My Hand!

So, this whole story starts a few months back.

About a week and a half before I came to Germany my football team was having a 1sts vs 2nds match, and I was going away the manager said he was gonna have me on the bench, to try out a new defense without me! So, no problems there. But then our keeper wasn't able to make it, so since I was just gonna be on the bench I said I'll hop in nets, sure!

About 15 or 20 minutes into the second half one of our 2nds hit a shot down to my left, so I dropped down and saved it with my left hand. It hurt immediately, and having fractured my thumb when I was, like, 12, I thought it felt kinda like that again! So after the match I got my brother to strap it up with crepe bandage the way they had back then!

But the next morning it was still killing me, and it wasn't just the thumb, it was the wrist too! So I thought I'd best go and get it checked out! So I went and was seen very quickly, and they told me it was probably my scaphoid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphoid), and normal practice for that was a cast! But they needed to take an x-ray to see if it was fractured or broken or anything! Luckily it wasn't, so they put the cast on for 8 days! After which they took it off and checked again for breaks or fractures, of which there was again no sign!

So they sent me on my merry way, and I left for Germany, with the wrist in a normal support bandage! It hurt every now and again, but was getting better! I hadn't had any pain in it for quite a while, and thought it had fully healed! So when I went in nets on Monday night, I had no idea of what would happen!

Basically, one of the opposition hit a high looping shot which was dipping in just under the bar, so I, kinda leaning back, attempted to tip over! I'm pretty sure that if I tried that type of save 100 times, 95 times the ball wouldn't even touch my thumb! But, what happened this time? It landed right directly on the tip of my outstretched thumb, and it hurt immediately!

A minute or two later we had a drink break, and I looked at it and could see how it had swollen up huge very quickly! And I could feel how bad it hurt! So I asked Barry to have a look at it, and we both agreed I should go get it checked out asap!

So at the hospital I told them about what had happened before, and showed them the x-rays I'd brought with me from home, ya know, just in cases! So they had a look at them, twiddled with my thumb a little, then took a couple new x-rays. The Doctor then called me in a wee while later and simply said, "Well, you don't have to have studied medicine to see that there's a very clear fracture there!" In the scaphoid, meaning I went one better than last time! It mustn't have been fully healed at all, and I therefore had a weakness there! So they put it in a cast, and I got to choose the colour, so I went with red, cos it's Man United colour! The Doc then told me that there is a hand-specialist in Chemnitz and that I need to go to him, which I did today and set up an appointment for Thursday!

Why do I need to go to the specialist? Because the normal practice in this case is surgery! The surgery entails putting a metal pin or screw into the hand! But hopefully that won't be necessary and the cast will suffice! I'll write again on Thursday to let y'all know the verdict!

What's the most important thing to take from this though? Thnat I pulled off the save both times and didn't concede a goal! :P That said, I ain't ever doing nets again, it just doesn't seem to agree with me!

God bless you, whoever you are, wherever you are! :o)