My 1st Fracture

May 8th 1999
It was a fine day with a light breeze and a perfect evening to play. My enthusiasm for playing and love for outdoors took me to Guindy Park a few years back with a bunch of family friends. After spending considerable time on the swing and glider, I moved onto the monkey bar. I wanted to show my friends how strong I was despite my skinny appearance. I started my climb.The wind was singing slow hums and my side locks were being swept into my eyes. I felt as if I were flying . I tried in vain to push them aside with one hand, but by that time I had reached the centre of the bar. My other palm clamped with sweat lost its grip on the bar and I fell 6 feet to the ground and landed hard on my right hand.

There was no pain at all. But the moment I looked at my hand, the set of bones linking the thumb to the fore arm felt squishy. It looked alienish with my thumb hanging loosely without the support from the adjacent bone. I rushed to my friend's mother and showed her my arm. She gasped and before I could ask anything else, I was whisked off to the orthopedic centre. My parents came rushing to the hospital. The moment my mom saw my boneless arm under the X-Ray machine, she got hysterical and the nurse had to sedate her to calm her down!!
In the Operation Theatre all I remember was a sharp prick on my unharmed left arm and some lady placing a mask on my face. I was asked to inhale deeply. I did feel funny at that moment. A ticklish sensation ran through my spine. I don't know if it was due to the cold metal table I was lying on or the anesthesia.
When I woke up I felt groggy and I imagined a dozen people around me.Someone was patting my head. Some instrument was attached to my finger. I thought I was hallucinating. But a few minutes later my head cleared and indeed there were a dozen people in the room staring at me and that was a pulse counter on my finger !

2 days later I was sent home with a huge PoP bandage covering my entire hand. I had to visit the doctor once a week and had to get my plaster replaced thrice.
The worst part was, I wasn't able to write even after the final crepe bandage had been removed. But the best part was that for those 3 months, I was given royal treatment at home !!