I was out this past Saturday attempting to be healthy as I rode my bike the quick six miles over to the temple to help with some of the landscaping. As I was riding along on that beautiful sun-shiny morning, this land fish came sailing right out of this guy's yard and onto the sidewalk. With no time to stop or swerve I slammed into the air grouper and sailed over the handle bars doing a double flip and not quite landing on my feet.
OK. I was riding my bike, dinking with a head phone that was making its escape from my ear when I realized that I was going too fast. With only one hand on the handle bars I grabbed for brakes, which ended up to be "brake" and faster than you could say, "Hit the road, mister!" I was hitting the road.But it was a beautiful sun-shiny day.
Needless to say, my pride was severely bruised. I hopped up, hooked a leg back over the bike and continued onward.Six miles on the bike, two hours of working at the temple, eight miles by bike to the church building to help clean for an hour, then two miles home just in time to go to Dad's 80th birthday party. Finally I settled down to relax for awhile and the hand began to ache some. And it began to swell some. I said, "I'll give it a few days and if it is not getting better by Monday then I will call the doctor."
Monday came and it was not looking good. So I called the Doc on Monday and got in to see them on Tuesday morning. They sent me over for x-rays on Tuesday afternoon. Then they sent me to be casted on Wednesday morning.
The choice of cast was tough. Should I get neon orange to go with the computer bag so that I can get into work incognito or shall I be a little more flamboyant? I got a high-lighter green one. I think there is a need for more attention - at least my wife says I am attention deficit.At central casting they scheduled me for an MRI. Isn't that one of those meals that the Army guys have to eat? That takes place this Saturday morning as in tomorrow.
Wednesday I go back to see the casting doctor to see if the broken stuff is all staying where it is supposed to. It was something called the Distle Radius or some such thing. As far as I can tell, it is the bone that supports the thumb structure. Oh, yes - and I really scraped up my leg, too. In fact, between the two, the leg hurts way more than the broken wrist does.So they put this cast on me enclosing my thumb so that the bone won't move. But of course they do it in such a way that I can relate to my two cats (who do not have opposing thumbs). This inability to make my thumb useful has made me aware of the great draw backs of not having thumbs.
One of the most difficult things to do with no thumbs is to zip up my zipper. So if you happen to see me with my flag at half mast, just understand that I tried but probably either wore myself out trying or just plain ran out of time before needing to be somewhere.
And being a mildly artistic person (or so I humor myself) It was not long before my cast received it's first piece of body art.Since the doctor was kind enough to leave me in an eternal hitchhiker's pose, I figured that it was only appropriate to decorate my new appendage with the symbol of one who travels the galaxy with towel in tow.
Thumbs up, everyone. Thumbs up and out!
