"Tradition"

If you have read my blog for any period of time, it will come as no surprise to you that our family is big on "Tradition."  Usually, the traditions we have relate to holidays, like always making leek for holiday dinners, or singing Christmas Carols while we clean up after Thanksgiving dinner, or going en masse to see fireworks on the 4th of July.  Nothing particularly unusual or interesting....just habits we have developed over the years.  Some of them are more important to us than others, but if we repeat something for more than two years in a row....bang!  We've got a new tradition!

I have recently realized that we seem to have another tradition, that isn't so great.  In truth, it probably can't be classified as a tradition exactly.  It's more of a curse!  A mild one, but a curse nonetheless.

The women in my family seem prone to falling....and in the process of falling, manage to break something....usually a wrist!   For example:

*  I fell at age 11 and sprained my right ankle so badly the doctor said it would have been better if I had broken it.
*  Ratchlet fell off a horse when she was 11 and broke her right wrist. 
*  Maddie-the-Great fell during a soccer game at school when she was 8 and broke her left wrist.
*  I fell while roller skating at about age 25 and broke my right wrist.
*  I fell at a dance rehearsal at about age 42 and broke my right wrist AND my left elbow.
*  Little Sis fell at home while getting dress last week (her age is lots younger than mine) and broke her left wrist. 

M-t-G and her broken wrist
just in time for her First Communion!

Other than my additional elbow and ankle injuries, all the casualties of our falls have been the wrist!  Weak wrists must run in our family!  Or maybe we all fall in exactly the same way, i.e., putting out a hand (or 2) to catch ourselves.  Ergo, most of the weight is then borne by the wrist and voila, compression fracture!  In a cast for 4-6 weeks!  Major inconvenience! 

For those of us who are right handed and broke the right wrist (that would be Ratchlet and I), it is amazing all the things you cannot do with your right wrist out of commission.  Things like writing, holding a pen, picking up a telephone (the old style receiver), combing, washing, or styling your hair, putting on socks or hose, cutting your food, carrying anything heavy, driving stick shift, or typing with any speed whatsoever.  We got very inventive in finding new ways to do things!  Those breaking left wrists have a somewhat easier time of it.  For them, their "main" hand still works!

Luckily, our breaks were mainly simple or greenstick fractures not even requiring much in the way of manipulation to get the bone re-aligned before the cast was put on.  Little Sis was not so lucky.  She had to have it repaired surgically.  So she not only has a bone that must knit back together, she also has an incision that has to heal.  Major ouchie!!  Heal up quick, LS!

So as you can see, the females in our family have a tradition, or a curse, or just stupid bad luck that results in a similar experience we all go through.  It ain't fun and it's a pain we all could have done without.   

So far Little Sis's daughter has remained on her feet and has all of her bones intact!  I'm pulling for her to stay that way!  This is one tradition we really don't want to extend to any more of us!!