OUCH!

If there is one thing I can say about my wife.. she doesn't like to do things halfway. If she is going to do something.. by golly, she is going to do it right. And this last weekend, she proved it.. the poor girl.

Friday morning, I casually (and sleepily) walked onto an airplane in Minneapolis, to take a long flight to Portland. While I was somewhere over Montana, my wife was just getting ready for the day. Having taken Little Calvin to school earlier, she was showering prior to picking him up and heading to the airport to pick me up. She stepped out of the shower to dry off, took a step onto the bathroom linoleum floor, and for some reason, felt both of her legs slipping out from under her on the wet floor. Down she went.. backwards. Instinct took over and she threw her left arm behind her to brace her fall. As she fell backwards, she looked down at her bracing hand, just in time to see her wrist snap and break as she hit the floor. Immediately she knew she had just broken her wrist.. and needed help.

Now, nothing against my wife, but when things don't go her way, she can get angry. And in this case, that sense of anger is what really helped her. She was angry that she could tell she just sustained a major injury, and as spring break was just beginning with lots of family plans coming up, as well as work demands, this was NOT the time for a major injury! But her anger helped her work her way out of the bathroom, to get dressed and call a friend to help get her to a doctors office, all while having her left hand lying uselessly on the bed. It was this drive that kept her mind thinking clearly, to use her first aid skills (she teaches first aid classes) to teach her friend how to make a splint out of magazines (while carefully sorting out the ones that she thought I may still be reading), and bandage herself up to get some medical attention.

By the time I got off the plane, my cell phone was ringing to tell me what was going on, that she wouldn't be picking me up at the airport, and that I need to get to the hospital ASAP. She had already been to the doctors, taken X-rays, and was then immediately sent to the ER for treatment. Every doctor that looked at her wrist, could immediately tell it was broken, as it was disfigured significantly. Luckily, the bone was not coming out, but it was tweaked enough to give people the shivers.

Soon after landing in Eugene, I got my car, and headed to the hospital. By the time I got there, the doctors had just finished setting the bone. She was (luckily) out cold, with her hand hanging from a raised hook, with her fingers stuck in some medieval looking torture device. With her fingers locked in place, the doctor could pull down on her arm to pop everything back where it should be. According to the Dr. it took all his strength to pull it all out, but as seen in the x-rays, he did a perfect job. While I was glad to be a the hospital with her, part of me wasn't upset that I missed that procedure.

After more x-rays, a cat scan, and a LOT of morphine (for her)... we finally left the hospital. And for the rest of the weekend she got to deal with a large cast almost up to her shoulder, being unable to move much, and in a great deal of pain.

Fast forward to today (Tuesday). Right now she is finishing up in surgery. The doctor just handed me the groovy X-ray of the plate that now supports her wrist bone, nicely screwed in place on the operating table with 8 screws (Click image below for larger view).

Her full arm cast will be replaced with a half arm brace that she will wear for the next few weeks. Sure, the next few days will have some painful recovery for her, but she soon should be back to normal. And who knows.. with that kind of hardware in her arm, she could become all powerful on the volleyball court next year. I am struggling to remove Star Wars references from my head ("She more machine now than.." wait.. never mind). But so far so good in the recovery process.

But, everyone who sees the original x-rays and her original injury can all agree.. she did a REAL good job in breaking this bone!! My dad would be proud.. There was no "Half-Assing" here!