Mint Julep Journal

Sorry I haven't been around to chat, but I was out enjoying the
beautiful weather in our neighborhood. Since the weather warmed up,
I ran out of the house so I could feel the warmth of the sun beating
down on my frozen body. I also had the opportunity to watch some of
our local youth compete head to head in some league tennis matches.
It really amazes me to see the commitment and how well they play.
There was even an extra added feature this weekend. One of players
also got hurt.

Is this funny? No. It's not. The player did the warmup stretches
as dictated by the coach. During the match, this young player
reached down, grabbed the ankle and started limping. A medical time
out was called using the USTA guidelines. Ice was applied. The
player, while in obvious pain, elected to finish the match. By the
time the match had ended, we spectators had two observations.

One is the way the player was smacking those tennis balls. Guess the
player decided not to move, therefore, put the pain of the foot into
each shot. I'm not sure if the space shuttles had more power at
their disposal than those particular tennis shots had. Of course,
the player did succumb to the pain and lost the match. These things
happen.

The second more interesting observation was the array of colors that
formed on the player's ankle right after the match. It started as a
small red spot, only to go into a large red spot, followed by
darkening of the skin. The player was quickly checked out and given
the unofficial diagnosis of "ankle sprain." The player is using the
RICE technique, which is rest, ice, compression and elevation above
the heart. I'm told the swelling started soon after they got off the
court.

Bruises are interesting in the colors they provide. Yes, it is
bleeding into the tissues, hence a wakeup call that something is
wrong. I remember getting bruises off and on. They always are
entertaining to watch as they go through their cycles of color.
First, it's red, thus signaling an inflammatory type reaction is
going. Then, they can turn purple. As they get better, they can
turn a nice yellow-green, then brown, then return to a normal color.

Today, as I reflect on the young player's injury, I have two
thoughts. Buy the parents a hammer so the player always elects to
use those power shots. The second is to watch the bruises so I can
pick out just the right paint color for the room I need to paint.
After all, those colors are provided by nature. Does that mean those
colors qualify as "green"? Something else for me to ponder, Miss Faye.