QotD: Don't Worry, It'll Heal

How many bones have you broken? Yours or someone else's?

Six ribs, one collar bone and one toe, not necessarily in that order, and only 2 of those breaks weren't from ultimate frisbee.

The last breaking was two years ago.  I was smooshed by Ben at a practice, a few weeks before Sectionals.  My account of the day:

At practice today, as I was cutting back into the stack, and moving backward with the stack, I turned to the sideline where Melody had the disc, and saw no one was cutting for her (we were all clearing to the stack). Being in the front of the stack means I shouldn't cut, but, well, the count was at 4 at least, and someone needed to get there. I had Steffi on me (freaking fast Steffi), so I had to cut hard.

Cut hard I did to the sideline. Melody saw me and put up the disc. A little high, but still catchable. Hard hard hard to the disc.

In a good heads-up, Ben saw the disc go up and moved off his man to the disc. I was still determined to get that disc, so I continued to go to hard hard hard.

We collided.

As I was reaching up for the disc, our shoulders hit. As I'm much smaller than Ben (125# to about 190#), I bounced off him. My center of gravity is lower than my waist, so I pivoted around that point on impact. My feet swept under Ben's feet, taking him out, too.

After I was hit, I started screaming, and closed my eyes. WHAM! I hit the ground, knees, hips, right wrist, head. Down came Ben on top, smooshing me, knees, hips, chest, head. Total smoosh.

I lay there, unable to breath, unable to move, eyes closed, tears spilling from my eyes. I sensed people surrounding me, then heard Rick say, "Take a deep breath." I stopped panting and tried to take a deep breath. No good.

I was asked what hurt. What didn't hurt? At that moment, I couldn't figure out how to answer what hurt, because my head, my ribs, my shoulder, my wrist, my hips and my knees hurt. I answered my knee.

Someone (Lisa?) placed a hand on my right side, and I screamed (moderately, but as much as I could manage), and tried to get the hand off me. I couldn't stand up, but needed to try.

Somehow, I stood up and looked at my left knee. It had a bulge about the size of a walnut. And it hurt. I tried to walk on it, but it was stiff. Whitney offered a shoulder to help me walk, but I asked him to carry me to the bags. He did. When we arrived, Keith handed me a bag of ice. He had seen me go down and took off to the 7-11 for ice. Keith is so great.

After sitting for a moment, I realized my right side hurt, and I moved the ice pack Brynne had given me from my knee to my ribs.

So, at the end of the day, I was smooshed by Ben. I think my ribs are only bruised and not broken, as I can take a deep breath without sharp pain. But I'm unable to stand up without severe help with my left arm.

Turns out, I was mistaken about the ribs.  I had four broken ribs that took around four weeks to heal.