well, scratch "broken a bone" from my "never have i ever" arsenal...

womp womp

my glorious return to my blog is predicated upon a rather unfortunate incident that took place yesterday afternoon on a quiet tree-lined street in wrigleyville. i was on mile 3 of a run with the boy when he asked me, "what is the most romantic thing that you can think of?" i furrowed my brow and thought deep and hard. and then i tripped and lost my balance.

in a decidedly unromantic effort to upend the gravitational forces pulling me towards the pavement, i more or less threw the weight of my entire existence on my left hand, which smacked into an iron railing/fence - hard. i caught myself and managed to straighten out but my hand was not having a good time. at all. it quickly swelled and after a few minutes, i found that i had a limited range of motion with a few fingers. i was still in shock - tripping is always so disorienting - and was alternating between laughing at my absurd clumsiness (who trips over air?) and holding back tears. in middle school someone told me that if you laugh and cry at the same time, you grow white hairs on your butt. i guess that happened then.

anyhoo, i walked it off with the boy, who was very supportive. we decided to stop by his brother(an orthopedic surgeon)'s place and have him check it out. by this time the immediate sharp pain had dissipated. there was still a dull ache and it was painful to flex my fingers but on the whole after the shock had worn off, i felt okay again - just with a gimpy left hand.

the boy's brother examined it and recommended i get it x-rayed. i decided to wait a day - after all, didn't real broken bones render people thrashing on the ground in crippling pain? that's what i'd always thought, anyway. after a thoroughly normal evening and next morning (which consisted of more running, painting, eating out, cooking in, showering, playing with Thundercat, and all around the same stuff i usually do) i thought it was probably time to get it x-rayed just to be safe. the boy and i walked on over to the ER at illinois masonic. lucky for me, it wad a slow day in the ER and i was seen almost immediately. the x-rays showed that i had a metacarpal fracture on the bone of my left ring finger. (i have the x-rays on a dvd, but my macbook air doesn't have a dvd drive! #firstworldproblems) the bone was not displaced, meaning that it was still lined up/that i wouldn't need surgery - whew - but i had to have the finger stabilized nonetheless. i couldn't believe that such a tiny crack called for a splint like this - it felt absurd to have my whole wrist and forearm swaddled - but i will see a hand specialist in the next few days and can hopefully soon downgrade to something less dramatic.

i should also add that i am no stranger to falling whilst running. in high school i tripped over an elevated sidewalk square and had to run home with bloody cut up knees. a few months ago i tripped while talking about spicy chicken jambalaya (i know...) on a run and smashed my phone's screen. this time it was an actual bone that i broke! all three times i think my ego was hurt more than anything else though.

all in all, i count myself lucky. lucky that i had the boy with me for support, that his brother happened to be an ortho resident, that i wasn't in much pain, that there was a short wait at the ER, that my fracture wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been, that it was on my left hand, and that my insurance covered the bill.

i guess the one thing i will complain about is typing with one hand - it's a ton of work and i feel exhausted from typing this! i better go ruminate over some badass reasons as to why i am wearing a sling in anticipation of questions from curious coworkers tomorrow. can't decide between i wrestled a shark and i punched my own rock-hard abs too hard.

i have three arms, bitches.