Paris

So a few weeks ago I had the great privilege to go to Paris with my basketball team and the rest of CBS Sport. In total we were about 60 people or so. The main reason was for a huge sports tournament including many other universities around Europe. The tourney was held at HEC Mercuriales which is the top ranked business school in Europe. The school is actually about 40 mins outside of Paris in the small town of Jouy en Josas. Its situated in the hills of France and is pretty much like something you would see in a movie.

I took a flight on Sunday the 18th of May with one of my teammates Jonas. We arrived in Paris around noon. Once we got our luggage we ate some lunch and caught the train towards Jouy en Josas. The directions we had were a bit unclear and the estimated time of 45 minutes was way off. We ended up having to switch trains a few times and because of all the delays we didnt get to our stop until around 330 in the afternoon. By the time we arrived at the campus we were dead tired. This is probably because of the mountain we had to walk up dragging our luggage. After finally finding the building where we were suppose to check in we located the rest of our team and were ready to get our rooms. We had to share a room so Jonas and I paired up. Our accommodation consisted of a 1 bed dorm room with a sink, shared shower and bathrooms across the hall. Besides the one bed they put an army cot in order to make the room usable for two. The army cot itself however looked like it was used during WWII. It was old and green....despite this I had many good nights of sleep. But lets be honest it was probably because I didnt sleep one sober night on it.

Our team drew the toughest side of the bracket which consisted of 3 other teams. These teams placed 1,2,3 the previous year. We played our first game against the Germans on Monday the 19th. We started off great converting on many shots but the frustration of how absolutely shitty the refs were really took us out of the game mentally. To further our frustration, right before halftime there was a clock malfunction which allowed the Germans to convert on a 3 point half court shot that should have never counted. Although we still held a slight advantage we had already mentally take ourselves out of the game. The second half was much worse than the first as the Germans opened up a double digit lead. The worse part of the game was when I hurt myself intercepting an outlet pass which prevented and easy layup. I went up to grab the ball with one hand but my momentum and the force of the ball propelled me too far back so my feet were not underneath me when I went to land. So in the air I twisted to my left side and put my arm out to brace my fall. I ended up jamming my wrist but played on. After the game my wrist swelled substantially and then turned purple. My cure for this was the dynamic duo of American pain killers and French beer.

The next day was a day off which was nice because it gave my wrist a chance to rest. The color and swelling remained but on Wednesday when it came time for our double header I was ready to go despite the obvious injury. After the two games I went to the nurse to have it checked out. She merely wrapped it with a bandage and told me to come back later to see the doctor. Well the French being French....the doctor never showed. I figured I might as well suck it up for the rest of the week and then get it checked out if it still bothered me when I went back to Denmark. The rest of the week was pretty much nothing but partying. We watched some of the other teams play in various sports and made a trip into Paris one of the days. All in all it was loads of fun and I cant wait until next year to do it all over again.

The Aftermath

So after an exhausting but extremely fun week I returned home to normal life again. That meant catching up on work and ultimately realizing that my wrist needed to be checked out. Eventually I convinced myself to make an doctors appointment which went something like this.

Visit to my personal doctor. Verdict - not broken - fracture not suspected
Referred to the hospital for xrays

Visit to hospital for xrays. Verdict - xrays came back negative. No break but fracture still possible
Referred to the emergency room to speak with a hand surgeon

Visit to the Emergency room. Verdict - possibility of a fracture even though not shown on xrays
Treatment - big frump cast to the elbow for 2 weeks. (I took it off after 5 days)

Visit to the Hospital after 2 weeks for more xrays. Verdict no fracture. Case closed

Next day.

I receive a phone call from the hospital. They say that the rechecked my xrays and believe there may be a fracture.

Visit to the hospital.....again. Talk to my 3rd hand surgeon. He says there is a fracture in my wrist. Looks at the 2 sets of xrays and say....."Wow...how did they miss that?".....my reaction is....you have got to be fucking kidding me.

Needless to say I am now in a cast for the next 6-8 weeks. The icing on the cake was when the doctor left me with the nurse and said "have a nice summer" Seriously! My reaction. Fuck YOU!

I pretty much hate every single minute of the days this cast is on. I have to bag my arm when I shower, refrain from doing any activity that is going to get my arm wet or sweaty (i.e. swimming, running, sweating...etc) I cant wait to go back to the US so I can get this thing off and have the proper treatment from skilled doctors back home.