OT: What is your worst sports injury?
I have a doctor appointment on Friday to check up on my knee, and it's bringing back nightmarish memories from over a decade ago. I'm sure many of you have...memorable...tales of gruesome sports injuries, and I figure I'd share my story and invite the board to share your own stories. My tale is long so feel free to skip it and post your own if you feel so inclined.
It started sometime in 7th grade when I played soccer and basketball. Both of my knees would feel sore during and after games, and, occasionally, my left knee would momentarily lock up. Unfortunately, for whatever stupid reason, my 7th grade self neglected to mention the latter part to my pediatrician. So when he inspected my knees and saw bumps on both knees, he diagnosed me with Osgood Schlatter--inflammation of the patellar ligament, a relatively common ailment in growing boys who play sports--and told me to ice it after games, etc. and it would be fine.
Fast-forward to over a year later, when I was in 8th grade. I was playing pick up basketball when I went up for a rebound against an older kid who was on my back, and we landed with both our weight on my left knee. The pain was moderately bad in the moment, but I could walk on it fine and pretty much just shrugged it off. Over the course of the week, however, my knee swelled up to a melon size, and I eventually went in for x-rays (and CT scan, and a couple other scans that I don't really remember).
I was eventually diagnosed with osteochondritis dissecans, a condition in which the blood supply to my knee was cut off (from back in 7th grade) which causes bone to die and leaves the cartilage vulnerable, resulting in cracks in my cartilage (causing the knee to lock) and 3 microfractures in my femur (presumeably from the pick up game).
The orthopedic surgeon told me I wasn't a good candidate for surgery, and I was put on crutches "indefinitely," as weight was bad for it but passive movement helped to stimulate healing. As an 8th grader, this sucked, because there was no pain (and no cast/brace), so kids didn't really understand why I was on crutches, I didn't really understand why, and I couldn't play sports any more. Overall, I was on crutches for a 4 month period before my doctor told me I could put weight on my knee again.
So of course, day one, I played basketball outside during lunch. And of course, I got hurt. I tried to drive to the basket, made a hard cut on a crossover, and felt my knee peel like butter. Went to the surgeon and he scheduled me a month out--so back to crutches I went.
The month turned out to be only 2 weeks. I had become extremely proficient on crutches, but with sleepies still in my eyes, I tripped coming down the stairs. My knee was locked in place, and I could feel the cartilage cutting up my joint.
The surgeon pulled out an orange-peel sized piece of meniscus, drilled a bunch of tiny holes into my bone to stimulate bone growth, and inserted biodegradeable screws at the fracture sites.
After another 3 months of crutches, I finally was back to walking by the summer before high school. Everything was great for about 3 months until one day when I literally just stood up from my chair and my knee locked again. Went in for surgery to clean up some micro tears in my meniscus and the power went out right before I went into the OR, so I had to be rescheduled a week later.
Since then, the knee has been more or less fine. It gets more sore than the right when I work out, and I can "tell the weather" because it hurts worst when it rains. I was told that I'll probably get early arthritis in that knee, but I really hope early isn't mid 20s!
So...that's my story. What's yours?
1992. Tecmo Super Bowl. Reaggravated with NCAA Football '04
How long were you out?
NES controller...just two buttons and a directional pad. It's like an iPad, just two fingers...tough without the thumbs, but God left me with 9 more ways to defeat Bo Jackson and Lawerence Taylor.
Torn rotator cuff was the worst. Torn MCL and PCL was bad because I was in high school and it was my first major injury. Oddly enough, I've broken both thumbs and pinkies...and both big toes and pinky toes. Never any other finger or toe.
That said, the by far...the worst sport injury, is father time.
In all seriousness, too, it is the knees and other stuff. Tore left ACL playing baseball. Tore it again 4 years later playing basketball. Just had same meniscus repaired 3 weeks ago. Need microfracture on right knee - in constant pain bone on bone. Had right elbow scoped for bone chips from pitching. Partial tear of right rotator from pitching. Torn hamstrings. Torn quad. Broken thumb last summer from baseball.
