broke my leg skiing, 4th grade
It's not actually the first time I've skied. I grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains, and skiing was expressly forbidden. Too dangerous. So one day, in the 4th grade, my aunt and my mom took Karolyn and me skiing. Behind my dad's back. On the bunny slopes I hit a patch of ice and started barrelling out of control. I'd learned that you are supposed to wedge to slow down and fall to the side, so that's what I did. (Can you see this coming?)
My skis crossed and my right ski went over my left one, shooting all the way forward while my left ski and leg turned all the way around to the back. My leg was badly broken. They brought up the toboggan, strapped me in, and took me down the mountain. At that point, it was too icy and the ambulance couldn't get up the mountain, so my aunt had to drive us down the mountain to the ER. And my mom had to tell my dad.
I had a compound spiral fracture of my left tibia. I was in a cast from toe to hip, confined to bed for a month, I think. When I could return to school, I was in a wheelchair for a while, and in total I was in a cast for 4 months. Needless to say, I wasn't allowed to go skiing anymore. Or do anything else remotely dangerous.
And that's left me with a terrible fear of skiing.
posted at 8:10 PM
2 Comments:
Ouch! I thought you were using figurative language. Now I actually feel for you (in my knee, where my own screws are.)
Hell, I'm scared to do laundry since that's how I wasted my knee (carrying it, not actually DOING laundry. That's too creative an injury even for me to pull off! ;-)
9:41 AM, March 07, 2006
when i was young, one time me and the fam went skiing in colorado. we stopped in at a giftshop. the back of the giftshop was raised (sort of like a massive drum riser), so there was a staircase to get up there. But the ceiling was also raised, which means that right above the staircase, the wall hung down to connect the two ceilings. being the overactive youngster i was, i jumped off the stairs and smacked my forehead on the wall above the stairs. i was too damn tall. they thought i broke my back when i hit the ground.
ever since then, i've had a terrible fear of walls.
11:03 AM, March 14, 2006
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