When you injure yourself REALLY badly but there isn't a single mark to show for it

[farewellfigure]

I just felt like I'd cut myself really badly on the side of a packet of tomatoes and when I looked, it hadn't even broken the skin. There was no blood despite squeezing it really hard and not even a mark to show people for sympathy.

It's like when you bark your shin really hard, or stub your toe and think, 'Oh that's an A&E job. My sock is filling up with blood. My toe is severed. I reckon you can see through to bone' and when you look, there isn't even a bruise. AIBU to think that's really really unfair? You're in agony, but you don't have anything to show for it.

I either have a really low pain-threshold, or my skin is 50% titanium.

I'm boggling at how you cut yourself on a frozen crumpet DoJo

There must be some kind of inverse rule going on. The more pain there is, the less there is to show for it. Obviously the inverse rule doesn't apply to childbirth. I could write a paper on it. Maybe it would be worth a postgrad doctorship thingy.

The shock had to pass before I could call 999 (too shaky) so was swearing loudly and uncontrollably by the time the ambulance arrived. It did mend OK after operations and metal work. It was a collar bone so after calling the ambulance and getting to hospital they just sent me home with painkillers - which was disappointing. Got a X-Ray which seemed a bit unnecessary - "It's broken." "No shit,sherlock".

The boiling oil burn sounds much worse! Yikes. For lots of claret, try a pretty small cut to the head - it just keeps coming.

I think you are all lucky. I just have to look at a sharp table corner or door handle and I bruise. Can't remember what my legs and arms look like bruise free it's been so long!

And the constipation from the Opiate-based painkillers was REAL pain.

It would have been impressive if it wasn't so stupid - the crumpet had a tiny overhanging edge at the bottom which was clearly very sharp. I grabbed two to twist/pull them apart, and in the process, the sharp overhanging frozen bit took a hunk of skin from the heel of my hand off. It pissed blood (fortunately not on the crumpet as I needed to keep my strength up after such an injury) but wasn't particularly deep although it is almost impossible to get a plaster to stay on that part of your hand so I was excused from pretty much any job that involved touching things for the afternoon which was a bit of a result!

So it was a life threatening injury from a frozen cake type product? Imagine explaining that in a&e!

I don't bruise it takes a broken bone to achieve a nice black bruise. So if I say I hurt myself I never have a nice sympathy mark.

Indeed Mrs Lowe - every year my new year's resolution is to avoid making it onto that RoSPA list of idiots who injure themselves on teaspoons and trouser legs which everyone sniggers at when it makes the news.

Agreed! I would also like a chat with the consultant who diagnosed a second degree tear after having DS2 which was without doubt worse than my third degree tear with DS1 and without all the perks. E.g. Lactulose, theatre stitch up, pain relief, stitches that didn't fall out after a day leaving the area to "fuse together" as a midwife put it! I fear I have said too much. But my point is family and friends would say "oh well at least its not as bad as last time!!!" Its the robbing of sympathy that gets me.

I know what you mean op, I broke my pelvis falling off a horse & was convinced that because I had no marks whatsoever and could walk (albeit in horrific pain) that I hadn't really injured myself that badly. 3 days later I walked into hospital and found out it was broken! It looked completely normal.

The one and only time I really did hurt my toe I was wearing wellies and it was so cold I couldn't really feel my feet.

It was only when I went inside and took my welly off that I realised the horse that had trod on my toe had actually partially amputated it and it was pissing blood and hanging off.

The nurse's face when she took off my makeshift bandage at a and e was 100% worth it.

Mine was also horse related, it went over backwards on top of me ( at the risk of outing myself, just before I was suppose to be jumping at Hickstead) Bloody horses! Lol

Actually come to think of it, my only fracture/ dislocated bone injury was also horse related. I was 12 at the time and the leather girth snapped clean off -leaving the buckles attached to the saddle - mid jump. (Girth was bought second hand but looked like it was in good condition - obviously not) I dislocated my wrist and fractured my arm. My mum being the kind soul she is ran back to the yard to get another girth and made me go back on the horse.

It wasn't until two weeks later she took me to get an x ray as I still couldn't move it. No bruising that time but it did swell up pretty bad.

That's when I would have burst into tears. I save the brave soldier act for problems that are apparent to everyone.

As a child I used to race BMX's I had a lot of spectacularly painful injuries which left me with nothing to show off at school the next day but left me writhing in the floor in agony (I'm nit brave) then one day after crashing my bike I kept trying to stand up and couldn't work out why I kept falling back over until my Dad came over and noticed my foot was basically back to front!

I once fell an bruised my coccyx , I did have a wonderful bruise but as it was my arse. …well I didn't hate anyone enough to to subject them to that sight.

Really logged on to say that any burn that doesn't hurt needs to be seen asap. Yes I do mean doesn't hurt. That means it's so deep you've damaged the nerves.
Please get burns like that seen to asap.

I know exactly what you mean!

I once got my hand crushed on the Tube. It was really crowded, and I was holding onto the pole in front of me. Someone squeezed on wearing a rucksack at the next stop, and one stop later the rucksack got shoved along by the opening door, trapping my hand between the bag and the pole. It was excruciating, and it took a while to free my hand. I nearly passed out and really thought I'd broken a few bones.

I didn't even have any bruising. Just couldn't understand it!

I've got horrendous pregnancy sickness at the moment but because I look OK people don't take how sick I feel seriously. So when my DD twatted my eye brow and gave me a big red mark I got far more sympathy (when pretty much as soon as she'd done it I forgot about it as she'd twatted the back of her head on it and I needed to comfort her) that day than I have the 19 weeks of relentless nausea! I do agree there seems an inverse relationship between suffering and evidence. A paper cut is a bastard of an injury but no one can muster up any sympathy when you wince when you wash your hands and the soap stings. But from many PPs above it seems a broken bone, one of the most serious of all injuries, gets the breaker off lightly in terms of pain (at least in the examples above; I fractured my wrist in the tiniest of tiny ways and it hurt like hell!) Where's the logic??

I agree, I normally bruise at the slightest thing, so when I got a hockey ball to my cheek the other weekend, I was fully expecting a whopper of a bruise but nothing came out!

It really hurt brushing my teeth & eating on that side, but no mark at all. My team were very disappointed