One evening in April 2002 I was jogging to the post office after work. There is a nice long sidewalk along 52nd Avenue West that is generally nice to jog on. It was a pleasant evening and I was not going at a really brisk pace. As I neared my turn approaching 208th I passed a small apartment complex on my left. There was a large black dog barking at me. It ran up to the fence barking and angry. The fence was very short, as far as most chain link fences go, and the dog went up on its hind legs. Even on a short fence this should have been enough to keep a dog from the people walking by. Not so. No, the dog came up and over the fence somehow and charged me. I was startled and stopped in my tracks. It kept coming. I took a step back and hit the edge of the sidewalk, losing my balance as the dog lunged at me. I kicked at the dog as it was actually trying to bite me. I fell backward into the street onto my left hand, feeling a heck of a pop in my wrist. The dog ran off. A guy in the yard looked at me and asked me if I was okay, but I just got up and headed out as I was unsure where the dog was. When I got home the wrist was throbbing. I should have called the police.
I decided to call work that evening just in case I needed to go to the doctor's office in the morning. I reached Mike. "I was just attacked by a dog while jogging." I tell him. He leaves a note for our manager Dave stating exactly that.
In the morning it still hurts and I cannot move my thumb or feel my pinky on my left hand. This is bad. So, I head to the doctor's office. I tell the doctor the story and that I think that the wrist might be sprained. He looks at my hand and pokes my fingers, shakes his head, and suggests I go and get an x-ray. The x-ray tech looks at the film, shakes his head, and says, "The doc will talk to you about this." Okay. I hand the film to the doc. He sets it up on the lighted x-ray display thingy and another doctor looks at it with him. The other doc takes a look at me, shakes his head, and walks away. This is getting worse. The doc calls me over. He tells me that I need a cast and that he is referring me to a surgeon. Wow. I leave with a wrist from the tip of my thumb up to my armpit.
I was driving a stick at the time so this is now really complicated. Also, I have to run by work. I go to work to go see Dave, who up until that moment had apparently been convinced that Mike was telling a story and not the truth in the note that said that I was not in that morning because of a dog attack. "Only you," he says, and I head home. I do try and work a number of days, but the day I ended up in the men's room for twenty minutes unable to button up my pants finally drives me onto short-term disability. Ever try and ask a guy to help you button your pants in a men's room? I distinctly remember considering asking Chad to help me out of frustration and the look on his face when he realized I was about to have to ask him to help.
Turns out the wrist and thumb were just plain thrashed. The thumb was shattered and needed to be screwed back together and multiple fractures throughout the wrist meant a long healing period was needed.
In and of itself it was not that big a deal, I figured. I am not left handed. But see, in 5th grade I broke and shattered my right thumb taking a big swing at my older brother and hitting the hallway instead, and then going ice skating that night, and then having the bone set wrong...
So, when I drive to the mail I think of that dog, hoping I can run it over. I think of the lawyer that still sends me Christmas cards, despite being unable to collect since landlords are not responsible for pets and the guy was so broke that I would never collect. I think of the ache I get in the thumb some days when I am feeling accident prone. And, I think of the doc that gave me cortisone shot in it and told me, "Don't move, this is going to hurt and you don't want me to have to do it again." I mean, how bad does it have to be for a doc to admit that? Finally, I think of the boss that had figured out how accident prone I was and said, "Only you."
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