Great Moments in My Personal History: Episode 1

An Old Football Injury
My senior year in high school, I was throwing around a football at lunchtime. I was attempting to catch the football when my pinky finger on my right hand pushed into the football, instead of going around it. I heard a snap and looked down. The top part of my pinky was bent at a 90 degree angle and I couldn't straighten it without using my other hand. It was weird that it didn't really hurt.

I walked down to the nurses' office and they told me that I needed to got to the hospital to get an x-ray. I called my dad to see if he would take me. As I was talking to him, I kept staring at my finger, wondering why it didn't hurt. I began to feel light-headed....

They next thing I know, two nurses are standing over me, yelling, "Cough! Breathe!" I had fainted. I asked for an explanation, and they said that I should be in a lot of pain but my brain was blocking it out and looking at the finger confused my brain, so I passed out. Their advice was stop looking at the finger.

When my dad came, I was forced to leave the school in a wheelchair, as the nurses did not want me walking anywhere. It was still lunchtime so lots of people were eating outside as I was pushed out to the car. It was thoroughly embarrassing.

At the hospital, they said I had torn a tendon, and that my finger needed to be in a splint for 2 months. It healed kind of crooked, but not noticibly so.

Moral of the Story: Fainting makes anything more embarrassing.