june 3: bubble wrap day

kind of random but not if you grew up in my household.  on june 3, 1988 (probably before most of you were born) my younger brother fell off a slide a neighbor's house.  he broke his elbow and his wrist.  he was three years old and spent three weeks in the hospital in traction.  i don't even think that people go into traction anymore.  he had a pin through his elbow and he hung by it for three weeks.  i remember a different neighbor pulling my sister and me out of class and taking us to the hospital.  i also remember that it was the night of our grammar school's end of the year ice cream social.  the ice cream social was the best night of the year.  they had a moonwalk.  to be honest, i don't remember how we got there but i'm sure my mom made sure we didn't miss it.  i also remember that june of that summer was really long.  my mom was obviously at the hospital every day and i'm pretty sure every night.  i know i thought that summer was awful for me but i can't even imagine what it was like for her and my dad.  he did a great job with my sister and me.  i remember that i was going to a school sponsored summer school.  i'd done it the summer before and loved it.  that summer, it wasn't so great.  fortunately, my brother recovered and except for a couple of faint scars from the pins, he healed just fine.

quite a few years later on friday, june 3, 2005, i headed north on a friday night with kind of a weird feeling that something wasn't right.  i was heading to visit king louie in milwaukee where he was living at the time.  just over the wisconsin border i was cruising along in the left lane with a semi in the middle lane.  some idiot merged on the highway at a million miles an hour and crossed over two lanes of traffic.  the semi must have blocked the driver's view of me because i was waiting in the left hand lane as he made his merge.  i tried to get out of the way and in the process lost control of my little geo prizm.  i knew the only way that my car was going to stop moving was if i hit something.  and i did.  i hit the median.  i thought my chest exploded and that i got punched in the face.  luckily that was just the air bag.  i did a head to toe check, mostly making sure i still had all my teeth.  all seemed well until i took a look at my left ankle.  no ankle should look like that.  i didn't even bother calling 911.  i figured someone else would have that handled.  i called my mom and i called king louie saying that i wasn't going to make it.  the emergency vehicles came and backboarded me out of my car.  they gave me an oxygen mask and i remember telling an emt that if they didn't take it off of me that i was going to freak out.  i also rode in an ambulance for the first (and hopefully last) time.  i remember a firefighter in training had to take use a stethoscope on me.  i was young at the time and so was he.  i remember telling him that it was okay that he had to go under my shirt to use it correctly.  poor guy.  the emt told me that i might have to have surgery.  i told her that i didn't have time for surgery.  she kind of laughed at me.  i vividly remember going over train tracks.  not fun.

when i got to the hospital i remember that i felt very alone and knew it was going to be a long time before my parents would arrive.  the most beautiful sight i've ever seen was watching king louie burst into the emergency room.  i was so relieved to see a familiar face and he was carrying red roses.  the nurses fell in love with him and my parents did too when they got there.  they took xrays and it was definitely broken.  unfortunately, it was friday night at a small hospital in wisconsin and there was no one to cast me.  actually, they told me that they weren't even sure that they would be able to get me a boot because that door was locked.  king louie said he would beat the door down.  isn't he sweet?  they found me a boot and king louie wheeled me out of the hospital.  i felt so bad as he loaded me in my parent's car and then drove back to milwaukee.

the next day was kind of surreal but sunday was a doozy.  my poor mother hosted a bridal shower and i was quite a shock for the guests with my split lip.  i was hanging in there until the purse game.  as i was looking in my purse i had a wave of nausea hit me and that was the end of that.  i went to the orthopedic on monday.  he took one look at my xrays and me and sent in the orthopedic surgeon.  i had surgery on tuesday.  i was promised a purple cast.  when i came to it was a boring white one.  it was sad.  here's a visual regarding what all was going on:

pretty cool, huh?!  i broke both the stabilizing bones in my ankle and that is why i had the surgery.  i had two screws on the inside of my ankle and a plate and five screws on the outside of my ankle.  there was supposed to be a sixth but there wasn't enough bone to attach it to.  the doctor used the expression 'bone mush'.  nasty.

while i could write forever on my recovery, here are some highlights:

• i started punctuating the night i stayed over in the hospital
• the morning i woke up alone in the hospital was the only time i cried
• my sister was supposed to have the summer of her life before she started her first grownup job.  i don't think she's forgiven me.
• my mom had to wash my hair in the sink
• i had to drop out of the july bar exam
• i had a handicapped parking spot
• i was recasted.  the second cast was purple.
• i went to a family wedding in minneapolis and spent it in a wheelchair
• i had a cane
• i went to physical therapy
• king louie visited me every weekend
• i had the plate and screws removed because they were pressing on nerves and were painful
• i sued the other driver.  thanks for the down payment on my house, jacka$$
• here the scar on the outside of my ankle today:

i took this at a weird angle

i apologize for not warning you to wrap yourself in bubble wrap yesterday.  i figure if you're reading this you survived june 3rd unscathed without bubble wrap.  my hat goes off to you.

~poptart yogini~