I'm really really not the type to brag, but I do like to tell stories, so forgive if a little bragging enters into the following.
Four weeks ago I fell off a 40' cliff in Death Valley. (link goes to updated story) I spent a week in the hospital with the same injury that killed actress Natasha Richardson last week. I left the hospital with severely bruised ribs, and my left (bridge) arm in a full bent-at-the-elbow arm cast.
After two weeks of recovery, I'm at least able to head down to be with my BCA league (DVPL) team, but still way to sore and medicated to play. Week three of recovery comes around, and this time I wind up playing, cast and and all, against the number one team (consistently, and by a long shot) in our league. Format = 4 players per team, 1 game against each player.
The three guys on the team are all ranked in the top 5 for our league. Despite being run out off the break by one player. I do respectfully (for me) against the other two, especially considering my arm in the cast. I can tell that some people hanging around and watching were kinda bemused seeing someone play with their full bent arm cast.
Now ya gotta understand, three weeks and two days before this night, I was lying in an unconscious heap on in the desert. I didn't care a wit about losing. I was just happy to be alive and playing. The real bonus for me was in my last game, pulling off two really good back to back shots to win 9-6 against the fourth person on the team, Holly Robinson, who happens to be the 2008 BCA Nationals Senior Women's Champion. (that's the brag part) Doing that with my cast on, I can't tell you what a boost that was to my spirits, for my 'mental' recovery. (Holly is an awesome and very gracious sport, btw, and their team totally deserves accolades for their combined skill)
A few nights later, playing casual against a former teammate, arm still in cast, I play a game with 5 back-to-back banks. The last shot is a jammed up 8 with my only shot being a long kick shot from the end rail back to a far corner, requiring a bridge with my cast, and the 8 sails in center pocket like it's on wire. It's the kind of game you just wish a video camera had been running.
So that's the up.
The down happens last night, warming up for our last match of the season. Not more that three hours before, I was in the hospital getting my cast off. It amazed me how sore, fragile, and stiff, my arm and wrist felt once the cast was removed. After x-rays, the doc decides rather than give me another short arm cast for a few weeks, that I'd probably do better with a velcro brace. I say "fine", and he warns me that my wrist will only have about 60% of the support that it would with a cast, and cautions me accordingly. Brace goes on, but everything with more than 5 lbs of effort hurts like a SOB, even trying to open or close my car door.
As soon as I get home, I head straight to my table to practice, and see if I can shoot with the brace. Answer, yes. So I head down to where the match will be and start to do some warm-up games with a teammate. Now, no longer in the cast, my brain starts doing things with my arm that I don't think through. So at one point I missed a reverse angle cut shot, and without thinking, I slammed my left hand - complete with still-broken wrist down on the table in one of those classic "Damn!" moments. I can't begin to tell you how fast every single nerve in my body started screaming at myself, "You Dumb MotherF...r!"
- as I grabbed my cue for support, bent over with my arm tucked wing under, and basically spun myself with a bit-lipped expression in pain circles off into a corner, hiding behind a dart machine. As I cradled my wrist, It took minutes for the waves of pain to subside, during which every second, I kept thinking how much of an idiot could I possibly have been to do what I just did. - Fortunately, the pain did subside, and I was able to play last night as well. But that was definitely the "Down" moment.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. :thumbup:
Thanks for looking.
Four weeks ago I fell off a 40' cliff in Death Valley. (link goes to updated story) I spent a week in the hospital with the same injury that killed actress Natasha Richardson last week. I left the hospital with severely bruised ribs, and my left (bridge) arm in a full bent-at-the-elbow arm cast.
After two weeks of recovery, I'm at least able to head down to be with my BCA league (DVPL) team, but still way to sore and medicated to play. Week three of recovery comes around, and this time I wind up playing, cast and and all, against the number one team (consistently, and by a long shot) in our league. Format = 4 players per team, 1 game against each player.
The three guys on the team are all ranked in the top 5 for our league. Despite being run out off the break by one player. I do respectfully (for me) against the other two, especially considering my arm in the cast. I can tell that some people hanging around and watching were kinda bemused seeing someone play with their full bent arm cast.
Now ya gotta understand, three weeks and two days before this night, I was lying in an unconscious heap on in the desert. I didn't care a wit about losing. I was just happy to be alive and playing. The real bonus for me was in my last game, pulling off two really good back to back shots to win 9-6 against the fourth person on the team, Holly Robinson, who happens to be the 2008 BCA Nationals Senior Women's Champion. (that's the brag part) Doing that with my cast on, I can't tell you what a boost that was to my spirits, for my 'mental' recovery. (Holly is an awesome and very gracious sport, btw, and their team totally deserves accolades for their combined skill)
A few nights later, playing casual against a former teammate, arm still in cast, I play a game with 5 back-to-back banks. The last shot is a jammed up 8 with my only shot being a long kick shot from the end rail back to a far corner, requiring a bridge with my cast, and the 8 sails in center pocket like it's on wire. It's the kind of game you just wish a video camera had been running.
So that's the up.
The down happens last night, warming up for our last match of the season. Not more that three hours before, I was in the hospital getting my cast off. It amazed me how sore, fragile, and stiff, my arm and wrist felt once the cast was removed. After x-rays, the doc decides rather than give me another short arm cast for a few weeks, that I'd probably do better with a velcro brace. I say "fine", and he warns me that my wrist will only have about 60% of the support that it would with a cast, and cautions me accordingly. Brace goes on, but everything with more than 5 lbs of effort hurts like a SOB, even trying to open or close my car door.
As soon as I get home, I head straight to my table to practice, and see if I can shoot with the brace. Answer, yes. So I head down to where the match will be and start to do some warm-up games with a teammate. Now, no longer in the cast, my brain starts doing things with my arm that I don't think through. So at one point I missed a reverse angle cut shot, and without thinking, I slammed my left hand - complete with still-broken wrist down on the table in one of those classic "Damn!" moments. I can't begin to tell you how fast every single nerve in my body started screaming at myself, "You Dumb MotherF...r!"
- as I grabbed my cue for support, bent over with my arm tucked wing under, and basically spun myself with a bit-lipped expression in pain circles off into a corner, hiding behind a dart machine. As I cradled my wrist, It took minutes for the waves of pain to subside, during which every second, I kept thinking how much of an idiot could I possibly have been to do what I just did. - Fortunately, the pain did subside, and I was able to play last night as well. But that was definitely the "Down" moment.That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. :thumbup:
Thanks for looking.
