I get knocked down but I get up again

Last night I went skiing. I skied for a while. Then I must have thought it was getting boring with all that standing upright and getting some exercise and everything, so I fell down to mix things up a little. Even though I'm such a expert skier nowadays that I only fell down once, I am apparently also an expert at injuring myself (shocking, I know) and I twisted my thumb when I inadvertly landed on my ski pole. 

This is an old picture and those are some old skis. I now obviously own expert skis.

Because I'm stupid hardcore, I immediately jumped up and continued skiing. I can be quite reserved and don't like drawing attention to myself by, say, screaming in agony. I mean, other skiers might then have heard me and tried to help me! Better to save myself some embarrassment and pretend that nothing happened.

The result of continuing to ski with a twisted thumb became apparent when we got in the car and I tried to drive. I couldn't wrap my hand around the gear stick. Once we got home, I noticed the thumb was a little swollen. I later spent an uneasy night trying to find a sleeping position where my thumb didn't hurt, but the only position that matched that description was on my back, and that was uncomfortable in so many other ways that I wouldn't be able to get any sleep anyway.

I got my thumb x-rayed this morning and got the all-clear. Nothing was broken and I was free to leave. It had been a close call, the x-ray technician told me. As I walked back to work from the hospital, it didn't feel like it had just been a close call. The thumb hurt just as much, I couldn't move it more than a centimetre to any direction and it was now definitely more swollen than it had been before.

A few things you can do with a twisted thumb:

1. Put clothes on and take them off (at least if someone's helping you with the buttons/zipper)
2. Eat (unless you have more than a couple of grams of food on your fork/spoon, in which case someone has to feed you help you lift the fork/spoon)

3. Hold a pen (as long as you don't try to write with it or stab yourself in the eye with frustration at how handicapped the loss of the use of your thumb makes you feel)

4. RUN

Things you most certainly cannot do with a twisted thumb:

1. Hitchhike

2. Knit

3. Thumb-wrestle

Eh, I'll be alright.