Times like these

My basketball team is playing our third game of the season, and we are finally getting some real opponents. The first two teams we played were dismissed with ease and to be completely honest, it wasn't really much fun. The starting five take the floor(6-man team) and I opt to sit until the first time out so that I can finish the half when we'll need the rebounds. 6 minutes go by and my team calls our first time out. We're down 5 points to a team of former college players but we're sticking close with aggressive defense and all out hustling.

I jump on the court and immediately the tide turns our way. My man (person I am defending) was a little over 6 foot and had a 5'10" guarding him previously. His first few shots are lobbed high and inaccurately towards the hoop. With a few clutch rebounds we are back in the game and up by 3 points. After a quick score on our side I begin to run down court with my man. Suddenly he starts to sprint as I look up and see his teammate throw a bomb down the court and seemingly over my head. While still running backwards, I launch myself into the air and just barely get a finger on the ball. It was just enough to tip the ball out of bounds and stop the clock. after making contact with the ball I feel a sudden movement of my body upwards again. I had expected myself to fall and yet, for a moment, I floated.

In reality I had landed my ass on my man's shoulder. He knelt towards the ground as my heavy frame landed on him, and just as quickly, slid off of him. I saw the ceiling above me next, then it was just black. I didn't get knocked out but I sure as shit closed my eyes as the ceiling turned into the floor and I landed with a ferocious BOOM!

The few fans in the stands let out a painful 'ooooooh' as the whistle blew. My man lent out his hand and said "Nice hustle" as he helped me off the ground. My team congratulated me as I shook off the impact to my left arm. I stayed in the game until halftime and spent those 5 minutes dribbling a ball and squeezing it, trying anything I could to get the soreness in the back of my mind. I continued to play the rest of the game, primarily with one hand as it would hurt to shoot or catch a pass with my left hand.

As the game ended the pain began to intensify, I had most certainly sprained the bastard and couldn't wait to get some ice on it. My friend drove me in my car on the way home as he lives nearby. I walked into the apartment to see Kelly at the computer. Her first words, "Its broken isn't it?" i shrugged off the ridiculous assumption and asked her for a bag of ice. She grabbed the ice and walked me to the couch as I rested for a couple of hours before retreating to bed.

January 10, 2007

Around 3:00 am I am suddenly awakened by a terrible noise, my own bitching. The wrist had really started to hurt more and I was not enjoiing the pain. I threw on some sweats and convinced Kelly to stay in bed while I ran to get some X-Rays real quick.

After watching a doctor take the temperature of an anorexic amputee in his ass, my doctor arrived with the escort for the X-ray. I knew exactly the three views of the bone they were looking for as I broke my right arm only 5 years ago. After another short intermission of waiting and counting the minutes, my doctor returned with glorious news. "It's not broken on the X-Ray, but I think it's broken."

The doctor walked me away from the others and called on the assistance of another female doctor passing by. The two continued to walk with me until they found a dark and unoccupied corner of the hospital. One doctor grabbed a chair for me while the other began digging out the ace bandages and splint materials. The young doctor held my left arm upwards so the other could wrap me up nicely. With no warning at all the primary doctor grabbed my hand and bent it backwards as she placed the splint in place. She held my hand in that position as the other doctor held down my shoulders. At this point I was in more pain than I ever expected and the two doctors were coaching me on my breathing and repeating this phrase, "I knew it was broken."

The doctors handed me a pill of percoset and told me to call for a ride. Since Kelly was sleeping I didn't want to bother her and so I faked the phone call and rushed home as the dizziness settled in and knocked me out.

January 11, 2007

The orthopedist concurred that I broke a bone, the scaphoid. He then proceeded to put a full arm cast on me and even locked the thumb in place. As I left the office I could feel the weight of the HUGE cast bearing down on my shoulders. I still thought I had control of my arm as I often attempted to do things like scratch my face or cover my mouth during a cough.

As the weeks passed, I continued to fight the broken bone theory as I felt fine. A week later I am sitting in an operating room getting a screw drilled into my bone so the bone can heal properly. Now I sit here slowly working my fingers, but not my thumb, and praying that this new cast will be taken off tomorrow, February 9, 2007. At this point I still can't believe how quickly time has passed since I broke my wrist; but I'm certainly not complaining. I am still typing with one hand, but every now and then I throw in a finger from the other hand to assist me and get my thoughts out quicker. I'd have to say that the broken hand may have been the best thing for me at the time. Seeing as how I could no longer type as fast as I thought, I was forced to spend more time thinking and rethinking as I pecked out my sentences, one key at a time.

With all of this time to think I have come to a couple very important conclusions. The first being my living situation. Long Island is simply too expensive and not realistic. I took this opportunity to bring this to Kelly's attention and now we are discussing alternative places to live. With this new thought came thoughts of work. No longer should I be focusing on jobs at CA or Symbol as I am now looking to remove myself from that area. The end result is the possibility of a return to my first company, RWD Technologies. Now that would be a change!