I thought of an idea for a post after injuring myself a week ago. I've been fortunate to never suffer a very serious injury in my life (no broken bones, no hospital visits, etc.), but what are the worst that I've experienced? I know I've hurt myself many times in my life, but the most memorable ones are ones that create wounds that lost a long time. On most of these, I'll have to guess my age because they were so long ago. Here are the Top 7 Ways I've Hurt Myself (not on purpose of course):
7. Bungee ball snaps on me and leaves a scar, age 13 or 14
One toy I had as a kid (not for very long) was called a bungee ball. It was a small rubber ball attached to an elastic bungee style cord, which was attached to a wrist strap which you'd wear on your wrist. The gimmick of this toy was that it was a ball you could throw that would always come back to you. One day I was playing in the backyard with it, and I was seeing how far away I could stand and still hit our backyard shed. The harder you threw, the farther the ball would go before returning to you. One of my throws must have been a little too hard, and the cord snapped. In the process of snapping, it left a lash on my wrist, just below where my hand starts. I can still see the scar to this day. The funny thing is, it didn't bleed much at all, it was more like a small rug burn in a confined space. But it was enough to leave a lasting impact.
6. Running with scissors leads to predictable result, age 3
I don't remember this injury happening because I was so young obviously, but my parents have told me about it. I was under the care of an old friend of my parents that used to watch me. I somehow was running with scissors and tripped. The scissors put a gouge into my head, right below my temple. The reason I believe my parents (other than the fact I trust they wouldn't make something up) is that I have a noticeable mole in that very spot to this day. It must have formed over the scab as it healed. It's on the right side of my head below my temple close to my right eye, and you can see it in basically any picture of mine. I think my parents stopped having that friend of theirs watch me after this.
5. Spraining my index finger playing basketball, age 11 or 12
As a kid playing games and sports during recess, injuries are always a possibility. This is one I didn't even go to the nurse's for, although I probably should have. One day playing basketball, I was receiving a pass from one of my classmates, which on my right hand only caught one finger, my index. To my best recollection, the ball hit straight onto my finger's tip, also bending it back a bit in the process. I tried playing through it, but couldn't. The next day my finger was noticeably swollen compared to the same finger on the other hand, and I could only bend it a little bit. If only smartphones had existed back then, I would have taken a picture. Fortunately, it healed quick enough.
4. Getting hit in the face playing football, age 11 or 12
I got hurt a lot as a kid as you'll see. Football was an often forbidden game for us to play at recess, even if we made it two hand touch. Sometimes some of the rebellious kids decided to break the rules and decide to play tackle football. This wasn't one of those times playing tackle football, but we were playing football. My team had the ball for this particular play. I went out on a route as a receiver. Now, I didn't get thrown the ball very often, but on this particular play, I did. I was on a crossing route, and my quarterback threw me the ball. I went to grab it, only to notice a player on the other team approaching from the opposite direction. He got to the ball first, and in the process his elbow made hard contact with my nose. I fell to the ground in pain. Gaining my composure and looking down, I noticed blood in the grass. My nose would not stop bleeding. One of the kids signaled for a teacher, who then later escorted me to the nurse's. All they did was had me hold a towel to it for a while. I remember not being able to smell through my nose for at least the rest of the day. I don't think my nose was broken, but it sure hurt enough to be. And we definitely weren't allowed to play football for a while after that.
3. Cutting open my thumb and almost passing out, Age 31
This is the one I referenced to in my first paragraph that happened just recently. I was preparing to dice onions with a special onion dicer, the kind that has a lid and you press it into the onion which is on a set of blades. I was in the process of setting it up, which involves setting the blades into place and locking them in. For some reason, the locking tab wasn't going into place, so I smartly decided to try to force it. The locking piece broke off and my thumb slipped over the blades. At first, I thought the pain I felt was only from the pressure on the locking piece, only to see my thumb start to bleed pretty profusely. I then went to the bathroom. I don't have much experience with open wounds, so I stupidly let it bleed over the sink. I tried rinsing it out a bit, but the pain was just too much. I then started getting extremely lightheaded and felt like I was going to pass out. Fortunately, my girlfriend gave me Snapple and cookies to replenish my blood sugars. I also put some pressure and then later a bandage on it. I later on saw two pieces of my thumb's skin stuck in the onion dicer's blades. I knew it wasn't a deep cut; it just took off a couple thick pieces of my skin. But any worse and I would have needed stitches. I can still see the wound (which is healing) on my thumb now. Today's actually the first day I haven't had to wear any kind of bandage over it whatsoever.
2. Scraping my knee from kneecap to shin, Age 9 or 10
I'm not sure on the age at all, but it was definitely before adolescence. When I was a kid, my family used to go on bike rides during the summer around the neighborhood. One path we often took had us going over a path with pretty thick gravel. I believe my parents told me not to take a sharp turn on it, but I didn't listen, and I was at a pretty decent speed as well. I lost control and fell off my bike, the first thing hitting the ground/gravel being my leg. I was wearing jeans (that I ruined), so the fact I scraped my knee up as bad as I did was remarkable. I remember having to tough it out pedaling home, tears pouring down my face. I also remember the excruciating pain when my mom put Bactine on the wound. I remember it took weeks and weeks to heal. It was a huge wound, and I have a small scar on my knee from this.
1. Hitting my eye socket area on the metal leg of a chair, Age 10?
One of my worst ever injuries to my face was as a kid. I had a blanket with me and I put it over myself, and I smartly decided to spin around and around and make myself dizzy. I got so dizzy I lost my balance and fell to the ground, and with the blanket over my head, I had no idea where I was landing. Of course my face came into hard contact with the metal leg of a chair. I remember that chair my parents used to own. It was black. Anyway, it was pretty darn painful, and I instantly started crying. I had the worst black eye, and I think the only black eye I've ever had in my life. Fortunately my eye itself was perfectly fine, as it only got the area around my eye. As for my age, I remember being pretty young, which I feel like was 7 or 8 years old, but I remember this happening at my second childhood home, which I didn't move in until I was 10. So I guess I was 10? Not sure. I believe my parents took pictures of my black eye and those pictures are in one of their photo albums. I'll have to go through those some day to see how old I really was.
Obviously, most of these happened as a kid. I have tried to stay away from doing activities like those as an adult, mainly because I know better. The funny thing about most of these injuries is that they happened on my right side. Hitting my eye I believe was on my right side. Scraping my knee, right side. My thumb was definitely my right thumb. The face... well that was the center. My index finger that I sprained was my right one. And gouging myself with scissors was definitely my right side. And the bungee cord snapping was on my right wrist. Most of these are because I am right handed, but it's still interesting.
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