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Six Days in Sin City
Prologue - June 29, 2005

+ A Quick Trip to the Hospital +

The night before Sven and I were to leave for Las Vegas, I broke two bones in my hand by punching a guy repeatedly. The guy had been thrown out of PJ Dorsey's, across the street from where I work and tried to come into the Blue Tusk. I told the guy he couldn't come in because he was too intoxicated and he began arguing. After a few minutes of posturing like he wanted to fight, he finally backed down and went across the street. He was hanging around the entrance to the old Empire Brewery. Soon, the bouncers from Dorsey's, some of whom work with me at the Tusk on weekends, called me over to talk to me about what the problem had been. They told me why they had thrown him out and asked me what happened when I had dealt with him. After telling them my side of what happened, I was headed back to the Blue Tusk, when drunk guy comes walking towards me. I told him to walk away several times, but he just wouldn't listen. I warned him that he would get hurt if he messed with me. I guess he didn't believe me, because he kept yelling at me that he would kick my ass. I told him to beat one more time. He shouted, "Fuck you, fat boy!" and then spit at me. Luckily, the spit missed me. But that wasn't enough for the guy. To make matters worse, he decided to take a swing at me. He missed me and I watched his fist go right past me.

It was definitely the wrong move on his part. I reached out with my left hand, snatched the guy by his shirt, pulled him towards me and at the same time drove my right fist into the center of the drunken guy's face. His head snapped backwards, but he didn't go out. He kept struggling, so I kept hitting him. The bouncers and the crowd at PJ Dorsey's cheered as I pummeled the guy. About the fifth or sixth time I went to swing, I caught the side of his head the wrong way and that seems to be the point where I broke my hand. (Of course, I didn't know it was broken until later.) So, anyway… I hit the guy one more time and then bounced him off the side of a parked car. He got up as best he could and took off as quickly as he was able. I returned to Blue Tusk and a group of people laughing and high five-ing me. Soon, my hand started to hurt very fiercely. I had a few hours to go until I was done for the night, so I just put some ice on it for a while and took some Tylenol. Closing time finally came and I headed home to finish getting ready for my trip.
The lovely Miss Kitty* was coming over after work to hang out with me. It was going to be a week before she would see me again and she had "plans" for me before I left. We got to my house and chilled out. Kitty and I puffed a bowl or two, and were trying to spend some "quality time" together when my hand began to hurt again. This time it was even worse than before. When I checked my hand it was turning a dark purple or blackish color. It really didn't look good...

So, at four AM, Kitty and I decided to get dressed and walk up to St. Joseph's Hospital to get my hand looked at. Luckily for me, there weren't many people at the emergency room and we got right in. I explained to the hospital staff that I had a plane to catch in a few hours and needed to get in and out as quickly as possible. Kitty seized my camera and was taking photos as the triage nurse did all the usual blood pressure stuff and asked me what happened. I explained the story to her and she told me I would have to go for X-rays. Within moments I was headed to get pictures of my bones. Upon my return, the nurse took me to look at my X-rays. She informed me that I had broken two bones in my hand. It is commonly known as a "Boxer's Fracture." She pointed out the problems in the picture and I could see the breaks very easily. The bones that broke were the ones behind my ring finger; both the long bone and the small bone that is in the palm of my hand. I asked if I could take photos of my X-rays and was told that I probably couldn't because they were Medical Records. I told the nurse what I do and that people would wonder why I was in a cast for the adventure. I told her that the hospital story was going on my site and I needed to take photos of my X-rays. She started to protest, but I cut her off...

I argued that they were, in fact, MY medical records, and besides, the guys on MTV's "Jackass" show take photos of their X-rays all the time. With that, there were no more questions and I photographed the X-rays.
We returned to the room where Miss Kitty was waiting patiently. The nurse left and told me that another nurse would be with me soon. As we waited, Kitty and I discussed the fact that this was the kind of thing that could only happen to me. We came to the conclusion that if this was all the bad luck I'd have on this adventure, then I would be okay.
About ten minutes had gone by and a new nurse named Cara came in to wrap my hand in a temporary cast. She worked quickly and professionally. Kitty took more photos as the cast was put on my hand. Nurse Cara explained that the cast she was putting on was only temporary and that it was just to keep my hand still until the swelling went down. I would have to returned after my trip to be looked at again. At that time they would put on my permanent cast.
After we were done and Nurse Cara was finished telling me how to take care of my hand, I gave her a TomAroundTheWorld button. She informed me that her husband has several of them at their house on his dresser. She told me that he worked as a chef at Pasquale's. It turned out that Cara was my friend Steve's wife. We laughed that it was indeed a small world. I thanked her for all of her help. She wished me a fun trip, and with that, Kitty and I headed back to my apartment. We finished getting my clothes and gear packed and finally got to spend some quality time together.
With my bags packed, my tickets ready to go, and Kitty very content; it was time for me to shower and get dressed.