How Not to Act If I Break a Bone Due to Osteogenesis Imperfecta
Here’s your laugh for the day. About a year ago, I caught a really nasty cold. I have osteogenesis imperfecta, so when I get sick, I tend to break ribs and collarbones from coughing hard or sneezing repeatedly. Right as I was getting sick, my friend and I went to a Florida Georgia Line concert here in New Orleans. Maybe I shouldn’t have gone since I was already starting to not feel well, but if you’ve ever been to one of their shows, you’ll understand why it was worth it. Florida Georgia Line, Thomas Rhett and Frankie Ballard put on one heck of a show!
Right in the middle of FGL’s set, I coughed wrong and broke a rib. And it really hurt. No tears, but my friend said I got pale all of a sudden and I pretty much stopped moving. I took some Motrin and stuck out the rest of the concert, of course. I mean, priorities, right?
However, there was a lady standing next to us who was getting progressively more inebriated and overly concerned about my condition. Unfortunately my friend mentioned that I broke a rib, to which the lady replied that she was a nurse and could help. Here’s the thing: A) You’re drunk. Go away. B) Nothing they teach in nursing school is what I need when I break something. I need painkillers and heat (not ice), and to just sit there and figure out how bad it is. No doctors, no x-rays, no casts, no wraps. Just leave me alone and let me deal with myself.
But no… This lady had to ask over and over and over again what she could do. When we told her nothing for the fifteen-thousandth time, she proceeded to sit there, stroke my hand and tell me “It’s all going to be OK, honey.”
Oh Em Gee. Yes, lady, it’s all going to be fine if you stop f’ing petting me! I’m not a freaking dog! At one point I had to flat out tell her to stop touching me, to which she turned to my friend and said, “She doesn’t like me! I just want her to like me!” My friend was like, “Just leave her alone and she’ll like you a lot better!”
I felt bad about hurting her feelings, but sometimes people just can’t take a hint. And quite honestly, she probably didn’t remember much of the night the next morning.
Lesson of the day: if you’re ever around me and I break something, don’t pet me!
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Thinkstock photo by Puchalt.
I’m a graphic designer and artist living in New Orleans, Louisiana. I graduated from Loyola University with a BA in graphic design and currently run my own art and design business, KAK ART & Designs. I began painting when I was about five years old when my mother gave me my first watercolor set. Through the years, I was fortunate to have some extremely gifted artists as friends and teachers, and developed my skill and style to what it is today. As you can see, I have a passion for animals and almost exclusively feature them in my work. However, there is a reason for the term “starving artist,” so I quickly decided that graphic design would be the right “day job” for me. It still allows me to be creative, but, let’s face it, it pays the bills a bit better. Oh, one minor detail I left out – I have a genetic bone disease called Osteogenesis Imperfecta. Basically, it’s a fancy term that means that my bones break easily and don’t grow correctly. I’m a whopping two-foot-seven inches in height and use a very specialized electric wheelchair for mobility. As you can imagine, growing up I was not able to participate in a lot of the activities my friends did, so art was a nice out for me. While they were outside playing baseball, football, soccer, and softball, I was inside learning about composition, shading, color, and new media. There were still times I wished I could be with my friends, but art definitely helped. I started my business just before graduating college in 2011, and today help both businesses and individuals with their graphic design needs. This includes everything from posters to invitations to websites to social media imagery. I also paint, and my watercolor pet portraits are sort of my specialty. And in my “spare time” (ha ha), I create jewelry designs with semi-precious and precious gemstones, freshwater pearls, sterling silver, and 24K gold. All real stuff, all the time! You can find my jewelry designs and any original art I have for sale on my Etsy site! Please also check out my blog at lookingupblog.com!
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