KARMA - It can bite you in the butt sometimes

I have been meaning to blog about this for a while. Back in September Brad had the opportunity to figure out where the closest hospital was and visit the emergency room. Do I have your attention - you will have to continue reading to find out why.

I like to consider myself and outdoorsy type of person, I played sports and went hiking throughout Utah's national parks growing up. Baseball has never been my strong spot but I have good hand eye coordination and can hit better than most girls if I don't say so myself.

To spice up our Saturday date nights Brad and I occasionally go miniature golfing and hit the batting cages. September 15th was one of these nights. As we are waiting our turn for the next hole of mini golf behind the slowest most uncoordinated 4 adults I have every seen (the single moms with 5 kids behind us caught up) but there I go again with my bad karma - sorry to deviate.

So as we are waiting, patiently lol, we are watching a couple at the batting cages. They look like they are just newlyweds. The guy is currently in the fast pitch baseball at 70-80 mph. He is swinging way too slow and missing everything and getting quite agitated about it. (we are within earshot) The poor girl is trying to be encouraging standing right behind outside the cage saying "swiiiiiiiing - now!" - not helping. In our infinite 6 year relationship knowledge we laugh and chuckle at how she has not learned when to keep her comments to herself and he hasn't quite mastered how to keep his cool. Aauuggghhh we're glad we are past that stage. The guy gets out of the batting cage after not hitting a single ball and rips off his helmet and tosses the bat. We continue out of site of the bating cages on the miniature golf course and they no doubt continue on having not such a great date. Throughout this observation period we also talked about how we can't believe he was swinging sooo slow and Brad thinks he could definitely hit a few. I of course concur that he would be able to adapt and hit way better.

After finishing our miniature golf and skipping a couple holes just to get in front of the painfully slow couples in front of us we continue to the second portion of our date. The batting cages. Brad decides to try and the not so fast pitch baseball cage to warm up. Then its my turn and I am doing slow pitch soft ball (we tried fast pitch softball once before and it was really hard - even Brad could barely hit some) I usually only hit 25 balls or so before I am done and my out of shape arms and hands hurt. I am batting and the balls are coming short from the machine so I have to move way up past the painted base and I'm reaching for some balls. Still I am mostly hitting all the balls and even getting some good drives. We are down to the last 5 balls, 4 balls, 3 balls - SMMAAACCCKKKKK!!!!!!!

What just happened? I am doubled over in pain holding my nose. Brad is asking "Are you ok?" My reply "That really hurt, I think I might have broken my nose." Brad "Really, is it bleeding?" Me "I don't know I'm holding it" (I am still standing in the cage, I let go a little and fill one cupped hand with blood) Me "Yeah it bleeding" I hurry out and sit on a bench with my head tilted back. Brad runs to get paper towels. Meantime I am laughing sitting with my head back - I can't believe this is happening. A nice guy comes over and asks if I am ok and if I need any help. "No" I chuckle, "my husband went to get some paper towels." I just fowled a softball into my own face. I ask "Does my nose look broken." The poor guy who probably didn't want a real response says I don't know, it looks ok. So I am thinking well it must not look very bad and adrenalin must have kicked in because it doesn't hurt too bad. Brad returns and we wipe off most of the blood from my hands - my nose is barely bleeding. So I tell Brad that I will go and clean up and he can finish the last two tokens. (yeah I really said this - what was I thinking) I clean up in the bathroom and my nose is pretty swollen, it takes me awhile - I shove some paper up my nose so you can barely see it. I am pretty embarrassed and don't want people to notice. Brad is waiting out side by the time I get out. He has a good time finishing hitting - I think he even tried the 70 - 80 mph cage and said he probably looked just like the guy we were making fun of - he hit a couple though. We both jest that this is what we get for making fun of other people.

We try and assess whether or not my nose is broken by how it looks and how bad it hurts while driving home. We talk back and forth - How do I know if its broken or not? (I have never had any broken bones or stitches) What can they really do if it is broken? I think my Dad has broken his nose before lets call him. He hasn't ever broken his nose but convinces us that I should probably get is checked out just in case. We stop by home to let the dog out get some ice and then head in the direction of the emergency room we think is closest. My nose is hurting pretty bad now - I think we were out of ibuprofen so I haven't taken anything - and the ice seems to make it hurt worse. Well it is about 10 - 10:30pm when we reach the ER and check in. We made bets while waiting that is wasn't broken. Brad commented how it's better than not to check but seems like such a hassle and takes soo long in the ER. To sum up quickly - we were in the emergency room for about 2 1/2 hours. Got x-rays spoke to the doctor for a moment. Yes I did fracture my nose, I just broke the tip where the cartilage and bone meet. They can't do anything because it is soo swollen, just keep ice on it for a couple days than heat for a couple days. If in 10 days or so after all the swelling has gone down it is crooked here are some plastic surgery references to call.

We were seriously laughing the whole night - it was such a freak thing to happen - and we were sure it was Karma for our playful banter of other people. Before we found out it was really broken we thought it would be funny to take pictures in the ER - below are the two from Brads camera phone. On the way home from the ER Brad says "You're pretty tough and handled that pretty well for actually breaking your nose" Thanks Brad :)

Here is a little of the aftermath. It took 2 1/2 weeks for the bruises to go away and they got worse before they got better. It is also impossible to cover up these kinds of bruises with make-up. It was pretty embarrassing and humorous the next couple of weeks at work. And I am kind-of sad though because I don't think I will ever be stepping into a batting cage again. Everything turned out fine, my nose it still straight - no plastic surgery needed.