Most of you probably know the main event of this week (breaking my wrist) so I'll probably just skip over it...

When we went to the fire station a couple weeks ago, the fire chief...invited us to come back on our P-day and he'd take each of us 100' up in the fire truck bucket. We got permission from President Larkin, and we were planning on doing that on Monday the 19th. When that day came around, we learned that the fire truck was in the shop for something, so we wouldn't be able to do that after all. So, we went to the church for the day. It was then that a series of unfortunate events occured. 

 

In the past, I had jumped from the stage and hit the basketball backboard with my hands (done that many times). This time, I decided to grab onto the edge that stuck out. As I jumped and grabbed, I didn't have as good of a grip as I thought I did, and my momentum from jumping forward carried through, and I promptly lost my grip, and fell. I landed on my back, kind of sprawled out. When I landed and my left wrist really hurt and immediately started to swell and feel tight, I knew it wasn't good. I knew it was either sprained or broken. I immediately removed my watch, and just laid there. Sister Neff was in the room (unfortuately she had her back turned - I would have loved to have a witness), heard the thump of me hitting the floor, turned around and asked me if I was okay. My response was no, and that I thought my wrist was broken. At this point I figured that my wrist was broken, because it certainly did not feel good, and it didn't feel like last time I sprained my wrist good (crashing on my bike at the Jacoste's house). When I sprained my wrist, It obviously hurt, but I could still move it around a bit, and it didn't have instantaneous swelling. This time, I couldn't bend my wrist, and it started swelling immediately.

 

Sister Neff ran up onto the stage and told the Elders up there that I was hurt. They came down, we talked about what had happened, called Sister Simpson, and got approval to go to an urgent care. We went, got x-rays, and found that I had fractured both of my arm bones right at the wrist. It was put into a cast and sling, and was scheduled to go to another place on Tuesday to determine if I'd need surgery. I was given a prescription for pain medication.

 

Monday night wasn't very pleasant. I dozed for about two minutes (after 6am), but other than that, I did not sleep at all because my arm hurt too much. Apparently the pain medication wasn't strong enough.

 

Tuesday, Elder Fisher and I went to Beaumont. Riding in a car really hurt my wrist, and the construction between Winnie and Beaumont (about 20 miles) was definitely the worst part of the drive. At the hospital in Beaumont, I was told that yes, I would need surgery, and that the surgeon would be avaliable on Friday. I also requested a stronger pain medication so that I would be able to sleep.

 

Wednesday night, I got about 3-4 mediocre sleep, then after 7am, I somehow got about an hour and a half of great sleep.

 

Thursday and Friday, the mission had Christmas conference. Half of the mission gathers on Thursday, and half gathers on Friday. The half that I was a part of had Christmas conference on Friday, which was the day the surgery was scheduled for. So President Larkin allowed Elder Fisher and I to go to the Thursday one (conviently happened to be held in Beaumont), then stay the night, and go to surgery on Friday. Elder Fisher and I got there early, so we helped set up tables and chairs in the gym. I found it isn't very difficult to set up the tables one-handed.

 

Thursday night, sleeping at the Ross Compound, I got the best sleep I had in a while. That may have been partially due to the fact that it was 16 degrees outside (windchill of 0 degrees), and the room that we were in had two outside walls, and no heat. So it was probably about 50 degrees in there in the morning. Which, in my opinion, is better for sleeping than the 70 - 73 degrees that Elder Fisher likes, and thus keeps the apatment at.

 

Friday morning, President Ross took me to the hospital. To my pleasant suprise, the hospital didn't lose the paperwork that I gave them the other day, but instead filed it properly! The anesthesia was kind of weird (still have a bruise as of right now on the back of my hand around the injection site) - when they gave it to me, I started seeing double. That continued as I was being wheeled from "the room" (as I'll call it) to the operating room. I remember them transfering me to the operating table, then the next thing I remember was waking up in the room. At no point did I feel sleepy as the anesthesia was taking effect. I could tell I was rather loopy when I woke up, but that wore off in not too long. We stayed another night at the Ross Compound.

 

Saturday morning, Elder Fisher and I left. We unpacked at home, then went over to [someone's] house and helped him with his Christmas decorations. We went with him to a storage unit, and loaded his car with tubs of decorations that we took to his house. Even though I only had one useful hand, I sardine-packed his SUV full of the tubs. After helping him, Bishop Partsch took our district out to eat at Golden Corral.

 

Sunday was Christmas. We had two Christmas dinners in four hours. I also talked to the same insane family that I talked to on Thanksgiving. They seem to be doing a bit better - the parents have let the two daughters come back home for a bit. It wasn't talked about too explicitly, but I think they might be sending them away again around the beginning of the new year.

Sunday evening, the other two sets of Elders in my district had a sleepover, where we played Dungeons and Dragons. Shana, if you got bored and stopped reading sometime earlier, that's your loss. There we were, just sitting and enjoying our spaghetti, when this sheep came up to us with a scroll in it’s mouth. We were trying to figure out what the scroll was, when three wolves started circling us....

(long play-by-play, ending with...)

and flew out on a giant dragon made out of furniture. It took awhile, but we killed off the dragon, the three apes, and the bear, so we got our reward of 500 gold pieces. We were up until almost 1:00 am playing.

 

Monday, the transfer board came out! I am getting a greenie, fresh out of the MTC. Don't know who yet. I will educate you on him next week. I am also going to still be on referral team next transfer. If you've forgotten what that is, refer back to email 64...

 

I'm getting strength and dexterity back in my fingers - I typed this email on a keyboard, and am attempting to play the piano. That isn't going so well, because with my left hand, I can only span five notes (C - G).

 

I also peeked under my cast, and noticed a multifariousness of colors; certainly the most colorful bruises I've ever had. The blood pooled under my skin is now draining towards my elbow; most of my skin between my elbow and the cast is a nasty shade of green.

 

An unexpected side effect from having a broken wrist is that my shoulder and elbow are sore. From what? From continually moving and resting my arm in less-natural ways.