We live in RI so all practice the past couple months has been at indoor facilities. Well, a week ago last Sunday - the day before high school tryouts - we were at the facility. I was sitting on a chair like at home, behind their L-screen. With only a few pitches left in his half hour session, he drilled a line drive that went right THROUGH the high side of the screen and shattered my nose.
![Frown](/static/images/graemlins/icon_frown.gif)
The gory details: The doctor said he'd never seen this much damage from a baseball - fractured nose, plus several bone fragments floating around, a hematoma (blood clot that gets between cartilage and membrane and can kill nose cartilage, leaving nothing to hold up my nose, if not removed), plus a deviated septum (which IS a common elective
surgery, even tho I sure didn't elect for any of this). Also chipped a tooth. I guess I'm actually fortunate that the ball didn't hit my forehead or eyes or I might have ended up much worse.
Surgery was performed the Wed. after the injury. Tomorrow I'm having the splints removed and hopefully will be fully recoverd within a few more days. It's been a VERY tough road these past two weeks though. When you can't breathe through your nose, mouth breathing at night makes your mouth so dry that you wake up every 15-20 mins in need of water. So there were several nights that I only slept an hour or two. This week though, the dr. gave me some steroids to further reduce swelling and some Valium to help sleep. I finally slept most of the last two nights.
The first week or so, each day when my son would come home and ask "How u feeling?", I nearly broke down but tried to tell him "better". The poor kid surely didn't need this the day before tryouts. But you know what they say: "Sh.t happens!". I did all I could to convince him that it wasn't his fault. But he's asking "Will you ever be able to pitch to me again?".
![Frown](/static/images/graemlins/icon_frown.gif)
![Frown](/static/images/graemlins/icon_frown.gif)
If there's any silver lining in all of this, Kevin was one of only 2 sophomores to make varsity!
![Smile](/static/images/graemlins/icon_smile.gif)
So please folks, before you get behind an L-screen just assuming that it'll hold up, do yourself a big favor and give it a few tugs and maybe see if you can squeeze a ball through it anywhere.
Regards,
Mike