Breakin' Up Is Hard to Do

Nope, this isn't a post about romantic relationships gone bad - it's about breaking bones.

We had a party today and absent was a dear friend of mine - she broke her arm a couple of weeks ago. I told her story to many friends who wondered where she was - I owe her for making my cocktail chatter more interesting. But boy, am I glad I'm not her right now.

A couple of weeks ago she was at a party and slipped on some water, put her hand down and broke her wrist. I've seen her fall before - and she has fallen hard. She once fell off of a trail while snowboarding - over the ledge and into the ditch. A bit sore but that's it. I once watched her fall in a bar - no bodily bruises, just a crushed ego.

So she puts her hand down to catch her fall and hurts her wrist. She's in pain for a week and half but figures it's just a sprain and keeps popping ibuprofen. Her husband finally convinces her to see a doctor. A few hours and a few x-rays later the doctor announces that not only has she broken her wrist - she broke the smallest, most difficult-to-heal bone. She will need surgery.

Friday morning she went in for surgery - they put her under, tube down her throat, the whole nine yards. The gave her something called the "painbuster" - numbed her entire arm so much so that she felt nothing and had to be careful not to accidentally hurt herself, for lack of feeling.

She'll be in this puffy cast for a week, then a plaster cast for a month, and after that a splint for another month. Oh yeah, and she's got a titanium pin in her arm. For the time being she's doped up on Vicodin which makes everything seem not so bad.

I'm sorry that she missed the party - I really would have loved to have had her here. But she did give me a cool story and a great opening line "Jen has a broken arm and they had to do surgery!"