Broken Nose

A blow, a fall, a collision — and suddenly there is that stabbing pain right in the middle of your face. Blood runs. The nose swells, discolours, loses its shape. Breathing becomes tight, your eyes water reflexively, and as you're still grasping what just happened, you notice: something about you has been broken. Not somewhere on the body — at the very front point of your face, the place with which you meet the world first.

Medically, a broken nose is a fracture of the nasal bone or the cartilaginous part of the nose — usually from direct trauma: an accident, a fall, a push, a blow. The body responds with swelling, bruising, sometimes a visible deformity. The wound heals in a few weeks. What often takes longer is what lies beneath — the shock that doesn't stop at the bone.