Broken

"You're lucky," said the doctor. "It was a good, clean break."

"Sometimes part of the bone tries to hold on and then you get fracturing or splintering instead. When this happens it's a lot messier because the bone has to heal back around the part of the bone that won't let go, and because of that the bone doesn't always grow back straight.

Yours was a good, clean break through, so the bone split neatly into two separate pieces. This is good because it means that I can reset the bone from scratch and it has a greater likelihood of being able to grow back straight. Given the nature of the break, I'd guess it'll take about 6 weeks to heal. Take it easy during this time, but after that we'll take the cast off and you should be totally healed. No one will ever even be able to tell. It was a good, clean break, you're lucky."


Yes. I thought. I am lucky. It could have been a lot worse. But it's still broken. And it doesn't know how to heal itself, it's never been broken before. What if it doesn't grow back straight? What if it grows back crooked and the rest of my life I have to bear this visible scar of the break?

I know that broken bones are not uncommon, and that bones are really resilient. People break them all the time and most of the time they grow back straight again without any problems. It takes time, but eventually you can't even tell that it was ever broken.

I know all this. I know I should be fine. But this was no ordinary bone. And the prescribed healing time is over, but I'm not sure I'm ready to take the cast off . . .