Injuries

"On a scale of 1 to 3, it was a 4," he said. "It was off the chart. It was pretty badly damaged -- shredded is the better term."

This is what the doctor said about Cincinatti QB Carson Palmer's injury he suffered last week in his first ever playoff game.

Carson Palmer's knee injury was "devastating and potentially career-ending," involving numerous ligament tears, a shredded ligament, damaged cartilage and a dislocated kneecap, his surgeon said.

Ouch.

I've never really been injured. I haven't been to the hospital due to any kind of injury either. I guess it helps that I don't play any sports.

When I was about 8 or 9, I had an irregular heartbeat and was treated for it. I remember they were putting suction cups on my body and it felt funny, the machine they used to *suck* it on. And then they had wires running out of them into this black box.

Basically there was a drug they were giving kids, called "Alupent". It was for asthma treatment. I was taking it. But whenever I took it, my heart would go absolutely nuts and I'd have these mini heart-attacks in the middle of the night. At first we thought it was just bad dreams, but as it became more and more frequent, we had it checked out.

They had me take the box home and take the drug more, just to make sure. Shortly after, I believe they took the drug off the market.

I guess I'm pretty thankful that it was nothing more than a defective drug, and not a personal condition that I have.

Anyway, that's about the gist of my own experience in hospitals. Hopefully I'll never have to go there again. I broke my nose once while skiing, back in 2000 in Ottawa. I landed on my face and slid for a few miles. For a week I was able to shift my nose from side to side. The cartilage had broken. But it healed on its own without the need for a bracer of any kind.

That's the reason I've never gone skiing since then, in case anyone's wondering why I never go when people go. No offense or anything, I just happen to like my nose the way it is.

I have a chronic knee injury I think, that is from moving large objects that I should never have been moving, at a young age. My dad and I finished the basement of our old house, and then did a lot of moving ourselves to our new house. That was when I was 12-13 years old. And I was a scrawny boy. Haha.. who am I kidding, I'm *am* a scrawny boy. Anyway we moved lots of things, a whole lot of drywall, lumber, gigantic tools with really big blades. Blocks of concrete, bricks, tiles, etc.

Come to think of it, if I can somehow reach back into my memory at all the things my dad and I worked on, and somehow remember how to do all those things, I could probably build an entire house. We did it all.. from bottom to top. Everything from pouring concrete for a floor, plumbing for bathrooms and kitchens, to nailing shingles on the roof.

[Yes, Habitat for Humanity is one of the places I plan on checking out]

Well.. I went off topic again.

I guess I'm just glad I've never been severely injured. I've spent far more time in hospitals visiting other people. Which.. well I don't know if that's a good thing or not. :S