Painful Subject

Word to the wise. When playing ultimate frisbee with someone a lot bigger, no matter how competitive you are, it's usually safer to not get in a big guy's way. 

I waited to blog about this in more detail until the painfulness subsided a bit and we could all laugh about this. (You are laughing now, right Christina?)

A month ago, halfway through Bible Study the doorbell rang. We meet in the basement of some friend's house and Keith offered to go upstairs and answer the door. He didn't come back.

Kiah took advantage of the break to use the restroom and went upstairs. She didn't come back.

Finally the hostess said she'd go upstairs and see what was going on. We warned her not to go upstairs since two people had already left and not returned.  She went anyway and came back saying Keith was talking to someone I've referred to on this blog before as "Waldo." (click here if you're curious or need a refresher)

Well that was certainly odd. He leads youth group and this would have been smack dab in the middle of youth group. Maybe no kids showed up and he had something urgent to talk to Keith about. But still it was odd that he'd interrupt our Bible Study.

Keith and Kiah finally came back down and Keith said he'd tell us later. A half hour later when we finished, Keith said "Waldo stopped by to say that he'd accidentally broken Christina's nose. (insert astonished collective gasp)

Turns out with great fear and trepidation "Waldo" had come to the door that night, saying to Keith, "I need to talk to you about one of your daughters."

This immediately struck fear in Keith's heart, wondering what they had done now. To his great surprise he was led to the car where Christina sat in total misery. OUCH!

Christina helps with Youth Group and being uber competitive was guarding "Waldo" a little too closely. He went to fling the frisbee and his forearm connnected with Christina's nose. He was horrified to feel the crunch, hear the snap, and see her immediately drop to the ground in pain.

If Christina or one of the other youth group kids had done the same thing, they would have hit the other person in their stomach, but because he's so tall, her nose was on his arm level. Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He, of course, felt terrible and wondered how to tell his pastor that he'd broken his daughter's nose. Christina asked if it looked bad and he lied and told her that it wasn't too bad.

Knowing not much can be done for a broken nose and not sure whether to visit the emergency room or not, they tracked down an EMT friend of Christina's who took one look at her and said, "That looks awful!" The EMT advised against an ER visit, suggesting she get in touch with an Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor the next day.

Family responses varied from sympathy to ridicule. We all felt bad for her but she looked so cute with black eyes. She came to breakfast one morning wearing a purple shirt and Keith couldn't resist saying, "Your shirt matches your eyes."

She was out with a friend a few days later who was self-conscious because people kept looking at him, probably wondering if he'd beat Christina up. She did resemble a victim of domestic abuse.

One of the hardest things was when she gave in and had a good cry, she couldn't blow her nose because it was broken.

Our family has a warped sense of humor so Kiah wickedly told "Waldo" that if you maim someone so nobody else wants to marry her, then you have to marry her. (A shotgun wedding or a different sort.) Poor guy hasn't been around much since.

I begged Christina for a picture, saying that down the road when all this has subsided she'd be able to laugh about it and would enjoy having a picture for posterity's sake. I tried to be kind and take the best possible picture under the circumstances.

Later the same night, Erica snuck up to her, snapped an awful picture, then ran upstairs and posted it on Facebook. Nothing like a supportive family to help you through hard times.

A friend gave her these patches like football players wear, took this picture, and posted it on Facebook with the title, "Making lemons out of lemonade."

 Christina tried one ENT doctor in Duluth who reset her nose (without anesthesia - double ouch!) but didn't do it right. Upon a friend's recommendation, she tried another ENT, who this time with anesthesia and a surgical procedure, reset her nose properly and then put a nose cast on her. (A nose cast is more like a stiff bandage than a plaster cast.)

I begged and begged to no avail for a picture of Christina with the nose cast but she refused. Something about not wanting it to be put on the blog.

She had the cast for a week and now looks good as new. After a month of messing with swollen crooked noses, ice packs, black eyes, resetting, and a nose cast, I'm happy to say that aside from Christina flinching anytime someone's hands or arms gets anywhere near her nose, we've turned a corner and she's almost as good as new. 

In lieu of marrying Christina, "Waldo" apologized with a $25 Starbucks card and a bag of Reese Peanut Butter Cups. We're all still friends and lessons were learned all around.

We've been inundated with broken nose stories from people who heard about Christina. Many brave souls have set their own noses. Hopefully this chapter will soon close and we'll be ready for the next adventure.