I Hurt My Thumb

IKEA Padova just opened on Wednesday and I have been dying to get out there just to look around (and get those cool IKEA slippers because it is chilly here at night and my feet have been freezing). So yesterday Gigi and I decided to ride our bikes out to IKEA. We had looked on a map, and it didn't seem to hard to get to, so off we went.

About 20 minutes later, and after a slightly harrowing journey down the two-lane highway, we had arrived. IKEA was totally packed, this being the first weekend it was open. We found some great stuff for the apartment that we can go back and buy when we a) get paid, and b) are not on our bikes. But I did buy the slippers I set out to get.

Bonus: they are made of terrycloth, not waffle-weave cotton like back home.

After IKEA, we stopped at the mall with the WalMart-ish store to see if I could find a big plastic jar for my classroom. Since we couldn't, we went into the centre of town to the 1 Euro store. I found my jar and a big mug for tea. By this point we were pretty tired so we decided to head home. The centre streets were packed with people, so we took a less crowded and more direct street home.

The city of Padova is putting in a tram system, so some streets have street-car tracks in them. The street we took home was one of them. I was riding along to the left of the rightmost streetcar track when I heard a car coming. I attemted to move to the right so the car could pass, but my front tire got stuck in the track-groove and I fell off my little pink bike! I hit the ground, all my purchases went flying from my basket all over the road (bonus: my mug didn't break), and my bell went flying into pieces!

There were three people waiting for the bus across the street, and one of them came running over to see if I was ok. He helped me up and tried to make sure I was ok. The car that was behind me stopped and all 4 people got out to see if there was anything they could do. I was pretty shaken up at that point so all I could do was cry and point to the streetcar tracks when the asked me how I had fallen.

Then I assessed myself to see what the damage was. The results:

a) tore my jeans (the first thing I noticed of course)

b) scraped my left knee (as if it wasn't messed up enough already! It's ALWAYS the left knee. Even though I fell to the right, I still managed to hurt my left knee)

c) scraped the heel of my right hand

and

d) messed up my left thumb. I wasn't really sure what was wrong with it, but I noticed my nail was all scraped, my knuckle was looking a little pointy, and it really hurt.

Gigi let me feel sorry for myself a little before making me get back on my bike. So I rolled up my pantleg, and rode home as best I could. We stopped at the pharmacy to get peroxide and big bandages, and then at the grocery store to get tea and bags to make ice-cubes so we could ice my thumb, which was getting more and more swollen, and starting to bruise.

Somehow during the fall I had managed to get blood on my forehead even though I didn't scrape it, so here I am with my hand all bloody, bleeding knee, blood on my forehead, swollen thumb, and a tear stained face shopping for first aid and ice. I got quite a few stares, let me tell you. And it is my neighbourhood grocery store, so I will have to go back. But I got the grumpy guy behind the cash register to smile in sympathy, so it wasn't a total loss. Gigi kept telling me I looked so cool with all my wounds.

By the time I got home I had decided that I should probably go to the hospital about my thumb since it was really swollen and turning purple. I remember my dad telling me that if the bone is fractured or broken, the extremity will swell and bruise right away, which is what my thumb was doing.

So, off Gigi and I went to the hosital. Luckily we live closeby. By the time I got to the hospital, my thumb looked like this:

(Comparison with normal thumb. Note unusual pointiness of knuckle.)

And it felt like someone had driven a nail through my knuckle. *super ouch*

The doctors were really nice and funny. I got a shot in the butt for the pain, and they took 3 x-rays of my hand. If you look very carefully at the thumb in the middle x-ray, you can see a dark line on the left side of the knuckle.

Somehow I managed to fracture my thumb while falling off my bike. Who does that, really?!? Now that I think about it, my thumb probably hit my bell, which is why it went flying off my bike into many pieces.

So now I have a splint on my thumb for the next 21 days.

I have to go back for x-rays in 5 days to make sure the fracture is closing. If it isn't then they will need to put a pin in my thumb! YIKES! Let's hope that doesn't happen.