Many of you around the area are at least vaguely familiar with the Negaunee Invitational Tournament held at Lakeview Gymnasium every March & April. Since I turned 18, I have participated in every NIT since. This year, my buddies and I (who had never even won a game in five years) somehow managed to win Class E (The worst one). During that tournament run, I fell down on an outstretched hand and sprained my wrist…. or so I thought. After the injury, I played three more competitive games & a multitude of pick-up games of basketball, along with gratuitous amounts of golf & softball.
For three months I kept up my moderately active lifestyle, and my wrist hurt only a little. It still hurt though, which was odd, come July. I just figured that I damaged the ligament a bit and it would probably always hurt, like my ankles that I’ve sprained a dozen times over. I kept that mindset until one day, during a pick-up game, somebody chopped down to steal the ball for me and got a full shot on my wrist. The pain I felt when that happened not only ended my basketball game, it ended my day.
At the request of my girlfriend, I set up a doctor’s appointment just to appease her. The doctor walked in, took one poke on my wrist at the base of my thumb, noticed my wince, and said: “You broke your scaphoid, no doubt about it.”
Two weeks later, I was under the knife. I figured it was a month to recover from a screw being put into my wrist, and I’d be back to golfing and softballing. Nope, three months. THREE! I’ll be lucky to be ready for the beginning of the Negaunee City League season.
I just find it odd that golf, softball, basketball, and everything else a person does wasn’t even bothering me. It isn’t fun, and now I’m stuck with a giant freak swollen hand with no use of my thumb. Join me in my pity-party won’t you?
Well, at least I’ll easily be able to give people the thumbs up with little to no effort.
RIP Summer 2014… you’ll be missed.
-Carl Leander
