ohmygosh, you POOR thing!

I once shut my own thumb in the car door at Kohl's. The entire time I was trying to twist myself around to get the key out of my purse, I was just mortified!!! I could easily have yelled for someone, but was just too embarrassed!

I can sympathize. Once I hit myself in the face opening a door and bruised my nose and got a black eye. I went out with my husband to the grocery store and people would do the same thing- look at me, then him. I know what they were thinking!

I hope your bruise feels better soon!

Ow! I hurt just reading about it! At least it's temporary. Only thing is bruises look a lot worse before they look better.

Ouch! Sorry that must have hurt though and hard when you have to explain it.

I did a dumb thing this morning, that sort of turned out alright. My knee started hurting yesterday when playing soccer - only when I ran fast though. Hurt overnight too anytime I tried to turn and moved in my sleep so not much sleep.

Got into the shower this am before my alarm went off and left the phone by the sink (my alarm clock). It went off while in the shower once and then snoozed itself. Well it rang again as I got out and I have an annoying sound on purpose so wanted to quiet it. Not thinking about that I hadn't wiped myself fully off - as in my feet. I slipped and in the process of trying not to fall I fell and hit my hip on the tub and my knee twisted and popped at the same time. Good thing that came out of it is that my knee stopped hurting and I was even able to run at lunch time. Hip is sore, but it was not the bone so soft tissue. No visible bruise yet and only painful to touch.

The only thing surprising about your story is that it didn't happen to me! Seriously. I do stupid things all the time and hurt myself. And yours wasn't even stupid -- it was just a freak occurrence. I think any time someone inquired about my bruises I would say "my car bit me. It was having a bad day" and laugh and move on. I hope your bruises heal soon!

I bruised my face around my left eye really badly at a dog show. I was walking in the ring near a piece of equipment, and my ankle turned and I fell. Unfortunately, my face hit a diagonal steel bar on the equipment before my hand reached the ground to cushion the fall. The whole side of my face swelled up and was bruised. I went in to urgent care to make sure nothing was broken, and I had to tell them several times that I really fell, that nobody had hit me. They finally stopped after I whipped out my phone to give them numbers of witnesses who saw the accident. And yes, I felt very stupid.

Hope you heal quickly.

I have had some close calls with my Sienna's automatic doors too.

Did you ever look down and see a bruise and not remember what you did to cause it?

I also hurt reading this, and I've had a few injuries due to something ridiculous, so don't feel bad !!

The latest one was when I ran full face in my glass patio door last winter in Florida at night, bang !! I thought my nose was broken but it was just bruisedâ¦

DD slammed the trunk shut on my fingers a few years ago, we were talking near her open trunk and I had rested my hand on the ledge, stupid meâ¦. poor DD, she felt so bad, but after an hour soaking in ice my fingers felt just a little bruisedâ¦.

As for your arm, keep us posted on your progress, it must be so sensitive with all that bruising !

Lynn,

I am really sorry about your injury. About 4 years ago I had a dumb freaky thing happen, that was really my fault, but not, if you know what I mean.

I'd taken our kitty, Mazie, to the vet for her yearly check-up. She loves riding in the car (I know, strange cat), so on the way home from the vet, I didn't put her in her carrier, and when we got home, got her out of the car, and accidentally shut the door on her tail! She was in horrible pain & began biting at my hand I was holding her with & I couldn't get the car door open easily & if I'd let go of her, she'd have been hanging by her tail. I finally got it open, she was free, and I was sobbing in pain from her biting my hand. I cleaned the wounds really well & had an appt. at my rheumatologist the next day & she looked at the "owie" & told me to go see my primary, but she wasn't in. Her Med. Asst. called her & they put me on doxycycline, but by the next day, it was much worse, I went to see her & got referred to a hand specialist down the street from her office & he opened it up in the office under local anesthesia & I had to be in the hospital for three days of heavy duty IV antibiotics, after which they inserted a pic line & my daughter administered the antibiotics thru that for the next 3 weeks at home.

