The Other Side of Me

I'm not sure it is one of my top days when I get a phone call from Andy letting me know he is spending his lunch hour at the emergency room.  I think for the last 10 years he has spent a few lunch hours a week playing basketball.  His days revolve around it -- claiming it is wonderful exercise.  I'm glad that he plays except for on days when I 'm not.  This was one of those days . . . December 1, 2007 to be exact.  He went up for a rebound and so did one of his team members.  Andy just happened to get his face in the way of the team members elbows.  He got stitches and a really nice shiner (which everyone teased that I gave him).
Now, don't be confused by the next picture - it is not trick photography.  It does happen to be his other eye.  A year ago it was his right and this week he got his left.  His city-league basketball team was playing in the semi-finals on Monday night.  The game was going pretty well but both teams were being pretty aggressive.  Andy went for a rebound along with a member of the other team.  They got a little locked up with each other and ended up on the ground.  Andy had his eye land on the other players knee.  I wasn't worried at first when he was a little slow getting up.  But then when he moved his hand and the blood could be seen my concern grew.  I was sitting by Paul and tried to find out what the proper etiquette is for hurt spouses (if it was one of my children I would run right out to help).  I stayed put until I was told we were going to the emergency room for stitches.  

We were lucky to have Dr. Oveson on call.  The cut was much deeper than either of us expected.  After Dr. Oveson got the first stitch in he said he could no longer see his skull - I just missed seeing how hard-headed Andy is.  He ended up with 3 layers, the first layer had 3 stitches, the second layer had 5 and the top layer had 6.  When we were all done we did head right back to the game - he was looking to see if the team might still be playing (they only had 4 guys when Andy left).
These pictures were taken the next morning.  If I would have waited a day or two I could have gotten the black eye that transpired.  Andy is tough, he just feels bad he missed the end of the game, being the super competitive athlete that he is. He will now be symmetrical with matching scars on both eyes.  We are blessed that he is lucky enough to get his eyelids and not his eyes.  It could have been much worse - now on two occasions.