Have you ever broken a bone?

Well, yes and no. If a fracture counts, then yes.

When I was younger, stationed in San Antonio, my friend was trying to teach me how to drive. Somehow or another, I slammed the car door on my thumb. My right thumb. I’m right handed. Anyway, I suffered in pain all night, then the next morning she suggested I go to the ER. Well, by that time they couldn’t drain the blood under my nail, but they tried and that hurt like hell.

They took an ex-ray and sure enough it was fractured. They couldn’t do much, it’s a thumb. So they put the metal splint on it. This was unfortunate, because I was going through lab tech school and had to handle trays of glass tubes as part of my finals. I had to learn to do stuff with my left hand. Yeah, it was a party.

Much later, during one of my episodes of knee dislocations, I fractured my kneecap. My knees have been a life-long thorn in my side. I don’t remember much about this one.

More recently, about five or six years ago, I broke my ankle. I stepped on a dog toy in the darkened living room, fell down in a crooked heap, and something went snap! I just knew it. Sure enough, after suffering from the pain all night, the next day we went to my orthopedic doctor and it was fractured. I had just recently had knee surgery-the clean up kind, not the total replacement yet-so I was very stressed out about so many injuries in one year.

I teased my husband that he should trade me in on a new model.

There was actually a third injury a few months before the knee surgery, but I don’t remember what it was. Oh, my back. The first time I had a slipped disc. I was working at a church day care and picked up a child that was evidently too heavy for me.

So there’s my fracture trifecta. I hope I never break, or fracture another bone ever!