I could NOT believe it....what a dumb accident. I still have one finger that is very crooked, but I do have almost full range of motion now. So, Lynn, many of us have been where you are....take care & heal fast...hope it's not too painful in the meantime.

This post was edited by lizzie_grow on Mon, Aug 26, 13 at 20:55

Oh I hope you are feeling (and looking) better really soon.

I too look at bruises sometimes and wonder how I got them.

My stupidest injury came about when I was out running one day, it was pouring rain and I stepped on a pine cone. I went over on my ankle and because it was raining the pavement was a little slippery and I skidded along it with the arm that i had put out to stop myself, stretched completely out. The result of this little "fall" off of the pine cone was a cracked tibia, torn ligaments in my ankle and hyper-extension of my rotator cuff. Talk about clumsy! I couldn't even use crutches.

This poor women came running out of her house in the pouring rain and said, while I was still lying on the ground stunned, "my husband saw you fall but he never saw you get up!". Although I was soaking wet she very kindly drove me home and helped me into the house.

I was in physio and off of running for 6 months.

I am wondering too if as we age, we tend to bruise and injure ourselves more than when younger.
It seems I remember a time when I could trip and fall and just jump up with no problem.
Fast forward, I tripped over a garden hose two months ago and hurt my knee. It still hurts when I bend it.

Lynn, that sounds painful. I hope it heals quickly.

Here's my stupid injury story. I got on my bike, my pants leg got hooked on the pedal and I fell over.

Thankfully I only received minor physical bruises. My pride was severely injured.

When I got my Trek 7250 3 yrs. ago, I was pedaling down the street, decided to zip up a driveway onto the sidewalk as I was nearing an intersection. Over-corrected a bit, and off the sidewalk I went! BOOM...went down on my right side fairly hard!

I was SO damn mad/embarrassed! A guy at the stoplight asked if I was OK as I was getting-up. Yeah, I grumbled.
I had JUST enough time to get my right arm under me to cushion my ribcage! THANK GOD it was fairly soft grass...

TWO MORE FEET...and I would've hit a 6'-wide, BRICK-based lighted sign...

....of the Emergency-room!

Uffda.

Faron

I hope you feel better soon. I often see big bruises and wonder how on earth it is possible I cannot even know how I got them.

The stupidest/funniest injury story in my family goes to my sister in Barrow, AK. It gets really, really cold there. In the apartment she rented the pipes burst and then the water froze on the floor, inside the apartment. She slipped on ice inside and ended up needing knee surgery. She came down here to NM for the surgery and you can guess how much everyone here has with such a story.

I broke my nose during a conference call for work.

My sweet Joey (dog) who had diabetes and was blind, needed to go outside while I was on a lengthy call. I excused myself, muted the phone, and guided him down the stairs and out to the 'puppy pen'. He was always able to come back in and up the stairs by himself.

It was a hot summer day and I had flip flops on. As I raced back up the stairs to re-join the call, I caught the toe of one flip flop on the stairs and went down hard, smashing my face into a stair tread.

I got up, blood started gushing, and I grabbed a towel to staunch the flow. Came back into my office, un-muted the phone and through the thick towel, said 'I've got to GO!', while the other party, said, 'HUH?', as it was impossible to hear through the towel. I finally got my story out, and headed to a small local hospital, driving with one hand and holding the towel to my face with the other.

They did x-rays, and told me that my nose was badly broken, but couldn't stop the bleeding, and I needed to go to a larger hospital to get it stopped. But, they said it either has to be by ambulance, or someone driving you...My 86 year old vibrant 'Mum' was called and she took me. On the way, I called a friend who I knew was working and left a message on his cell. As we sat in the Emergency waiting room, he came flying in and Mum got to go home.

The 'trip' started at about 3:30 PM, and I finally got home from the larger hospital close to midnight.

Like Lynn, for weeks later when I had to go grocery shopping, I saw people looking at me like I'd been badly beaten. I'm not sure they all believed how my face really came to look like that.

