An unfortunate injury — 1968
During the summer of 1968, preceding my junior year in high school, I suffered an injury which has plagued me throughout my adult life. My friend, Mark Miller, had several unused, dilapidated chicken coops in a field behind his house. One day we began playing with Mark’s dog in one of these old coops. Mark’s dog loved to chase us and nip at our heels, so we began jumping up and swinging from the rafters to get away from the dog. At one point, the dog started chasing me at one end of the coop. I ran full speed toward the other end of the coop, with the dog in hot pursuit. As the dog neared and began nipping at my heels, I leaped for and grabbed a rafter. My momentum caused me to swing to a fully horizontal position. Just at that moment, the board I was swinging from broke in half. I fell from a height of about 8 feet flat onto my back, landing on the cement floor of the coop. I knew immediately that I had injured my back, and it was several minutes before I could move, talk, or breathe normally again. My friend helped me limp home. My right upper back was sore for days afterwards, and I eventually developed a hard lump or calcification over my right scapula. I’m sure that I cracked or chipped the scapula when I fell, and the lump developed as the bone healed. This 1″ diameter lump has been painful for most of my adult life, especially in cold or dank weather. I will be glad to lose this nagging malady in the resurrection process.
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