June 15, 2007
The First Truth
Are you ready for me to reveal the correct answer to statement number one of yesterday’s game? Okay!
1. I broke my right arm because I was copying Mary Lou Retton while watching the 1984 Olympics on television.
This is true.
I was five years old and I loved gymnastics. I begged my mother to let me join a gymnastics class at our local YMCA, but we couldn’t afford it. The closest I came to actually doing cartwheels, back flips and splits was in my kindergarten gym class.
The day I broke my arm is one of my most vivid memories of my childhood. In fact, I barely remember anything else. It was the summer Olympics of 1984 and my mother let me watch Mary Lou Retton perform her routine on the vault (or vault horse) as long as I promised not to jump around too much and wake my baby brother. (In my memories, I don’t even recall where my little brother Nathan was sleeping. Crib or play pen probably).
I told my mother I would be careful and she went into the kitchen to have coffee with my Aunt Mary who was visiting. I got the most brilliant idea to take the chairs from my children’s table and chairs playset, and put the seats facing each other to make a vault horse. My next brillian move was to straddle the seats and then try to stand up on them, just like Mary Lou was doing on the television.
The next thing I remember was tipping back wards and my arm caught caught in the back of the chair. I screamed, began to cry and threw up, in that very order. My mother, only one room away came flying out of the kitchen. I recall she verbally thanked the Heavens that my Aunt Mary was there to watch Nathan so she could take me to the emergency room.
My father was a semi-truck driver and at the time of my injury was away on a delivery. He came home the next day while I was in the hospital and I was crying because I thought I was going to get in trouble for my “horse play”.
I had to stay overnight, alone, after the surgery. My mother couldn’t bring Nathan with her to stay the night because of a stupid hospital rule and my father had to go back to work.
A very nice nurse named Cammie, or maybe it was Tammy, stayed in my room all night so I wouldn’t be afraid and she bought me a Barbie doll the next day. It was Nurse Barbie and I remember telling my mother I wanted to be a nurse because Cammie/Tammy was so nice.
I had 42 stitches in my arm and had to wear a cast for six weeks. It was one long, itchy summer. The scar from the surgery was the length of my of my arm at the age of five and I had two pins put in my elbow to set the break. After the cast was removed, I had 4 weeks of physical therapy because of where I broke the elbow/arm and it took a very long time to extend my arm as well as touch my right shoulder. Even now, my elbow does not extend completely, I have a slight bend in my elbow due to the pins that held it in place.
Congratulations to Karen (the only player so far) for getting this answer correct!
There’s still time to play! I’ll be out of town this weekend, but you can answer questions 2 through 10 in the comments, and I’ll post the second revelation on Monday!
If you’d like to play at your blog, post your link in the comments, please!
Posted by Dana @ 6:03 am • Dana 101
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June 15th, 2007 at 1:30 pm, Nadine Says:
Wow, you remember it all so well! It sounds like a rather painful memory. But a great story to tell at family gettogethers
June 15th, 2007 at 8:46 pm, Leslie Says:
Wow, that was one bad break. I remember those Olympics. I wanted to be like Mary Lou, too.
June 16th, 2007 at 9:06 pm, Dana Says:
Mary Lou was the bomb long ago! I loved her!
June 17th, 2007 at 8:09 am, Believer in Balance Says:
I remember that day Mary Lou Retton scored a perfect 10 on her vault! I’m so sorry you have such a vivid and painful memory of it too. My middle daughter is a gymnast, like I was, and it makes me worry! Now I know how my parents felt.
January 12th, 2008 at 9:07 am, bedroom decor idea Says:
Ara’s fabulous - Inquirer.net…
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March 2nd, 2008 at 9:07 am, The Dana Files » Gender Talk Says:
[...] are enrolled in gymnastics classes than boys. Even I dabbled in the sport as a young kid (and broke my arm trying to imitate the moves of Mary Lou Retton on the pommel horse, during the 1984 [...]