Memory Lane Friday - an Injury

I don't have any injury from childhood worth bragging about.  I had the typical bumps and bruises.  No broken bones.  Not even a sprain.  There is one injury that sticks out in my head.  Not because of its severity, but because of my stupidity.

It was the summer before eighth grade.  I was hanging out at my best friends house, swimming in her pool or riding bikes.  Her brother and their neighbor were driving a go-cart around the neighborhood.  When they asked if we wanted to drive it, of course we said "absolutely."  When it was my turn, I took off down the road, wind blowing in my hair.  It was exhilarating.  I took a left turn into the drive way and began approaching the garage door.  Did I mention the go-cart had faulty breaks?  By faulty I mean non-existent.  As the garage door got closer, I noticed the go-cart wasn't slowing down.  My gut reaction was that I had to stop.  So of course I put my feet down, right? NOPE.  I put my hand down to stop the cart.  You can imagine this doesn't work so well.  I ended up driving over my hand, leaving my wrist wedged between the wheel and the body of the go-cart.  While this maneuver was stupid on my part, it did effectively stop the cart.

Once I freed myself, I looked down and noticed a two inch by one inch white spot on the radial side of my wrist. I began to panic.  I thought I ripped the skin down to the bone.  At age 13 I didn't have quite the extensive nursing knowledge I have now;-).  The spot on my wrist soon started gushing bright red blood.  I must have torn through several layers of skin.  My injury took a long time to heal.  Two weeks later I started school and still had a large scab on my wrist.  The funniest part of this whole thing (to me at least).  My best friend asked me the first day of school "What did you do to your wrist?"  I guess the injury wasn't quite as traumatic for her. :-)