From experience, I'd say a break can be almost painless - the only time I've ever been a customer of the Ambulance Service was a couple of years ago when I slipped on the stairs at home, only three steps from the bottom, landed a bit awkwardly and thought I'd sprained my ankle, so I hobbled to the front room and took my boot off to inspect the damage. This was when I noticed my foot shouldn't have been at that angle, and called 999 on my mobile. Then the realisation of "how was the ambulance crew going to get in?" so I crawleed to the front door and found the major problem was that following a burglary ten years earlier I was in the habit of shutting a bolt near the top of the door -- trying to reach that was the only time in the whole experience that I was in pain. It's not easy trying to reach a bolt nearly 6' up when you've got a broken leg! Then back to the bottom of the stairs to await the arrival of the paramedic (round here they don't send an ambulance round in cases like this until it's confirmed that it's needed). I don't bolt the door any more, I'd rather be burgled than go through that again! Anyway, thanks to not having had any breakfast that morning, about four hours later I was in theatre getting a plate, seven bolts and a couple of pins put in to reattach the bottom of my right tibia and fibula, which had broken just above the ankle, followed by a week experiencing the (very good) hospitality of Leighton Hospital, Crewe (even if one of their nurses was subsequently jailed for sending several patients she considered to be "bed blockers" to meet their Maker). I can honestly say that apart from the episode opening my front door, I didn't experience any pain at all.