Fractured!

Derailed by an injury, six weeks of recovery, but now the summer can begin...

Six weeks ago, on May 27, I was roller skating around Science World with my bestie, living my best life as we love to do all summer, when I fell and fractured my wrist.

I’ve fallen dozens of times over the years, so this wasn’t out of the ordinary—just the price of doing business—but this time I fell hard and caught myself by reaching back with my left hand, which impacted the ground in just the wrong way. I always wear wrist guards and knee pads but this time the wrist guards just didn’t do their job.

Luckily, I was carrying ice packs because we were planning on posting up at the beach and having a drink afterwards and I don’t like my drinks warm LOL so I immediately wrapped my wrist in ice and we skated carefully the rest of the way a spot by the water near my friend’s place in Yaletown.

Road Rashed

My left hip was also very badly scraped up from the gravel, so it was painful to sit. (If you’re not squeamish, scroll to the bottom for a gnarly close-up!) I was fuming with rage and pain and recriminations, furious that this had happened, yet still in denial about how bad it could be.

After all, I had fallen and sprained my wrists in the past, fallen and scraped up both outstretched elbows, fallen on my ass more times than I could count over the years. If you look closely, you can still evidence of years-ago road rash on both of my calves, right below where the knee pads protected me from breaking anything vital, but where my skin was still exposed. This fall didn’t immediately seem all that different, but that might have just been the adrenaline protecting me from total despair.

Dear CIty of Vancouver

That evening, I dictated a furious email to the city complaining about the intersection where it happened, near the entrance to Science World, which has been a total shit show ever since they expanded the bike lane last year but left a 30 m strip of tightly packed gravel instead of paving the entire lane.

So instead of continuing straight on the path, anyone on skates or rollerblades has to turn left across the incoming bike lane, before the gravel part, which happens to be right at the entrance where bikers, skaters, walkers, strollers, scooters, e-bikers, pets, and throngs of children and their parents converge.

Someone from the city eventually wrote back to explain that Science World is built over the water on a deck that isn’t strong enough to support a paving machine which is why that one stretch couldn’t be properly covered in asphalt. They’re planning to revisit that whole section in 2027 for what it’s worth.

Here’s what the intersection looked like during the FIFA World Cup madness, which would have made skating downtown these last six weeks extra challenging anyway…

When I got home that evening, Rodger insisted I go get an x-ray, but the idea of spending half the night at the busy downtown St. Paul’s Hospital emergency room was out of the question. I agreed to go first thing the next morning after checking in with work.

A day at Emergency

I got to the emergency room around 11:00 a.m., after telling my workmates what had happened and that I would be out for a few hours. It didn’t seem all that busy at first. I sat down and listened to an audiobook on my headphones, and went through my usual morning routine of Connections, Wordle, and all the Quordles…

Three hours passed before I was called in to the x-ray room, another two before the doctor came out to see me. He sent me back for another x-ray because the first two didn’t clearly show the scaphoid bone, which meant another hour, and another hour after that until he could see me again. It was after 5 p.m. by the time I got home.

The ER doctor was the only saving grace of the whole experience. He looked like a cross between John Malkovich and Matt Frewer, star of Max Headroom and sci-fi “hey, it’s that guy” from dozens of shows I’ve loved over the years.

He was very sympathetic as showed me the slight feathering at the edges around the bone on the x-ray, and explained that it was just barely fractured—not displaced, and not the scaphoid (the fragile tiny bone at base of the thumb), not even a hairline fracture. When I told him it happened roller skating, he smiled and said he wrote his dissertation some 30 years ago on rollerblading injuries, back in the day when the activity was just gaining popularity.

But all that bedside manner didn’t change the fact that I would have to be in a cast for 6 weeks. I felt like I was being being handed a jail sentence. I burst into tears and then immediately felt guilty, looking around at all the people in wheelchairs, having mental health episodes or overdosing, chronically ill people connected to IV carts, and parents with injured children…

But what can I say? I got all the way to my 53rd year without breaking a bone and, as they say, the worst thing that’s ever happened to you is the worst thing that’s ever happened to you. And this didn’t even comes close to the worst thing that’s happened to me—but in the moment, it felt like my summer was over before it began.

Casted

I went home with a splint wrapped in tensor bandages and an appointment with an orthopedic clinic for the following week, where I got my fancy waterproof purple cast, which stayed on for the next 5 weeks. Of course I got a manicure to match.

I immediately began researching the best way to get exercise with a cast on and found that they now recommend staying as active as possible, even lifting weights with your uninjured arm, which somehow prevents muscle loss in the injured arm, as unintuitive as it may sound.

I followed the internet’s advice and continued working out every morning 4 days a week, getting as much cardio as possible and occasionally bursting into tears when a beautiful sunny day (and my well-meaning bestie) beckoned me out to skate and I had to say no.

But I managed to get out to play disc golf a bunch of times, and spent hours laying in the sun in a beautiful park while Rodger practiced throwing discs. I’m wearing his shorts in the picture above because my road-rashed ass took two weeks to heal and wearing tight shorts was out of the question!

Here’s a ridiculous image ChatGPT made to keep my spirits up. Hey “not all superpowers wear capes,” am I right? LOL

Freedom!

The cast came off on July 8th, and the doctor said it has healed perfectly. He told me to stretch and that any pain or weakness I feel is just soft tissue swelling and stiffness from being in the cast. He told me I could resume my usual routine and activities with no restrictions besides common sense. If it hurts, slow down—otherwise, I’m free!

I haven’t been out skating yet, but in the next few days, it’s definitely going to happen. I’ve already been adding very light weights in my left hand at the gym, icing it afterwards to reduce swelling, and stretching as much as I can.

Feel the fear, do it anyway

One of my coworkers told me she has a pair of roller skates in her closet that she hasn’t used since falling and injuring herself decades ago, which is a really common story (that’s why it’s so easy to find skates on FB Marketplace, barely used!). She asked if I was scared of falling again.

Of course I am! I’ve always been afraid of injuring myself, and I’ve been incredibly lucky that it was always pretty minor scapes and bruises, but I love it so much that the idea of being too scared to do it is unthinkable.

I think we all have things in our lives that carry risks and downsides that might deter other people, but we willingly set aside our fears and do them anyway.

Besides, everyone I talked to while I had my cast on was surprised when I told them I had never broken a bone before. Mostly of them pointed out various extremities of their own and listed a lifetime of injuries in sympathy and commiseration.

I’ve already bought a pair of much more robust wrist guards, and I’m planning on avoiding the intersection where I fell, until 2027 when they fix that gravel pit in the middle of the bike lane. There are miles of other bike lanes and city streets to skate…

And for the non-squeamish, here’s that gnarly road rash close-up I mentioned earlier. Stay safe out there, everyone… but more importantly, get out there and have fun. Use your body, because you’re not getting the deposit back at the end anyway!