Saturday, September 19, 2009

Feeling old....and young...but mostly sore

One of my jobs here is to be the advisor for the junior class. I have some incredibly talented and dedicated officers and they are working their butts off. I have been encouraging them to work at sponsoring activities that more kids will come to (BESIDES A DANCE), so they got an ice skating event organized. They set everything up, did announcements all week, made posters, sat in the ticket booth to sell tickets.....and only sold 6 tickets. They were SOOO disappointed and I felt so bad for them, but the rink we went to only charged us for the tickets we sold, not for the rink itself, so we went ahead had had the event anyway. The kids texted their friends and by the end of the night we had about 20 kids there from a couple of different schools, and they were having a blast.

These are just amazing kids, and despite the fact that my Saturday night plans consisted of hanging out with a bunch of random teenagers, I really had a good time. I was helping the girls lace up their skates and they started calling my MamaNu (a play off my last name) and by the end of the night, even the kids from the other school were calling me that. I guess there are worse things they could call me, and since I am the same age as some of their parents (a fact that never ceases to freak me out), I guess it makes sense. It made me feel kind of good. =)

The last time I went ice skating was about 16 years ago and I didn't really enjoy it that time, but one of the girls was terrified of the ice and refused to get back on after one time around, so I put her skates on and went around a few times. I actually had a lot of fun and the kids were about the same skill level as me, so no shame. =)

As an hour or so went by, I was able to move away from the wall and go a little faster, which was great. I skated for a couple of hours and decided to go around one more time before taking off the skates.

I made it ten feet before falling on my face.

Well, not so much my face, as my right elbow. The kids all raced over to ask if I was ok, I could see the thoughts running through their heads, "what is this crazy teacher DOING on the ice?" "Why isn't she wearing orthopedic skates?" "How fast can I get this on youtube?"

I assured them I was all right, but it took me a minute to get up, as I struggled to keep the pain from showing on my face. Above all else, I must remain cool. Shrug it off. SHOW NO FEAR.

With my right arm dangling uselessly at my side, I made my way to the front of the arena and asked the teenaged manager if he had first aid training (he did, in his words, "sort of"). He examined my elbow and said that since it hadn't immediately turned blue (!!!!!) it probably wasn't broken, although it might be chipped. He said he was required to tell me to get it checked by a doctor, but that they probably wouldn't be able to do anything.

I drove home in quite a considerable amount of pain, thankful every mile I drove that I didn't have a manual transmission, because I would have been taking the bus home. I had to shift the transmission handle, buckle in, hold my keys, and so on, all with my right hand.

So here I sit, able to type, but unable to grade. =)

From talking to my mom and poking around on the internet, I think I have severely bruised my elbow. The muscles in my forearm hurt and it is difficult to turn my hand from side to side. I have about 80 degrees of motion from straight down. I think my arm is a little swollen, but it's definitely not blue. I am icing it and dosing myself with ibuprofin.

If it's not better by Monday, I may have to skip parent night and go to the doctor. Too bad......=)

2 comments:

pam said...

I'm reading this late, but I hoped you skipped parent night, and I hope you're feeling better.

That's so sad that you only sold 6 tickets!

John Deere Mom said...

Oh no!!!!! Hope you are feeling better!