Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Wrists are precious

The title is the moral of the story. I believe in starting with the moral.

We went to our big Hoyt reunion in Texas. When we have our reunions in Texas, we usually hang out at the big church gym. When we hang out at the gym, we do fun things like line tag and dancing and volleyball and relay races. It was Monday morning, first official day of the reunion, high time for relay races.

Relays - not just for running! We usually run the first one just to warm up. Then it's hopping, skipping, chicken walk, bear crawl, crab walk, leapfrog -- any momentum movement you can imagine, we do. You always get lots of laughs and great pictures and find all kinds of new muscles to be sore.

Well, we got through all the relays and the very last one was running again. Our teams were pretty closely matched (about 15 cousins on each side). So I gave it my all for my team! I sprinted down the track and tore back as fast as I could. We had been clearing the wall for incoming runners, so I figured, "Hey, I'm not slowing down, I'm gonna hit that wall running". The only problems with this plan: 1) the wall was 3 feet from the end of the track; 2) I didn't take physics. Mad dash! - throw out hands with wrists at 90 degree angles - SMACK. OUCH.

Thankfully, the left wrist was severely injured but the right only mildly sprained. Useable enough to get through the week. It was a very restful week. Did still manage to play Hunt the Gray Wolf and dance a little with my gentle cousins. Drove home - very proud of that.

In Texas the clinic x-rayed and said it was a possible fracture, treat it like one. I was hoping for closure in Indiana, homeland of orthopaedic doctors, but no such luck. But they did assure me I couldn't move the bone or break it worse (I guess barring throwing myself down on cement). So instead of a cast I opted for this nifty black splint. It's so much fun to wear that it's almost worth everything endured up to this point. You should get one and try it! But don't mess with your wrists to do it, please. Wrists are precious. You have no idea until you lose them.