I just bought a durable phone from the start, that way I didn't have to worry about it.

Verizon has two awesome phones made for taking abuse, the G'zOne Type-V and Type-S.

Here's a review of the bigger one:

http://reviews.cnet.com/cell-phones/utstarcom-g-zone-type/4505-6454_7-32126761.html?tag=also


Both are great, as far as cell phones go they're very hard to kill.