I have to share my stupidest story. My 12 year old son was playing 2 houses down right past dark on a summer evening. I went to get him to tell him it was time to come home. He had ridden his bike and said "jump on mom and ride on my pegs". I protested a pit and thought what the heck and jumped on. I squealed all the way home and while pulling in our drive-way I went to jump off and my sandal got caught in the bike spokes as my body was swinging around to get off. My body moved but my foot didn't as I fell to the ground. My ankle swelled so much I could hold the swelling in my hand. I couldn't walk, much less get up the 2 flights of stairs to my bedroom since we lived in a split level. Went to the Dr. the next day and it was shockingly not broken. It took a long time to heal. I felt like a fool telling that story.

I heard a statement on the radio yesterday that the average American can not stand and balance himself on one foot for 15 seconds.

That stinks! I do have a suggestion for the bruising though, and I'm pretty sure I learned about it here a few years back when I posted about my own stupid injury. I was trying to break up some branches into lengths that could be used for firewood and I found that the easiest way was to take these big 3-4" diameter branches, hold them over my head, and sledgehammer them down on the driveway as hard as I could -- I found that when I did that, about 12-18" would break off the end and that piece would go in the woodstove pile -- for me, this was a lot easier than trying to saw smaller pieces off. I had been at it for about a half hour (we had taken down a large tree and had a ton of these big branches) when one of the newly-broken pieces took a bad bounce and whacked me super-hard right in the chin. By the time I got back inside it had started to swell and even though I iced it immediately, by that evening I had a huge purple swollen bruise - it basically looked like i had cut a golf ball in half, painted it purple, and glued it to my chin. I think this was about a week before Thanksgiving, too, so I was dreading having to look like that in all the family pictures.

Someone here suggested arnica gel - it is by a company called Boiron and you can buy it at any drugstore (I even saw that Walmart carries it now) -- usually in the aisle that has the Ben-Gay and other pain creams. I don't know what is in that stuff (some kind of herbal thing, I think) but it definitely clears up bruising a lot faster than it goes away on its own. I have used it many times since for bad bruises -- it doesn't make them go away immediately but it definitely makes a big difference in how fast they do go away. So I would recommend getting some and giving it a try.

This post was edited by lkplatow on Tue, Aug 27, 13 at 12:28

my3dogs - I cringed at your story.

Wow, good to know and sorry to hear about all the others who have had similar stupid accidents. I have two that stand out - one many years ago when we lived in a very rural area, no close neighbors...I was enjoying a lovely summer morning and decided to go out to the raspberry patch and pick some for my breakfast (still in my nightgown). The deer had eaten all the easy to reach ones so I had to go inside the two rows which were very overgrown. As I pushed my way through, I stepped in a hole, fell and snapped the 3 main bones in my ankle. I was a good distance from the house, no one was home and my husband was out of town for an extended time fighting forest fires. I had to crawl to the house and called the local fire dept for help. It was all volunteer and one of my friends who is a nurse and also hooked into the emergency # got to my house first. I was lying on the kitchen floor; all I could think of was I hadn't showered or brushed my teeth yet. She got a basin of water and my toothbrush and a clean bathrobe and fixed me up while we waited for the ambulance (about a 45 min wait). I still have all the plates and screws in my ankle and it's been 30 years.

Never mind about the other...this is plenty!

I'm so sorry you were injured. I hope you feel better soon.

One winter my car battery died. My uncle came over to help, removed the dead battery and carried it to his car, with the idea that he would drive to an auto parts store and get a new battery. Didn't quite work out that way. He slipped on some ice, fell and broke his nose. He ended up in the emergency room. The doctor on call asked my aunt what my uncle looked like before he broke his nose. Without a second's hesitation, she replied "Paul Newman."

Suero - THAT is GREAT! I had the most handsome doc in my broken nose saga. He was probably young enough to be my son, but who wants to lay there in old shorts, flip flops and black eyes when you get a gorgeous doc?

My latest 'incident' was the drop leaf desk front hitting me on the head. Instinct told me to put my hand on it as i turned the key, INCASE it fell, so of course it did. I saw stars it hit so hard, and sat on the sofa with a frozen bag of mixed veggies on my head for 45 minutes. Took 2 Tylenol immediately, kept checking my eyes, and stayed awake~no, headache. It was not the top or back of my head, but right behind my ear. Lesson learned, always listen to your gut!!

