Trust me, it’s safe.

When I was little, from 4th to 9th grade, I did taekwondo. As I remember it, I was pretty good. But you know, I was a child, so maybe I just thought I was good. I even used to compete in tournaments. I went to nationals twice.  See, I was good….

So what better way to get in shape and lose the rest of my baby weight? I thought martial arts would be fantastic for me. On Monday, I tried out Muay Thai. It was fun, but I prefer kicking. Plus, I have wonky double jointed elbows that sometimes make my punches a little bit special.

Double jointed elbows, you ask? Just picture this: I can put my hand on a table facing forward and then turn it 360 degrees to face forward again.  I can move my elbows 180 degrees without moving my hands.  It freaks people out, so I tend not to do it in public unless I want some kicks, giggles, and disgust.

My next trial was a Taekwondo place.

“I don’t want you to get hurt.” Aaron told me.

“I did Taekwondo for 4 years. Never once did I get hurt. You wear all sorts of pads.  Pads on your arms, hands, legs, chest and stomach, head… It’s fine.”

Class went was going great.  I was having a ball. At the end came a little non-contact sparring. The first round I was with a young black belt. She couldn’t really get a kick in.  I like to push like that.  Like a little firecracker.

Second round.  I fought the teacher. Funny, he didn’t fight anyone else.  I accidentally got him in the balls. Oops. But, since it was non-contact, it was very light and didn’t actually hurt him at all.

Third round. I was up against the tallest guy in class. I have no idea what rank he even was since he forgot his belt at home (and we all had to do extra push ups for it). He threw a kick, I blocked. He got me in the wrist.  Not very hard, so I kept going.

“Are you ok?” he asked me.

“yeah, fine.” I kept kicking

Fourth round. I was gassed (tired).  That’s the problem with a firecracker. It doesn’t last long.

Then there were sit ups. And more sit ups. And leg lifts. And jumping jacks. Oh gosh, I can’t do those. Better work on those pesky pelvic floor muscles….  I must have looked rather silly standing there as everyone else jumped around me.  Well, they haven’t recently had a baby.

I drove home. Made dinner. My wrist was pretty sore, so I was doing things with my left hand.  I did the dishes.

“Maybe you should go to the e.r.” Aaron told me.

“No, I’d be there all night, and what if Danny wakes up hungry?” He won’t take a bottle.  It’s all booby, all the time.

I picked Daniel up, and he’s a little chubba, so that’s harder than it sounds.  At last check a couple weeks ago, he was 7.9kg, and only 5 months old. That really made my wrist hurt.

I took my watch off before bed.  There were marks where my watch had been. Like it was too small for me even though it usually slides around. There were angry red spotty bruises at the beginning of my wrist.  As soon as i took my watch off, the pain worstened.

“maybe you should go to the hospital.” Aaron told me again.

“Meh. I’ll go to the doctor tomorrow if it still hurts.”

I fed Daniel over night, picking his chubby self up again.  The pain was getting worse.

At some point I told Aaron he’d have to stay home and help so I could see a doctor. It was too painful to sleep anymore, so I got up and had a one handed shower.  I tried to do my hair, but how do you do that when you’re right handed and your right wrist hurts when you so much as twitch? I looked like some cats had a fight on my head, but that would have to do.

I called my doctors office. They weren’t open yet, but it seems my incessant ringing prompted the receptionists to pick up anyway.

“Hi, I hurt my wrist. I’m not sure if it’s broken. Should I go see my doctor, or do I have to go to the hospital?”

“It’s up to you, it may be quicker coming in and getting a referral for an x-ray then waiting in the e.r.”

So I went in.  I didn’t wait too long, I went to the ultrasound place and was seen straight away. I had to wait a couple hours for the results, so we went home and put Daniel down for his nap.

When we went back in, my doctor had gone home.  I saw his mom.

“Oh, I’m afraid it’s fractured.” She told me. Crap. ” How did you do it?”

“Blocking a kick at taekwondo.”

“I usually deal with ladies problems, so I’ll just go speak to Dr. Looi (aka, her husband) about this one.” I’m not gonna lie, I stifled a giggle there.

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“So you fell on your wrist?” She said when she came back.

Ummm….

I think I had to tell her 3 times what happened.

I called the hospital to make an appointment to get a cast. “Our first free time is Tuesday.” Yeah, great, that’s helpful.

Eventually, I found a GP clinic that does casts.

20 hours, and no pain killers after the “taekwondo is safe,” eat-my-words accident, I got my cast.

Now I just have to figure out how to take care of 2 kids with one hand for 6 weeks. And get Hannah to decorate it for me.

Unfortunately, it’s the height of summer, so no swimming for me. Fast forward 6 weeks and oh goodness, without being washed that whole time and sweating in 30-40c heat, my arm is going to reek. Ew.

Yep, taekwondo is perfectly safe. Humph

Things I’ve learned so far:

1. Husband is always right

2. It is entirely possible to drive a manual car with only my left hand.

Please vote (once per day would be fantastic) for my blog. All it takes is a click on the banner. Come on, I wrote this post entirely with my left hand. And i’m right handed…. Surely that gets me a vote.