Sunday, September 09, 2007

Accident Prone

When I was about 3, I discovered the ability to jump off of things. You know how excited kids get when they find out they can leap from something on to the floor - it's very liberating. We had just arrived home from the hospital (I don't know why we were there) and I wanted to show off my new skill to my mom. When the side door of the van was opened I attempted a jump from the van to the sidewalk.

I landed on my head.

Back to the hospital we went and that was my first set of stitches, right in the top of my head.

In fourth grade I wanted to be cool like the other girls and do a "cherry drop" from the monkey bars. The idea is to start hanging from the bar by your knees, and by swinging back and forth, gaining enough momentum to flip and land on your feet.

I landed on my back with my left arm underneath me.

I wore a brace and ace bandage for a month for a "green-stick" fracture.

Sadly, I didn't grow out of this problem, it only got worse as time went on.

The summer after my freshman year in high-school, I was staying with my aunt and uncle for the summer. My aunt and I decided to ride our mountain bikes in to town to get the mail, and on the way back our final navigation was to cross a main road and then turn onto the street their house was on.

All I remember was waking up face-down in the gravel with my bike on top of me.

I was rushed to the emergency room in the cab of a truck that had stopped at the "scene", and I withstood the nurses scrubbing the gravel out of my face with a sponge. The on-call plastic surgeon sewed up my lip and I visited a dentist and ear, nose and throat doctor to make sure I hadn't screwed things up too much. It took a couple of months to heal, just in time for school.

During my sophomore year I managed to crash skiing and plant the end of my ski-pole into my face, and then a few months later bounce my face off the sidewalk while rollerskating.

My skull endured several other injuries during my high-school career, from having a friend lift me up to change a lightbulb and running my head into a nail to falling down the stairs carrying a laundry basket and landing with my cheek on a corner of the laundry bin.

I'm amazed I made it to adulthood in one piece, not looking like a plastic surgeon mistake, and un-brain-damaged.

7 comments:

Angela said...

Oh, my! I'm not sure if I should be worried for you or not! Here's hoping for an accident-free rest of your life for you. I am so loving the new header by the way. Beautiful!

Marisa said...

Thanks Angela!

Atypical California Girl said...

I am accident prone as well.
I have several scars and memories of stitches.
Like you, I am amazed I survived childhood.
Turns out, all I needed was glasses. I didn't fall down nearly as much once I could see where I was going.

Marisa said...

HA! I actually bi-focals through highschool. How ridiculous is that?! No one should ever go down stairs wearing bi-focals.

Tammie Jean said...

Oh my gosh - wear a helmet!! ;)

CS said...

My whole family is like that. I broke my skull at four months . most of us have broken our noses, my 25-year-old sister just broke her hip. So, I sympathize.

Jim Thomsen said...

Reese gives good header. :)

I have broken my nose three times.

Two fingers. One wrist. Three ribs. No arms or legs.

Worst scar I have is one just above my left eye ... got it my senior year in academy when a flourescent light fixture was left hanging open off the ceiling and, distracted, I walked into it and gouged my face deeply on the sharp metal corner. Missed my eye by less than half an inch.

I too am amazed ... I grew up in a really rambunctious neighborhood where there was always tackle football games and bike-racing contests around the block (I once hit the curb on a fast turn and flew headfirst over my handlebars into a wooden fence, and was nothing more than lacerated and mildly stunned.) I've had more bike wipeouts than I can recall — several on pavement — and once tumbled nearly 20 feet out of a tree in my backyard.

Never broke a bone in any of those cases.

I'm glad I wasn't raised by hyperprotective parents. I could have been killed in any number of spectacular ways, but I submit that the living you do while taking risks is worth the risk that your living may be abruptly concluded.