The mysterious cut and fractured finger

[LizRegina]

Hello you lovely net full of vipers... I have a mystery (well 2 mysteries) for you to solve.

1. Aibu to think that if you fractured your finger you would know how you did it?

1. This ones going to need a diagram...(it will follow) how would one get a cut on the underside of their leg that ran from one side of the leg to the other just about 4 inches above the back of the knee... so imagine someone standing up with their back to you, the scratch/cut would run horizontally across the width of their leg... not actually a cut but a large deep scratch about 2-4mm thick that's not directly straight... bicycle injury apparently but I'm not seeing it

I don’t think I’d be concerned about either.
Fingers are easily bruised so the person could have thought it was just a bruise that ended up being a fracture.
Everyone’s pain thresholds are different too. My husband fractured his elbow and was in some discomfort for a few days and then carried on as he was and only found out two years later when they did and X-ray to check why he now can’t bend it and there’s a nice, badly healed fracture.

Unless there’s background to this and you have reason to doubt what’s been said of course 🤷🏼‍♀️

[quote LizRegina]@ShinyMe have you ever broken or fractured something? I've found them excruciatingly painful as have all people I know but looking for a bigger range of opinions on people who have actually experienced a fracture
[/quote]
I broke my fibula and to this day have no idea how I did it. My leg was aching a bit and I thought maybe I’d pulled a muscle and carried on walking about on it, doing exercises, etc for months before finding out it was fractured. I ran 10k only a few hours before they put it in plaster. So not overly painful.

I’ve broken toes, knew I’d done it, sharp pain, didn’t last long. Bit achy for a few days.

Broke my back, knew I’d done that. Very painful.

I broke my big toe waited ten weeks to think about getting it checked.

I broke three ribs coughing wen I had bronchitis- that was fucking agony.

I have broken my foot. As confirmed by x-ray for something else.

No idea when or how I did it.

I also tend to scratch myself quite badly in my sleep. Normally down the full length of my shin, looks like I've had a fight with a rose bush!!

Are these injuries on the same side of the body? Could alcohol or adrenaline have prevented the person feeling the injuries at the time they were sustained? Can you provide any more context?

I’ve fractured both an elbow and foot in different instances. Both times went to hospital even, they wiggled it around and told me just a bad sprain (ok the foot fracture was a French hospital, but the elbow was nhs)
I think it was because I was not moaning in pain and being pretty jolly and dismissive and being a more mature lady

The elbow got picked up 4 days later by a female physio who wrote me a note to take to a&e to say this time X-ray her

The foot fracture took 16 weeks to diagnose. 3 visits to nhs gps. In the end I went privately got an X-ray. It took another 6 months to heal and regain strength with physio.

So, you can fracture and not be in extreme pain, I can only think it depends on amount of actual dislocation on the bones

Next time I fall I won’t be so jolly stoic. Learnt my lesson

I broke my pinky finger. It was sore but not terribly so and I waited until the next day to go to minor injuries where I had an xray and the nurse practitioner missed the fracture.

I buddy strapped it to the next finger anyway and was recalled a week later to hear 'oh there's a clear fracture'. It was obvious on the xray!

I have horses. I often discover injuries some time after the fact. It leads to fun games of "guess the bizarre way I did that"

I have hyper mobility joint syndrome. I can’t tell you the amount of mornings I wake up with my fingers pointing in the wrong direction. I usually lie on my hand, it goes numb and something pops out.

I’m also ridiculously clumsy. As DH says, why walk around something when you can walk through it. I currently have a bruise on my thigh that’s about ten inches long and so painful I couldn’t lie on my side last night. I have no idea whatsoever how I did it and that’s not unusual for me. Have a vague recollection I walked into something in the garden but don’t really know for sure

I have a friend who broke their wrist and told the doctor they had no idea how they did it. It was only after getting home they realised they had to take evasive action to avoid an accident a few days earlier (driving), and presumed it happened then, but the wrist didn't hurt at the time.

