What Does a Fracture Feel Like?

June 15, 2023

One minute you are busy running around the kitchen getting dinner together and the next, you turn suddenly and trip over your dog that you didn’t see laying on the floor. As you pick yourself up off the floor, you feel a searing pain in your wrist. Is it broken or just sprained?

Getting hurt can be a scary experience no matter how it happens, but that’s why we are here! Our team can diagnose and treat a wide variety of injuries, including broken bones.

Our AFC Urgent Care Ballantyne team utilizes our state-of-the-art digital X-ray technology to help diagnose you, and we explain more about our X-ray process below.

How Common Are Fractures?

Your bones are naturally built to help support your everyday movements and they do a good job at protecting your vital organs. They are strong enough to withstand daily impacts and are actually flexible to help absorb some of the energy of mild falls and other accidents.

However, your bones are not invincible and can crack or break under the right pressure. Millions of people experience fractures every year, so it is a relatively common injury to experience. Fully broken bones often show some sort of physical deformity, but fractures can be a little trickier. If you are in significant pain, the injury site is swollen and tender to touch or movement, come see us for a digital X-ray.

Common Fracture Sites

Wrists
Ankles
Hips
Clavicle (collarbone)

What Does an X-ray Feel Like?

We know that it can be scary to be seen for an injury, but we have your back. After a quick visual exam and health history, we can take you back for a digital X-ray. X-rays don’t hurt, so don’t worry! It is just an image that we take that helps us see the internal structure of your body.

Our digital X-ray machine is hooked up to a computer and uploads the image we take onto the screen versus being printed onto film. This allows us a clearer and more precise image that we can manipulate and blow up so we can get a closer look at the injury site. If we do see a fracture, we can discuss proper treatment and the healing timeline together.