Thursday, June 21, 2007

Keep Your Eye on the Ball, NOT the Ball on Your Eye

Um, yeah... so we lost the softball game last night 13-20. I started off catching and managed to get injured before the end of the top half of the 1st inning.

It was all very stupid.

In our little intramural league, we don't have a lot of equipment, specifically masks for the catchers. The first time I played catcher I was intimidated by having some stranger swinging a bat with all their might just a few feet from my head. The second time I was a little bit more comfortable, and last night I hardly gave it a second thought.

And, while I stay nice and pretty far back from the plate, that doesn't give you any protection if a foul ball suddenly ricochet's off the bat and heads straight for your eye in a split second.

I didn't have time to move.

I didn't have time to think.

The softball clunked directly against the ridge of bone just above my left eye. I stood up from my crouched position, as the first thought that entered my mind was, If I fall down they're going to think I passed out and make me go into the emergency department.

The rest of the game was spent on the bench with an ice pack slapped over my eye. My vision was fine, and my head didn't really even hurt.

Today when I woke up the eye had swollen up even more and I could only open it with great effort. Dark purple and hot pink pooled blood had collected above and below my eye.

When I walked into the department this morning, everyone stared. Several of the nurses lectured me for not seeking treatment. One of my attendings was initially concerned about my vision, but once he saw that my actual eye looked fine, he switched to giggling every time he saw me the rest of the morning.

And wouldn't you know it, one of my first few patients this morning had a black eye... only hers wasn't even a quarter the size of mine, and she'd gotten it from being punched out last weekend! My attending asked me if I had any sympathy for her, and I just laughed as I had joked about immediately sending home anyone that looked better than me at the beginning of the shift.

The eye actually doesn't hurt at all. I took a good dose of ibuprofen during my shift, even though it wasn't bothering me, and by the end of the shift I was actually walking around with an open left eye as much of the swelling had gone down.

It certainly got me a lot of attention today, although none of my patients actually asked what happened. I got all sorts of nicknames today from "Lefty" to "Slugger". Not exactly how the girl who doesn't like to draw attention to herself wants her day to go. Part of me would have liked to have found an eye patch and a stuffed parrot to wear on my shoulder.

The funny thing is that tomorrow night is the big graduation dinner, and I have to get all dressed up. Too bad I don't have anything fuschia to match my eye.

I think part of my next paycheck will go to donating a catcher's mask to the team.


3 comments:

~~Silk said...

Tsk. Sympathies. BUT, catching without a mask is as bad as biking without a helmet. At least biking, no one is throwing a road at your head.

Anonymous said...

I am so sorry K.
You can get some make up that
will cover up the black eye.
Go to dillards and ask for dermablend. It is
used to cover up birthmarks.
The ladies will give you a sample
amt which you can use for your
graduation dinner.

Chris said...

ADRIAN! ADRIAN!

Your new name is not slugger or lefty....it's ROCKY!

You get an injury like this and the worse I've gotten from fighting is a goose egg on my shin when an opponent and I threw right back leg round kicks at the same time and our shins met.

Can we take up a collection to supply your team with a mask?