Michael's Schnoz

Early on in Michael and I's acquaintance, we both attended a game night where we played "Two Truths and a Lie".  One of Michael's "truths" was that his nose had been broken three times.  The first break happened while playing basketball in high school.  The second break occurred at a surgeon's hand two months later in order to allow his improperly-healed nose to be set correctly.  The third time was playing basketball in college.  So you can understand why, half-jokingly, I always remind Michael to be careful and not get injured whenever he goes to get basketball.

Well...

I'm sitting at home, enjoying a free afternoon, when I get a call from Michael, who has been off playing basketball at our church with some friends from his class.

"So hun...I have some bad news."

"What?"

"I just broke my nose."

My first thought is, "No way - AGAIN?"  But it's true.  He has officially broken his nose for the fourth time, and once again while playing basketball.  One elbow to the nose - POW.

My next thought, which I voice, is, "You must be in a lot of pain."  But apparently the pain isn't too bad.  That's a big blessing.  Michael must have a really high pain tolerance or something because he never seems to be in pain at times when he should be.

I am grateful to his friends (conveniently all Physical Therapy students) who use the first aid kit in our car (I knew there was a good reason to keep that there) to bandage up his nose and get the bleeding to stop.  (Apparently it bled a LOT.  Although I'm not queasy around blood, I'm glad I missed that part.)  One of them also drives him home (thanks Alex!).

So he gets home looking like this...

...and we spend the next few hours trying to find a place with an ENT who would set his nose back into place.  Long story short, it didn't work out.  We race home for a very quick dinner, race out again to go to the stake center for interviews and a girls camp meeting, and at the end of the day Michael goes to bed still with a broken nose.  But not before we run to Sonic for a shake.  Because we just feel like it's an appropriate time to treat ourselves.

So yeah, in this photo his nose is still broken.  Not the best angle to show it, but you can kinda tell that it's still crooked.

Next day I go to work, and Michael - thankfully - is able to find an ENT who does exactly what he wanted done.  No x-rays, no surgery, just - POP!

And here he is two days later.  Good as new!

We are so grateful that Michael didn't have to get all this complicated, expensive stuff done simply to live the rest of his life without a crooked nose.  Now the only remaining questions are whether Michael should continue playing basketball - haha - and also how long he should continue to wear his nose guard at night to protect himself from me (though I'm pretty sure I move around less than he does at night - I should be more worried about my own nose. ;)