need to re-break the bone.

Unfortunately I still had neither insurance nor cash.

What I did have was a freezer full of popsicles and a small toolbox. I ate a popsicle. And then put the stick between my teeth as I braced my right hand on the table and raised a hammer in my left.

WHAM ... WHAM!

I hauled on my pinkie to pull the now-separated bones out straight then massaged them into position until things felt roughly aligned properly.

... Many years later I had health insurance and told my doctor this story and asked if he could x-ray it for me. A week later I received a letter in the mail. Inside was a printout of my hand x-ray with the healed break circled in pen. Besides the circle was a note: "Good job with the hammer".

All things considered I did a pretty good job, but it's not quite perfect. My pinkie still leans inward - just a hair. Just enough to remind me.

…and how quickly did it affect you?

Would be good additional information.

IOW, messed up your knees doing track events in college, got a knee replacement at 50 because you couldn’t take the pain anymore.

Got WAY TOO drunk at a club, kicked out (which I genuinely accepted with good grace). Walking home, realised I'd forgotten my jacket. Figured I'd just nip in past the bouncer, grab the jacket and leave without bothering anyone. I didn't nip past. I got bounced. Rebuffed from the club, and pushed backwards I fell over and broke my foot (a Jones fracture). Was in a moon boot for 3 months or so, but now it hurts whenever I walk wrong.