Saturday, August 19, 2006

Busted

This may slow me down a little folks. Yesterday evening I'm quite sure I broke the top segment of my left index finger.

I was rough-housing with my three-year old son, and he jumped up to run in the other room. His first step (and he's got an explosive first step, I see Notre Dame in his future) was right on my hand. The audible crack and the enormous swelling remind me of when I fractured the same segment of my right middle finger saluting Bill Clinton.

Nah, I got it caught in someone's shirt playing flag football. But Clinton-induced fatigue might have had something to do with it. Repetitive motion injuries, you know.

Anyway, the odd angle will be my left index's mark forever more. Funny how much you use a thing like your left index finger and don't even realize it until it hurts to do so.

DISCLAIMER: If you've got a weak stomach for reading about injuries stop here.

But this finger deal isn't that bad compared to an injury I had probably seven years ago...

I was in the gym, and was sitting on a flat bench getting ready to do a set of dumbbell flys. I had the weights resting on my thighs, leaning against each other, and decided I'd let go with my left hand to adjust my portable CD player. As you might have guessed by now, I became unbalanced, and the left weight slid down and smashed my right thumb between the handle of the right weight and the cast iron part of the left weight. Basically, I took a 60 pound piece of iron and a solid steel handle, and made a right thumb sandwich out of those.

I immediately put the weights back and returned to my apartment (I was living high-rise style, before kids came along). By this point, I'm bleeding more than a little, and it feels like my whole hand was throbbing. Which is how it felt for three days - nothing was able to chase that pain away. Of course I lost the nail, but it grew back nicely. Point is, imagine being right handed and not being able to use your right hand because the thumb has been tenderized. I struggled for a few days with that.

OK, enough injury stories for now. Unless you've got a good one, in which case, let 'er fly as my buddy Webster might say.

7 comments:

Mr. Light Bulb said...

Kids can be dangerous, financially, emotionally, and physically. Sounds like its time to start spreading the blogging-load to your partners while you take a healing respite.

Anonymous said...

They don't tell you about the child induced injuries when you're thinking about having one. My son cracked one of my molars clean through as well as damaging 3 other teeth when he was 18 mos.n old. Both the dentist and the oral surgeon told me about how their children had broken/bloodied their noses at about the same age. I wish you a speedy recovery.

Anonymous said...

To borrow from His Excellency, "Good God, Man!" I'm looking foward probably a year or two to possibly starting a family of my own (that's right, ladies and gentlemen, the spectre of Samuel multiplying on the face of the Earth is on the dark horizon), and now you're telling me they are hazardous to my immediate health and well-being?

Samuel

P.S. I stand busted for not being more forthcoming or otherwise carrying my share of the burthen, a shortcoming that I intend to remedy.

Michael Tams said...

Samuel,

As I am a devout lover of Liberty, you should know that your contributions here are of course at your pleasure! I wouldn't dream of making this feel like homework. I find that blogging is becoming a good habit for me personally, and I'm always interested in cultivating good habits and curtailing bad ones.

-AH

Anonymous said...

One day in 5th grade art class, I broke my little finger right above the "punching knuckle." It stuck out at an odd angle and the teacher sent me to the office. On the way I met my shop teacher in the hall, and he said it looked like it was dislocated, and offered to fix it for me. He took hold of my finger and gave it a yank. I'm surprised it didn't come right off. I'm even more surprised my hollering didn't shatter windows.

Doesn't "hollering" sound much more manly than "screaming?"

Anonymous said...

Mr. Adams,
Show some courage man, child rearing is the biggest and best challenge there is in this life. Surely a few broken bones and bloodied noses aren't enough to discourage a true patriot such as yourself.

:)

"Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body."
~Elizabeth Stone~

Michael Tams said...

First, Mom, that's a great quote and it really says it all. Second, ol' Shep, that's a hilarious story.

And yes, hollering certainly has a more manly ring to it, LOL.