A History of Sorts

I was recently inspired by a friend's blog to create a post on the topic of injury. While I've never broken a bone (every day I thank God for this...it would be so painful), I've had my share of bumps and bruises (physically and psychologically). Let's see if I can remember them!

1. I don't really remember this first injury, or the age at which I acquired it. What I do remember is that I was injured while sledding with my mom. Mom and I were going down a hill into a section of trees (which we had been sledding into for at least half an hour without any negative outcomes), and it turned out that we were heading straight for a tree. Mom stuck out her leg to try to absorb the blow, but all I remember is waking up in my bed a little while later. Good times...I think this was the only time I've ever unintentionally been unconscious.
2. When I got the chicken pox, I ended up scratching a few of them out, so now I have a tiny crater in my forehead, and another on my cheek.
3. When I was in second grade, mom would drive me to my new elementary school, because I wasn't quite familiar with buses yet. One day we performed the routine as usual, but as I got out of the car, I somehow shut my thumb in the car door. I cried for hours, it hurt for days, and this incident has permanently affected my fingerprints. Talk about a moment that shaped a life forever!
4. Later in elementary school, I liked to ride my bike around my neighborhood with my little sister, Monica, and my neighbor, Kelly. One eventful day, while we were playing bike tag, my front tire came into contact with my little sister's back tire. She fell off of her bike into the grass, and I fell the opposite direction, sliding across the pavement for about 6 feet. I couldn't walk home, so some nice lady gave me a ride back to my house. My bike was permanently scratched up on the right side, and my leg was sore and scabbed for days.
5. Sometime when I was young, my little sister and I ran upstairs at the same time, and I fell into the banister. It left a scar on my right side.
6. During middle school, I did some intramural basketball in my free time. During one game, I twisted my ankle, and could barely walk for the rest of the game. After hobbling across the court multiple times, I got to sit down. Walking sucked for a few days, but I got better after that.
7. As a freshman in high school, a witch turned me into a newt. I got better.
8. After freshman year ended, I did summer practices for guard with the other girls and our coaches. We were learning how to handle rifles, which was really fun and kind of intimidating at first. On the first day of spinning, I jammed my thumb...I'm so lucky :)
9. One time during senior year of high school, I went out ice skating with my friends at the local Chiller. I got cocky, and tried to do the Superstar move as I was skating to the exit. I did...but my right leg had a little mishap. My knee popped right out of its socket...luckily it popped right back in, but it was impossible to walk. Thankfully I had friends to help me walk to the car. Working that night was awful. Since that incident, my right knee has been much weaker than my left.
10. The summer after my senior year, I went on a trip to Europe with a group from my high school. When we visited Salzburg, I had a little fall in the castle, and scraped up my knee pretty badly. We didn't have any bandages, but we did have pads, so a friend let me borrow the prewrap in her hair and I tied the pad to my knee. We couldn't stop laughing :)
11. During my mom's birthday weekend in 2010, I was in Columbus to surprise her. Before I went down to see her, I was spending some time with my boyfriend and our mutual friend, Stephanie. We were walking down to Noodles & Co. when I noticed that a caution sign was in th sidewalk ahead of us, marking construction in the road. I consciously remember telling myself to lift my first foot to step over it, but apparently I didn't do the same for my second foot, because the metal leg sliced my big toe open on the spot. Thank goodness we were right in front of a CVS, because my foot was bleeding profusely, and I was hyperventilating...I'd never bled that much before. 
12. During the summer before my senior year of college, I took a little visit with my boyfriend and a group of our mutual friends to his parents' lake house. Due to severe intoxication, we decided to swim across the lake and run through the forest, barefoot. Of course, I got poison ivy, but this was no normal poison ivy. My left calf was absolutely covered in it, was swollen and incredibly sore, leaked yellowish fluid for over a week, and even now, months and months later, there's a scar from where I had so many sores. 

That's all I can think of for now...but it's a pretty fun list, I think :)