Pitter from Pat
Never thought I would be a “leftist”
I had a bit of a mishap during the holidays. On Christmas Eve…no less…the floor just inside the entryway of my daughter’s home reached out and grabbed me, wallowed me around, smashed my glasses, and broke my elbow. Whisked off to the ER by my son and daughter, I spent a couple of hours (no kidding…just a couple of hours), getting probed, poked and x-rayed, and finally sent home with a big ole’ heavy attachment on my right arm. In a few days I was to visit an orthopedic doctor for further evaluation and recasting.
In the meantime, there was the Christmas Eve dinner to prepare and the traditional dumplings to roll and cut. Surprisingly, everyone pitched in; and with flour from one end of the counter to the other, we soon had enough dumplings to round up the pot that contained the now pulled from the bone, boiled chicken. You know…I learned something from the experience…next year the art of dumpling making will fall into many hands. I sort of liked just sitting back and barking instructions. Nah, on second thought…I like the idea that everyone likes mom’s dumplings best.
A long-time friend of mine had ironically broken her wrist during the Thanksgiving holiday, so I immediately got on the phone with her to compare notes. We chatted about how certain undergarments that required hooking could be a big deal. She shared some secrets that she had learned from her experience over the past month and I shared traumas that I was just now encountering. For example, finishing in the bathroom with a hand one is not used to using can be awkward. I don’t understand it, I complained to my friend…both arms are the same length but the left arm just won’t reach.
You see, I am one hundred percent a righty. I have always claimed that my left hand is just there for balance and looks because when it comes to using it…forget it! My mother, on the other hand, was completely ambidextrous…she could use both hands equally. This capability came in very handy for her one summer while attending a university class at a Bloomington campus. She broke her arm during a fall, but never missed a beat in completing her written assignments. She simply switched hands and kept on writing. This accident happened in the days before computers… when people actually used pen and paper. I believe she came to have this skill by actually being a lefty in the beginning, but a teacher, way back when, decided that using her left hand wouldn’t do and forced her to use her right hand. I guess that was one misguidance that actually worked in the student’s favor.
However, that is not the case with me. I couldn’t button my pants, curl my hair, and could barely brush my teeth. As for typing…oh gosh, what a nightmare! I had to revert to the hunt and peck system that I used in early years before I learned keyboarding skills.
A colleague suggested that I dictate my articles for someone to type, but how can I dictate when I’m not sure what I want to say. I mean sometimes the words come and other times they don’t. I am sure a typist would not want to wait for me to walk around, get a glass of water, and feed the gold fish while coaxing my thoughts to come forth.
I also tried one of the typing gadgets that people speak into and it types for them. Oh my gosh! I had so many jumbled words and so much gibberish that it took an hour just to correct all the typos. Where did the computer come up with such words? Maybe it didn’t understand my humor.
Nevertheless, I am in the recuperation mode now, and it is just a matter of time before I cash in this big, chunky cast for an ace bandage and then freedom once again. On the other hand, this experience has taught me some patience (notice I said some), helped me discover new skills, and improved muscle tone in my left arm that normally just “hangs around.” I also learned another lesson that anytime I feel sorry for myself, I just take a look around. While in the ortho waiting room I saw people on crutches, a teenager with both feet and legs bound up, and a person with TWO broken arms. Feel sorry for myself? Nah…I had the joy of watching a whole family pull together to cut out dumplings to make sure that our Christmas Eve dinner came off as usual. I got the pleasure of “warm fuzzies” as I saw how my children jumped in to take care of mom for a change, and I received lots of sympathy with “oohs” and “aahs” from family members.
It was an experience I don’t want to repeat, but an experience that I wouldn’t want to share with any other folks than my family.
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Patricia Kirby, Editor
Patricia Kirby brings several years of journalism, editing, and publishing experience to Radius magazine. She is a published writer and former co-editor of Hoosier Outdoor magazine, with a distribution throughout the mid-west. Patricia is also a former Editor and Publisher of the Hoosier Topics newspaper, distributed countywide in Putnam County, Indiana, and the Springs Valley Herald, French Lick, Indiana. Her tell it like it is writing style offers humor and a bit of satire in her monthly columns, "Pitter from Pat." She has done extensive traveling, including a month in the Outback of Australia to accompany a study group of Aboriginal tribal music.
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