Reply #33: It's called "pathological fracture" [View All]

[Tangerine LaBamba]

Bones break sometimes, and no one knows why. In my case, I had a broken femur and a broken pelvis, both of which I mistook for a groin pull - my pain threshold is far too high - so I walked, or hobbled, around on it for three weeks. By the time the fractures were diagnosed - hospitals spent three months telling me the pain and inability to walk was "in my head," and tried to treat me with anti-psychotic drugs - they'd begun to heal on their own. I'm disgustingly healthy, you see.

Surgeon wouldn't touch me, telling me that the morbidity rates for healing fractures, when surgical interventions are made, are incredibly high. So I spent 12 weeks in bed while the fractures healed, hoping that they'd heal properly.

They didn't.

Seven hours of surgery to re-break and rebuild my leg and hip, and then six months of intense physical therapy. I learned a lot, I must say, and what I'm telling you is that your body - the pain you're in - is giving you a message, and that message is: Moderation.

Moderation, easy does it, you'll accomplish just as much with less discomfort. Walk, walk, walk, he said, and this man, who cut me open and stuck all kinds of titanium and cement and bone grafts inside my body, had my attention. If not for him, I'd never have walked again.