Hope you heal quickly with no lasting effects!

I mowed the lawn with a walk behind mower. After I finished I pushed it to the shed to put it away. However I could not get it in as the wheelbarrow was in the way. Walked around the mower and grabbed the wheelbarrow and backed up. Tripped and fell backwards over the lawn mower. My foot was caught in a brace of the wheelbarrow and my leg was trapped against the hot muffler of the mower. Took forever to get my foot out as I could not reach the wheelbarrow as I was bent over backwards on top of the mower. Finally got it out and was able to get up. But I had a huge burn on my leg from the muffler as well as multiple puncture holes from the points by the front wheel to adjust the height. As I was home a lone, I called my DD who lived 5 miles away. She grabbed some burn cream and headed over. I headed for a cold shower to clean up and actually see what I had done. Went to the doctor the next day and he said that whatever I was doing, to keep doing it as the burn looked good. I had a huge blister and lots of bruising. All healed well and no scars visible today.

Oh my gosh, you all are so funny! It was great to read all of your stories . . . although I'm worried that it sounds kind of weird to say that. You know what I mean, though (LOL). I'm glad to hear that I'm not alone.
Suero: hysterical!

lkplatow : I'm going to buy some of that arnica gel to try. Thanks!

Olychick: omg, I cringe every time I read that! Ouch!!

I'm 9 days post-accident. The bruise on my forearm has faded and you can hardly see it, although it's still tender. The one on my upper arm is still big and brightly colored but healing slowly. I met my best friend for lunch the day before yesterday. She's an artist (pastels mainly) and was fascinated and impressed by all the colors in my bruising. Artists crack me up!
Lynn

One of the dumbest things I did was many years ago, I was playing with a kitten in my DR. We were having great fun batting around a golf ball until the ball rolled under the DR hutch. I was on my knees at the time, so without thinking at all, I put my face and shoulders down on the floor and reached with my right arm under the hutch to get the ball...couldn't quite reach so i reached in a little further, a little further, stretched a little more, until I grabbed it. Then I went to pull my arm out and it wouldn't budge. I mean it was really wedged.

So here I am, face down on the floor, home alone, DH won't be home for hours with my arm wedged under the hutch and no way to get to a phone or call for help. As I'm laying there trying to assess the situation, I realize my arm is starting to go numb and is starting to swell up. I can't just wait for help. I have to get my arm out before I'm in real trouble. Fortunately at the time, I was young and fairly flexible. So I managed to twist to my side so my knee and shin were up against the front of the hutch for leverage and I pulled...I mean really pulled...and managed to free myself. My arm was all scraped and somewhat bruised, but I was free and I was ok. How scary was that!

What to do next? Why keep playing with the kitten and the ball of course. Would you believe, the ball went under there again, and without thinking, the next thing I knew I was reaching under there again? Fortunately the wiser part of my brain started screaming at me, "Idiot! Do you want to get stuck again?!?!" and I stopped myself in time...and got a yardstick to fetch the ball.

Man! How dumb can you get!

Now that I'm back to teaching I have way less time to post.

A couple years ago in lab I accidentally walked across a moving treadmill belt and took a huge spill in front of the whole class. I got a little bruised, but what took the worst of it was the back of my hand, the way it hit the floor. It swelled up huge, and then I had to go to the OSHA office and get it x-rayed. It did not show a large break that would require surgery, but a hairline fracture does not show up right away on x-ray and they really would not do anything for a hairline anyways. It was also some very lovely shades of purple and yellow.

So, now I am VERY careful whenever a treadmill belt is moving.

Glad you are on the mend, Lynne.

I broke my ankle when I fell off my front door mat. To this day I don't know how anyone can fall half an inch and break an ankle.

Lynne, I did something similar to my neighbor's arm. The window on my car was a bout half way down. He waved so I stopped to say hello. He rested his arm on the car door at the window. I lowered the window to talk more easily and in the process caught the flesh of his arm in the window. Fortunately he yelled and pulled his arm away before any damage was done except a good pinch. I felt so bad.

