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Italian Injuries

Jill

I don’t get hurt very often. I am exceptionally clumsy, and I fall a lot and bang my knees and elbows and hit my head on things, but I rarely do any damage worse than a bruise or two. But, for whatever reason, I have had very bad luck on the injury front since being in Italy. First, my bed collapsed on my foot. Not fun. It took me about a day to determine that my toe wasn’t broken (thankfully), but I still have a huge purple bruise under my toenail. It’s disgusting. And it ruined my pedicure. Second, I tripped and twisted my ankle. There was a little swelling, but nothing too serious. Then, yesterday, I got bit in the face by a fucking German shepherd. Yeah. I’ve never been bitten by a dog before. I quite like dogs. I do not like this dog. It is big and slobbery and jumpy, and I don’t really love German shepherds in the first place — they just look mean, and I always associate them with really bad things (like being police dogs in the segregated South). And now that this one has bitten me, I really am not a fan. In the dog’s defense, it wasn’t trying to attack me — if it had been, it certainly could have done a lot more damage. It was “playing” by jumping up to snap at my arm (annoying in itself), and I didn’t see it and happen to crouch down at that same time, and it got me above the eye. And the wound isn’t that bad — just two puncture marks, and, luckily, they did miss my eye by a few inches. I’m probably just being a baby. But since I am seldom injured, bleeding from the head is an interesting experience for me. An illustration:

wound

It hurt. I cried (but more out of surprise than pain).

15 thoughts on Italian Injuries

  1. very sorry to hear of your misfortunes – you’re not being a baby – being injured in a foreign country is often particularly unsettling – and i would say most people would find suddenly having their face in the jaws of a German-fckin-Shepherd(!) to be ample reason for a bit of shock & surprise

    at least you have the consolation prize of now being able to say, “yeah, i got bit by a dog once… ON MY FACE” which, odds are, will trump most if not all other tales of woe in many conversations

    may the rest of your Italian visit be trauma free!

  2. Jill, just curious, how did you determine whether or not your toe was broken? I”m asking because I dropped a large, mostly-full glass jar of jelly on my foot last week, thought from the pain that my toe was broken, and it still bothers me on and off. The black and blue went away though.

  3. Ouch. You should forget about Italy, and immediately get on a plane for the Netherlands. Here, the dogs don’t bite; they just poop all over the streets.

  4. I also am not a fan of large, slobbering, biting dogs. Glad you’re ok! And maybe you should get some steel toed shoes for the rest of your trip. And a face mask.

    Drink some nice wine until it’s all better!

  5. I actually like German Shepherds (or, as my English grandmother calls them, “Alsatians”)…I think they’re beautiful dogs and I’ve never known one that was mean.

  6. Dealing with big biting dogs is all about dominance, and not letting them push you around. Therefore I think it’s important for you to walk right past that dog again, wearing one of these bandaids over your bite wound.

  7. My girlfriend’s old Beagle nipped her on the face once because she surprised it. She bawled like a baby, but it has nothing to do with pain or femininity: it’s the body’s natural reaction to bodily stress/harm like that.

    I got a mole removed from just beneath my eye two weeks ago. I didn’t like the anesthetic shot, but besides that, it didn’t bother me it the slightest: I couldn’t feel a thing, and minor surgery like this is old hat to me. But as they were doing their thing, inexplicably, I felt extremely agitated and wanted to cry. I didn’t (haven’t cried in 7 or 8 years), but the fact that I felt like doing so unnerved me. A lot.

    Anyway, to wrap this up in a completely unrelated way, this is why I prefer cats to dogs. The worst my new kitten ever does is kiss me on the lips.

  8. I am exceptionally clumsy, and I fall a lot and bang my knees and elbows and hit my head on things…

    Have you given any thought to dance or martial arts lessons to develop your spatial awareness (assuming your difficulties aren’t something as simple as a damaged inner ear or overconsumption of alcohol)? Brailling your way through life isn’t much fun, and could be more problematic when you’re older.

  9. I don’t like German shepherds either; the only dog bite I got from a child was from one. And then there was the kid a few doors down in a place we lived later who was savaged by one. I don’t think they’re inherently a bad breed, but I remain deeply suspicious of them.

  10. Actually, if you do have a damaged inner ear (or two!), physical therapy can help. You can teach yourself to compensate for some of the off-kilter-ness. But I think usually clumsiness is just clumsiness. I was clumsy years before there was anything wrong with my inner ear.

    So did any of your injuries require a trip to the doctor? Because my mom recently broke her leg in Italy, and she claims that Italian doctors are unusually hot. Obviously, she was dealing with a small sample, and I would like some independent confirmation of this.

  11. Jill, I’m clumsy too. When I was in junior high I fell down (or up) the stairs at least once a day. No kidding. I’m down to about once a month now, but I blame it on my tiny toes.

  12. Gee, I’d say that being bitten on the face by a large dog qualifies as a traumatic experience, so I wouldn’t be too hard on myself if I were you! I’m glad the wound wasn’t more serious.

    I love dogs, too, so I have to ask…where was the dog’s owner when this injury happened? Why wasn’t the dog trained not to jump or bite like that? A well-trained large dog can be a wonderful pet…but the owner has to take responsibility for it!

    As to being clumsy…I’m sure you’re not nearly as clumsy as I am. I often collide with furniture and corners of hallways which throw themselves in front of me. I think it’s a conspiracy…

    I wish you a wonderful (and therefore injury-free) stay in Italy.

  13. Ouch! Make sure you clean that wound out well. I’ve been bitten a couple of times, and it not only sucks, it carries the potential for infection.

  15. Sorry about your woes! Once I was bit by a dog (no fault of his–I stupidly tried to take some chicken bones away from him), and my reaction was weirdly one of hurt feelings! I guess it’s the flip side of the unconditional love and affection dogs normally show–‘if a friendly dog bites me, it must be because there’s something about me even a dog doesn’t like’!! The feeling passed, but that was my initial reaction. Then I was just pissed!! 😉
    Hope you’re feeling better soon!

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