I've certainly scratched myself in a similar way on the pedal of my bike.

Ds broke his wrist (on a residential camp) and went a full week where he occasionally swapped hands, but didn't complain at all. Then we went to play tennis and he hit the ball, and announced he had decided it was time to try one handed backhands. So took him to be x-rayed and it was broken.

I broke my fingertip - it was excruciating, loads of nerve endings in fingertips! Broken arm and foot also before, painful but not as painful as fingertip!

I've ehlers danlos syndrome and I dislocated things all the time and have no idea when it happened. My partner will just randomly say that my joint doesnt look right . Some people have quite a high pain threshold. I relocate all my own joints as well.

I fractured a bone along top of my foot (not sure what it's called, sorry) and didn't know about it til 2 years later, so it's definitely possible.

And I am permanently covered in cuts and bruises of unknown origin because I'm clumsy and forgetful, a great combo.

[quote LizRegina]@ShinyMe have you ever broken or fractured something? I've found them excruciatingly painful as have all people I know but looking for a bigger range of opinions on people who have actually experienced a fracture
[/quote]
I totally dislocated my thumb when I was taking a large very heavy rucksack off.

It didn't hurt, I only knew it was dislocated when I saw how bad it looked. It had been forced backwards and sideways.

They called it a subluxation I think. I had an impressive bruise for weeks,.

It hurt when they pulled it back into position because I refused any pain relief as I was travelling so needed to be alert.

When I hear of injuries of unkown cause, I always suspect an MDI - Mysterious Drinking Injury.

I have a very low pain threshold however I managed to break my leg and not notice. I only went to hospital as it was going blue (the whole leg) I still don't know how I did it which resulted in interesting conversations with the doctors.

I currently have a four cm long scabbed over scratch on my stomach which is a complete mystery to me, it was there when I woke up and haven't got a clue how it happened. It's possible.

I have a scar on the back of my knee very similar to what you describe. I got it from a broken mattress spring poking out of the mattress. As I passed my leg over to get into bed, it caught the wire and left a long gash. Could it have been something sharp catching the back of the leg as they got on the bike?

I also think I broke my little toe as a child. It got caught against a table leg and pulled outwards. It was sore but not too bad. I don't think I even told my patents. I only think it was broken because it healed wonky and it has less range of motion now.

I fractured my ring finger when a dog I was walking tried to run off and lead wrapped around hand/finger. It hurt but didn’t think I’d broken it.

Do they wear Lycra shorts, have they rubbed? Or could it be from a seat they’ve sat on?

My DD broke her thumb and was saying it was a bit sore but was still playing as normal like tennis, basketball, trampoline etc. I get cuts and bruises all of the time and I have no idea where they come from. People just have different pain tolerances.

I've scratched the pack of my leg there on a bike pedal and on the sharp edge of a plastic chair seat.

When I fractured my finger I knew it hurt, but not that much, and it never occurred to me for one moment that it was anything more serious than a minor sprain. It was only around three days later when I realised that I couldn't straighten the end joint that it occurred to me that maybe I should get it checked out, whereupon it emerged both that I had a fracture and a torn ligament. At the hospital they told me that because of the delay it was 50/50 whether it would heal properly and I'd regain full use of the finger in question, but I must say they did a superb job and it's now fine.

I broke my foot and ankle. No idea how. Drove myself to a&e a few days later as it was sore. They said no swelling and I was walking so unlikely to be broken. X ray came back, and I got a WTF face as they sent me to get a cast on. Think I had three breaks in my foot and two in my ankle
I've also herniated a disc so badly I needed spinal surgery. No idea how
I swear my doctor goes pale if I say I don't know what I did

Lou898
I worked in a hand therapy clinic for 10 years and dog walking/lead injuries are a lot commoner than you would imagine. Cricket, netball and tucking in bed sheets account for a lot as well.
It's perfectly feasible that someone could fracture a finger and not be fully aware of how they have done it, I've seen it a few times.