Bone of My Bone

Not so many post ago, on a friend’s blog; I mentioned the several head injuries that my family and I have had over the years. I often walk barefooted in my house and have frequently I’ve bumped my toe on the corner of a door or on a piece of furniture. With winter moving ever closer, it came to recollection the time I broke my little toe. I’d been shoveling snow. When I came inside, my glasses immediately fogged up and I couldn’t see a thing. I kicked off my boots in the entryway and walked down the hallway, only I misjudged where I was and my toe hooked on the corner. I broke my toe. It felt as though I’d torn the skin between my toes and because I still couldn’t see, I thought I’d cut myself. My glasses were still fogged and couldn’t see anything. I hobbled to the living room to take a seat and see what I’d done to myself. I took off my glasses and pulled my toes apart. I was sure I’d see a cut, but instead, my little toe bent awkwardly in a way it shouldn’t and I yelled because of the pain. My wife Cindy came running. She brought tape and a cotton ball once I’d explained what happened. Taping the broken to the one beside it is the treatment. I was careful with my grape-purple toe for several days.

My son Andrew was following the lead of his older sister, leaping from a dresser top to the bed. His Superman leap didn’t match his sister’s and he broke his forearm and dislocated his elbow. I splinted his arm with magazines and pillows. He had surgery to repair his arm, but by the next morning he was using the hospital crib as a jungle gym.

The next broken bone is a tale of two tails. My wife Cindy broke her tailbone on a pogo stick as a child. Our church teens with adult chaperones tented west one summer. There was a horse ride and breakfast offered. Cindy and I decided to join. We were at the corral with the cowboys to climb aboard our steeds. Cindy had extremely short legs. Clam digger or peddle pusher slacks made regular pant length for her. She was assigned a mule named Festus, but because her legs were so short, her feet didn’t fill the stirrups. Cindy became alarmed and pulled back on the reins. Festus reared and Cindy slid off and onto her tailbone. Needless to say, she rode to breakfast in a jeep and I did the driving all the way home once we left camp.