Alex Reed

Broken Thumb

I sat in the car dreading the impending boredom of one of man’s most feared tasks… clothes shopping. I was burdened with the task because I needed new clothes. We went to Valley View Mall and entered Old Navy, I still shudder at the name. The soft stench of fabric and the 2002 pop music playing in the background was almost more than I could handle. I quickly picked out multiple pairs of shorts and a few T-Shirts and ran to the changing to try them on. Everything fit so I went back to my mom. Of course she and my sister had found nothing they liked so we had to go to another store. Two stores later I find a seat that is slightly off center and decided rock on it. My mom saw me and said “Get off of there, you will fall and hurt yourself.” I got off and a few minutes later they found something the liked. They went to the changing room to try it on.

            I sat outside of the changing room for what felt like an eternity then got a “brilliant” idea. “Since Mom is changing, there is no one to stop me from rocking on the stool.” So I ran over and got the stool brought it out and put it outside of the changing room. I started rocking and decided how far back and forth I could rock before I fell. It turns out it was not that far. This stool was three feet tall so I fell pretty far. I slammed against the floor and tried to catch myself. I was too close to the wall and my right thumb slammed against it. It stared hurting instantly and I thought I just stoved it. I paced around the store clenching my thumb waiting for my mom to finish trying on her clothes. When she finally emerged I told he I tripped over a clothing rack, (I could not let her know she was right about the stool or I would never hear the end of it) and said I stoved it pretty badly.

            The next day nothing had improved with my finger making every day acts a challenge. Everything was much harder because my right hand was my dominant hand, and an opposable thumb is the only thing separating me from the less advanced animals. My handwriting was even worse than before (I didn’t know it was possible either) and I tried using my left hand to write but that just wasn’t happening. I eventually found a way to hold a pencil in my right hand and stabilize it with my left hand. One day later my thumb had sickly green bruises and I decide to see the school nurse. She took one look at it and said I should get X-rays.

The next morning my dad took me to the family doctor to get it checked out. We sat in the waiting room for a few minutes and got called up. The doctor probed my hand for a bit and said I should go see a Radiologist. We were sent to another doctors’ office and had to wait even longer. The Radiologist called me into a big hallway where, you guessed it, I waited some more. I was then escorted into a small room with a huge device hung from the ceiling over a table. The room smelled like some type of antibacterial spray, and was slightly nauseating. I at first thought I had to get on the table but the nurse pulled up a chair. She had me put my hand into multiple positions and took an X-ray of each one. We went into another room to get them analyzed. She said that the Radiologist would have to look at them because she couldn’t see anything.

I was sent back to school where it was already third block. When I got to fourth block we had a test but Mrs. Munsey said I didn’t have to finish if I had broken my thumb. Halfway through the test the room got a phone call. She listened to it then looked at me she didn’t say anything just frowned and nodded at me. I packed up my stuff and went to the office. My dad was waiting for me and we drove to yet another doctors’ office. As we were waiting we saw someone with multiple pins sticking from his right thumb. My dad said “That’s what they’re going to do to you.” I rolled my eyes and asked the man what happened. He said he was a construction worker and a beam fell onto his thumb. There were multiple fractures and the pins were the only thing that kept his bones in place.

The doctor called us in and said that I indeed had fractured my thumb. I was so surprised, yet kind of excited, “My first broken bone!” I thought “Cool!” He also said that I hade to wear a cast for two months. Those words were like a bullet. I was shocked and dreaded the next few months. Luckely he wasn’t done. He contuned that it would onlty be a soft cast and I could take it off to shower and everything. I was wearing my superman shirt that I had gotten on the shopping trip. As we left the building I was wearing my cast and a man said something that brightend my spirits for the rest of the day. “Hey Superman! Get hit with some Kyrptonite?” I laughed and hastely agreed with him.

I got in the car and my dad drove me home. The next few months were very annoying because of my Typing and Engish classes but I got through them. I was afraid that because of my injury I would not be allowed to praticipate in the Eighth Grade Field Day. Luckly the teachers ignored it and I was able to do everything field day had to offer. I took the cast off a week before I was offically allowed to but my parents didn’t mind. About a month later I told my parents what really happened. My mom was mad but my dad just laughed.