That being said, I still play in a 35+ baseball (not softball) league in Seattle and first practice is Saturday.
As the great Dalton once said, "pain don't hurt."
"The Double Douche"
Or: "Right boot."
I try to use both of those lines as often as possible. Sometimes completely out of context. But as long as I laugh, then I'll continue doing it.
You may have already, if not, ask your Dr. about stem cell therapy for your knee.
It's important to stretch before playing video games.
I've sprained my ankles so many times, they are essentially free hinges. Like 30+ times each ankle. Good news is, at this point it doesn't really hurt much when I sprain them anymore.
/CSB
It just kinda slides in and out.
pervert
Also concussed in hockey a couple times and fucked my knee up (couldn't go to doctor as I was traveling down to Tampa for the outback bowl the next morning) trying to turn a late pass into a one time shot. Back knee popped and slammed down on ice while stopping, couldn't get up under own power on the ice and limped my way off. Drank away the pain that night and couldn't walk normally for a month or so.
Wow. So very well done.
March 18th, 2015 at 10:56 PM ^
walking like this:
of my pinky finger...middle joint was sticking through the skin and everything. Playing flag football. /smh
THEN, many years later, dislocated the other pinky finger (not compound this time) sliding into third base playing adult kickball.
March 18th, 2015 at 11:21 PM ^
changes in the weather by how your pinkies feel? I can!
I played baseball, and then fast- and slow-pitch softball for many, many seasons. Had dislocated the pinkie playing little league ball early in my career, then sprained it several years later, again while playing ball. But then I really messed it up some 25 years ago as I tried to bare-hand a one-hopper on the short hop and as the ball took a funny hop, it caught me directly on the tip of my pinkie. As the play continued, I watched as it bounced over to another outfielder while I tried to shake it off ---that is, until that other outfielder told me about the blood on my uniform. The broken bone had sliced right thru the skin and was exposed; that ended my season as it required surgery and the insertion of a couple pins.
While the surgery was successful and I do have full use of the right pinky, it's now permanantly slightly bent and always throbs when there's a major change in barometric pressure. I don't need a weatherman to tell me when the storms blow.
Despite the successful procedures resetting my pinky fingers, they also have a slight bend to them. Its very disappointing as it limits my ability to play concert piano....not that I do so, but if I ever did, I'd be SOL.
Don't know if it counts as a sports injury, but I gashed my head open doing free-form gymnastics off the metal headboard of my parents bed when I was little (fancy way of saying I was jumping off the bed). I have a scar to this day.
Well then a game of tag would also count. Chasing my bro through the house and I tripped and went head-first into the corner of a wall. Needed stitches.
BAH. Double post.
I tore my miniscus on my left knee playing basketball whcih required surgery. I had also suffered through tennis elbow through high school and college, but ibuprofin took care of that.
3 months after finishing rehab for my first torn ACL. I'm in a coed soccer league and find myself one-on-one with the keeper. He is enormous and uncoordinated. I look down right before making a move, and see him lauching himself at the ball. I don't get out of the way in time, and his 250 lb body flies into my leg and totally inverts my bad knee. My new ACL is totally shredded, along with a grade 3 tear of my MCL. I can't go to work for a week due to pain and immobility.
That was the last moment I ever would be able to play sports. Its all biking and swimming from here on out.
8th Grade - broken ankle - football
8th Grade - dislocated thumb - basketball
HS - dislocated right shoulder - football
College - broken nose - elbow to face in pick up basketball game
Age 37 - torn meniscus - jui jitsu
Age 39 - broken big toe - muay thai
Most painful: while running to first base, I stepped in a big divot in the dirt and my ankle bent sideways. I couldn't walk on it for a week - I guess it was sprained. I was 7. Most heroic: I caught a football with my face, and got a black eye in 4th grade recess. The teacher was the QB and he felt horrible.
Is that you?
The difference between us is that in the previous play, I had caught a pass for a touchdown. And I would never wear that plaid.
