During my 20 years on this earth I’ve broken exactly 2 bones. Of which, both have been within the past three years. The first bone I ever broke was my right wrist and the second bone, my left elbow.
1. Right Wrist – 3/5 stars
This injury occurred in late April 2019. My dad and I went and hit the slopes. I personally seemed to take that literally. While snowboarding, I hit a small pile of snow and proceeded to meet the ground at whatever velocity I was going down the hill, stopping myself with my right arm. And as I am processing the series of events that have occurred in my pain, I make eye contact with this ski group who proceeded to ski away from my figure lying on the ground.
3 hours later, after some more skiing by my dad, I went to urgent care where I then proceeded to minorly contradict the doctor’s assessment of my wrist in fact being broken. Not only did I break my wrist, I broke it the week before my senior prom, so I became a flight risk to all my peers.
Can we talk about this in terms of my experience with my broken wrist is that because it was my right arm, I can say I wasn’t really affected. It was still highly annoying, you know, not being able to get my arm wet. It’s like a throbbing in my wrist that occurs even now every now and then. This reading of this being a 3 out of 5 is because obviously no broken bone experience will ever be a 5 out of 5 stars, but you know, it could have definitely been so much worse. The overarching Lee explained that the break was relatively painless aside from the initial impact, and you know what, it could have been worse. Some of it also gives it 3 out of 5 stars because I am still in almost full control of my entire arm.
2. Left Elbow – 1.2/5 stars
This most recent injury of mine actually occurred this past Memorial Day weekend. This unfortunate fact means that the wound is still fresh and the annoyance and pain are still present. This time, it was another speed accident. However, I was roller skating and instead of pitching forward I fell backwards and broke my elbow. Now, you might be wondering how you can compare two very different injuries, simply because I can.
The thing that makes this particular injury worse is that it is my dominant hand and thus I am prevented from doing a lot of things that I would normally be able to do. This injury isn’t in a cast so, the amount of damage I continue to inflict on it is a lot higher than if it was protected by a ton of plaster, you know. I think, to say the least, the elbow is kind of the worst place to get injured on your arm because you can’t lean on your arm at all, you can’t really move your forearm too much. The bones in your forearm are connected to both your wrist and your elbow, moving your wrist aggravates your elbow, putting you in new pain situations.
I think that I don’t consider my right wrist to have been as much of a bother because it wasn’t my dominant arm. It could also be the fact that I am jaded after being recovered for over three years, but no one wants to go through pain. I think also the timing of this particular injury is especially sinister with move out and finals looming ahead. Overall all I can do right now is take a ton of Tylenol and when I remember, ice it.
What I want you to take from this article is simply this lesson: if you are roller skating or snowboarding, don’t use your arms to break otherwise you might end up like me. This could also be my sign to start taking calcium supplements to strengthen my bones. I wish you good bones and good health. Have a great summer.