Much to the surprise of many people, there is a dodgeball league here in town. I’ve been playing the last few years, and although I don’t throw strong, I can usually be counted on for a game changing catch.
Until two weeks ago…
We were playing against a fairly agressive team with some great throwers. It was the second game of the night. I wanted to see if I could shake the confidence of one of their top throwers by catching a ball even though we had no teammates off yet (usually the advantage to catching is that the thrower goes out plus you get an out teammate on). I saw my opportunity, I went in for the high speed catch… and…
The ball had a bit of spin to it and although I usually follow it in to my torso the ball went off to the side a bit and I caught it in my fingers. My right hand immediately crumpled and I let the ball fall to the floor. This wasn’t the usual jammed finger, infact although the contact was with my fingers I could feel the pain in my hand.
I sat through the rest of the game, with only a small detour to go stick my hand in a snowbank (this however didn’t happen because we play in a elementary school in the evening and a janitor spotted me clutching my hand and offered me some ice from the teacher’s lounge). I drove myself home after. Then, after some contemplation I decided to go to the hospital, with a stop for a large tea first because I assumed I would be there for a while.
The wait wasn’t as bad as I thought. I was in and out within two hours. I got a kick out of the x-ray guy fast asleep in the x-ray room. Night time healthcare is awesome. The x-rays showed a fracture just below my ring finger knuckle. They splinted me up, told me to come back in 10 days, and sent me on my way.

hand spint = arm splint
The good news is that I have a lot of free time now. No more dodgeball, had to cancel out of my wednesday night fitness class (I am not ready for one-arm pushups yet), no snowboarding for a while, and the worst part… I’ve had to drop out of my band for a while. I am not skilled enough to play the trumpet with 2 fingers. The bad news is that with one hand it’s hard to capitalize on having lots of free time.
I think the worst part is explaining to people that I hurt myself playing dodgeball. One person asked me if I was a teacher. heh.
I am also paranoid now that I haven’t been drinking enough milk.
I went for my 10 day check-up, things are looking good and healing up. Should only be two more weeks in a smaller hand splint. The doctor advised me to try to avoid falling on my hand and punching anyone. Seems like sound advice.