Week #51 (Unexpected Part II): Taking it one step at a time.

So much for snowboarding! My wife mentioned that "I might be getting a little too old for this stuff"! Driving home that night, my left leg hurt like heck and I could not move it. Maybe she was right. After leaving the ski hill around 11:00 at night, my brother and I decided the ER was the place to go. We arrived at this deserted place in the underground parking lot. Only a few cars were in the lot. My brother got out to speak to the admissions area, while I waited in the car. He hurled an unmanned wheel chair across the parking lot for me. I hobbled to retrieve this before it hit one of the few cars in the lot. I saw the trajectory and limped forward to stop this racing beast, yet only managed to slow it down before it hit someone else's car. The nurse looked at my brother in disbelief. We entered and my brother noticed the nighttime ER nurse (who happens to be the wife of his best friend) and his comments become unleashed. They ask us to check in. He says ,"I'll do it for him." Question: What's your brother's last name? He speaks loudly: ASS! Then they ask, Well, then what is his first name? He answers: DUMB!! I still don't know how he came up with that one so quickly. I was cringing as usual. I had a few xrays and many discussions with the late night ER crew. They are all great people and treated me decently (which is saying a lot with the peanut gallery I came in with).

Next day, I am on crutches for the first time. I pick up my daughter at church and someone jokes, " Hey, Let the cripples go first!" You definitely get a lot of looks with the crutches, yet I discovered most people are very nice and open doors or hold elevators for you. My son sweetly said to me yesterday, " Dad, I don't want to be mean or something, but with that cane thing ... you look really, really old." Gotta love kids. They speak the truth.

P.S. My wife and colleague Jackie at work told me on Wednesday before I headed to the ski hill, that I better not come home on crutches the next day. Well, sorry I did. Lesson learned. :(

P.S. Don't take Vicodin on an empty stomach and go to work.