Not exactly the same thing, but I took a puck to the throat when my high school coach kept dumping it in harder and harder out of frustration. It must have looked awful because I dropped to the ground lifeless, but I wasn't injured. We did call off drills for the little bit of practice left though. It seemed to shake a few people, obviously including him.
To the OP, I've had a ton of (relatively) minor injuries. My top three would be a torn meniscus, a separated shoulder and two fractured vertebrae.
I dislocated my elbow when I was around 6, after I decided to get into my play stroller. I fell backwards and landed on my elbows. The orthopedic guy in the emergency room sat down and talked to me, while he held my arm. Once I relaxed, he popped it back into place. Never told me he was going to do it, and that was probably the best way to go.
During a hockey game my sophomore year in high school, I was skating the puck up along the boards and a opposing player came up and rode me up along the boards. Well my head went over into the bench, and eventually my head drilled the pole that heads up the glass for the penalty box. I went down immediately, and laid there for a couple minutes. My coaches then called an ambulance, I got carted off the ice and spent the next 12 hours in the hospital.
I suffered severe whiplash which resulted in a concussion. The doctor said I was very close to being paralyzed or having a broken neck. My first game back from that, I suffered another concussion and my back still harts a little at times today.
I tore the ligaments of my left ankle playing soccer as a goalie, I was on my toes trying to cover the net during a counter and when I stretched my right leg so I could block the shot my other ankle decided to twist in a weird way and all my weight just crushed my ligaments, I wasn't able to play for about 6 months and I wasn't the goalkeeper often I was just messing around and having fun, it was a pick up game.
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I was playing football on my junior high school team—yes, I'm so old that we didn't call it middle school back then—and had a normal practice session after school one night. I got home and shortly after that I noticed that my left nut was feeling kind of painful. I shrugged it off for a bit thinking it was just a random thing that would go away, but it didn't. The pain continued to climb in intensity, and when I eventually stuck my hand down there to find out what in the fuck is going on I noticed that my nut was the size of a small lemon and just as hard.
That discovery made the pain even worse, and I had to tell my mom that something was wrong after she noticed I was doubled over in agony. After she took stock of the situation, she immediately hustled me into the car and drove me to the emergency room at the local hospital.
By then it felt like some sadistic pervert had my nut in a vise and was slowly squeezing it tighter and tighter, and I was basically out of my mind with pain. The car ride to the hospital was agonizing, as every bump in the road ratcheted up the pain significantly. Luckily, I didn't have to wait long until a urologist saw me. Once he had me up on the table to examine the situation, he expertly worked things around with his hands and almost instantly the pain started subsiding noticeably. By the time we left the ER I was more or less back to normal.
I had to have some surgery done later to correct the underlying cause, but the urologist did tell me that if I'd gotten to him even 30 minutes later, he would have had to amputate my nut. He said that the normal physical activities involved with football caused the event, but that it was just a ticking time bomb.
Testicular torsion. You don't ever want to go there.
Not sports related but I was in a bus accident turned into train wreck where a few people died. I managed to escape and was able to stitch myself up and make a full recovery.
I don't care
The K-9 unit couldn't find me.
I could lend you a hand...
Was playing summer baseball, I believe inbetween my freshman and sophomore year of high school. Was up to bat and got hit in the back by a pitch. The kid did not throw that hard but I was in excruciating pain and could barely breathe. I somehow arrived at first base without anyone noticing how much pain I was actually in. I still could barely breathe and was about to tell my coach when I suddenly started coughing out a decent amount of blood. Apparently I had fractured my rib and in doing so the bone poked my lung and caused me to start coughing blood. I was taken from the game to the hospital in an ambulance and turned out to be ok
I also have a rather long list of football related injuries. Over a four year high school football career I managed to suffer two concussions, a torn MCL and a torn Labrum. I was a decent high school football player but somehow always had a knack for injuries.
Broken bone in my elbow from crashing in a cyclocross race. I have 9 screws and a metal plate.