All these stories have me cringing and gasping!

I have to ask, Gsciencechick, why do you have a treadmill in your lab?

When my son was a 6yo, we were at my mom's house messing around with a golf club in the front yard. I was standing directly behind him when he took a big crazy swing. I knew it was coming and have no idea why I was standing directly in the path of the club.

The club smacked me right on the brow and knocked me out cold. I came to with my mom cradling my head, my son hysterically screaming and blood everywhere. I needed 8 stitches and 20 years later I still have a bald spot in my eyebrow.

Wow...some really great stories ! Lynne I am so glad your arm is healing well. It is amazing how long it takes internally...so even though you can't see it the pain deep inside is considerable for weeks.

I have several but when I read ML's this one came to mind. I had broken my R fibula ( that is another dumb story LOL) and was on crutches with a brand new cast and orders for no weight-bearing. I had to get laundry done so I took the big plastic basket and pushed it around the house with a crutch collecting laundry. I pushed it and hopped all the way back out to the kitchen where I opened the folding doors and proceeded to get the machine ready. I leaned over and loaded the first batch of clothes and started to clothes the folding doors....over-balanced and backed up, tripped and went backwards into the clothes basket ! Thank goodness there were still clothes in there. But I was now stuck in the basket with my crutches thrown over out of reach and my casted leg up in the air. I started yelling for DH. When he finally heard me he came walking out and just stood there with hands on hips looking at me. I can't remember his exact words but they were something like " what the h^&* are you doing ?"...never mind what I answered LOL !

When I was young and a brand new career woman and starting to come into my own, I had to go to the local school to vote. I was in my best navy blue wool pin striped suit with my new pumps on, and wrapped in a mink stole...a gift from MIL...and brand new purse. I thought I looked fabulous! I was so full of myself! Here I am, successful business woman! As I finished voting and strutting my way out of the building, my heel slipped on the newly waxed floor. Down I went, face first, legs splayed, stole flipped up over the top of my head, purse flying. The first thing I did was look to see if anyone saw what an idiot I made of myself....Thank goodness the hall was empty. Managed to get myself back together and soundly learned my lesson.

Pride goeth before a fall!

Lynn glad to here you are doing better.

I got a kick out of reading all the great stories. I am very clutzy and fall alot mostly down stairs when carrying stuff like a carpet cleaner(2 sprained ankles) or a cheesecake (one broken foot) I never seem to hurt the things I carry I suppose I have a save it at all costs protection device built in.

My worst dumbest thing I did was when I was a child we were building a tree fort. But one of the 2x6's was nailed to the tree to high for us to reach. So the brilliant plan was to get a large rock and knock it off the tree so we could nail it back on low enough to reach. Sounds good right ....Not the rock hit the board alright but I never took in to factor the bounce back effect. It hit me square in the forhead and I knocked myself out. Needless to say the board did not come down and we moved on to something new.

Because it's an exercise physiology lab! :)

Not to be confused with the treadmill desk I'd like to have at home if we ever finish this home office.

gsciencechick, you reminded me of another dumb thing I did...and I knew it was dumb at the time, and I did it anyway.

I was downstairs walking on the treadmill and I had a sweatshirt on. I got hot and wanted to take it off, but I didn't want to stop walking, so I convinced myself I could just flip the sweatshirt up over my head and pop it off without stopping...it would only take a second...I know how to walk on a treadmill...what could go wrong?

Yup, the neck of the sweatshirt got caught on my chin so it didn't flip off nicely...instead I was blinded by it, tried to keep walking, lost my balance, fell and went shooting off the back end of the thing. Fortunately all I did was bruise my side on the chair that was behind it. Sheesh!

How dumb can I get! (And I was chairing the safety committee at work at the time! Doh!)

Oh Annie, that last one of yours is so funny . . . it could be right out of a modern day "I Love Lucy" episode! Thanks for sharing it with us. (ROFLMAO!)
Lynn