Rebuilding Rob

I would be negligent if I didn’t mention that I got today’s topic from this Medium page. I figured at some point, I would need to start looking elsewhere for prompts

Write about a memory of a physical injury.

If I recall correctly, the first time I broke a bone was when I was in 6th grade. I could be mistaken on the year but all the other details I present are accurate.

Me and a few of the other kids on my street were playing outside. I don’t remember exactly what we’re playing. I don’t think it was a sport or anything. We’ve actually just been racing each other running down the sidewalk. To those of you young’uns reading us, yes, it’s true. Kids in the 80s we really were left to their own accord outdoors for the most part. Helicopter parents were nonexistent.

Me and another boy, whom I will call Backdraft, were running down the sidewalk. At the time we were neck and neck, and I remember, as I was pumping my arms at one point, he bumped into me and flung my arm off to the side. To this day, I still think the bump was an accident, but it’s possible Backdraft was trying to push me out of the way as we were running neck and-neck, so who knows.

Immediately after we hit the finish line, I knew that something was wrong with my thumb. It was sore. Not just like jamming in on something, but it was in a lot of pain. It started swelling almost immediately. Within maybe an hour or so it already started turning blue. My worst fear was that it was broken.

I remember going in to see a doctor perhaps a day or two after the fact. After x-rays on my hand, the doctor said that while it didn’t look like there was a break in the bone, I had pulled two ligaments. The pain was real, but at least the bone wasn’t broken! I thought I was in the clear. But then he recommended a cast for the next six weeks.

I was shocked, but at the same time I was kind of excited. This was the first time I was ever going to have to wear a cat for anything. I always thought it was cool seeing other kids in school who had their peers sign of their casts. So I was looking forward to that. But then the reality of the situation hit me. I would be wearing a plaster cast, isolating my thumb, covering part of my palm and running along my forearm, almost up to my elbow.

How do I take a shower with him? Could I still take a bath? Doesn’t water ruin these plaster cast? I would hate to get the cast and then suddenly have to start all over again with it. These were the thoughts that went through my mind when I was initially told about the cast.

What if I have to scratch my arm underneath the cast? And won’t the cast start to stink after I haven’t showered for a couple weeks? These six weeks we’re going to drag I thought to myself.

Beyond hygiene, however, I had a bigger problem. I am left-handed, and this was my left thumb that was getting put into a cast. Holding a pencil or a pen in school and writing was going to be impossible. Keep in mind this is long before iPads and laptops were even an idea, let alone school supplies as common as a book bag or a pencil case. Writing by hand was a necessity

I powered through it. After all, I didn’t really have much of a choice. Initially, I tried to write right handed, but because I had no experience with it, I lacked find motor skills in my hand to write legibly with my right hand. It took a little time, but I gradually found a way to lean my pencil into my thumb cast and make it work, However, it would be even more sloppy than I normally wrote in school.

Eventually, I got used to having the cast, and one day it was time to have it removed. When they initially removed the cast, my arm felt as light as a feather. After six weeks of the plaster cast’s weight, I had grown somewhat used to it being a part of my arm

To date, this is the first and only time I’ve ever worn a cast for an injury. However, I’ve probably broken more toes than I can count. . Unfortunately, they don’t make toe casts. If you’re lucky, you can tape it up and try to make do with it as it is.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related (and perhaps, not-so-related) posts:

• Teacher Armor and the Saturday Clearing
• The Extra Day: A Ten-Year Memory
• Of Training Wheels and Christmas Lights
• Charity Starts at Home (And I’m Back in My Childhood One)
• The Muscle of Empathy

AI art created with Google Gemini

The article “Left-Handed, Left-Cast: The Writing Crisis of 6th Grade” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob