Injuries

Often when I tell people some of the times I've injured myself, they're surprised to hear the list growing as I keep on talking about them. So I wonder myself whether the list is actually that long. From what I remember, a chronological list is as follows:

• I was born with the valve between my stomach and my intestines blocked, so I had surgery when I was one week old. Can't remember it at all except for a scar on my abdomen skin.
• My parents tell me I dislocated my left shoulder and wore a cast when I was about 3 or 4, but I don't remember that at all. I can make a clicking movement with that shoulder, though - which I can't do with my right shoulder.
• I was 7, fell from my bike, skinned both my arms and knees, knocked 3-5 teeth off. I still have the scar on my knee that it left.
• I was again a child, and my bike slid into my brother's on a downhill curve in my neighborhood, and I skinned my hand and/or my knee.
• April-May 1999: I tried to bend an exercise spring pole one too many times, my sweaty hand slid off the handle, and the spring bounced with full force on my nose from my right side, splattering the floor with blood that spilt out my nose and drenched an almost-whole roll of toilet paper before receding into a more manageable flow. A late-night trip to the hospital and a quick nose surgery assisted by local anesthesia happened right after (dang that needle hurt!!), followed by having my face cast and bandaged from my forehead through my nose, down to my mustache area. I was lucky to have the cast removed before the trip to IMO Bucharest 1999. No physical remains of the incident.
• I once tried to hold on to a wall while doing a front flip over it. I succeeded on doing the front flip but I failed to hold on, and I fell one story to a rocky terrain on the other side. I kinda sprained my ankle and it hurt for a few days.
• My dad was teaching me how to drive on a fairly deserted residential road in the early morning, and when riding back home on the passenger seat, I opened my window, and I decided to try to grab a plant by one of its leaves while the car was in motion. Bad idea - I grabbed it but it did not hold - the leaf's edge sliced through a thick portion of my right index finger's skin and muscle. When I saw it afterwards, it was one of the weirdest sights - right below the tip of my finger, my skin cut off into what seemed like a semi-circular pool of blood. I never got to see the actual muscle inside. It hurt quite a bit when my parents disinfected and bandaged it. I still have its thin line scar on my finger.
• 2005 Lanquín Cahabón: I was downhilling with the Chompipes team on my brother's bike doing around 50kph on a dirt road littered with rocks, and the back wheel tripped on one of the big ones, threw me off balance, and I landed like an airplane - horizontally and towards the front looking down, and the initial force rested on my right knee. Although I did not feel it then, I fissured my knee that time. I later wore an immobilizer for about 6 weeks. No symptoms remain from the accident.
• May 21st, 2007: On my second class of gymnastics, I was taught to do front flips and land into a pool of sponges. I managed to get 2 or 3 of them right consecutively, so I foolishly decided to try to do a front flip on the training ground. I failed to do a full flip, I fell back when landing, I put my left hand to break my fall, and the fall broke my hand instead. I was performed surgery by one my brother's traumatology colleagues, and I wore 2 metallic nails inside my bones and a cast around my whole left forearm for about 2 months. Good memories during that time, and I luckily had my cast removed right before my trip to LA. My hand's mobility and usefulness has been fully recovered, although I've had the (possibly psychosomatic) impression that it still hurts a little when it's cold (pics here and here).
• After the oh-so-happy surprise that I had indeed been admitted into the Machine Learning program at CMU, I visited the Open House on February 26th-March 1st 2009, and while attending the ice skating session at the Schenley ice skating rink, right on my last lap, a girl suddenly got in front of me, I swerved to the right to avoid her, and sprained my right ankle kinda badly. I didn't get it checked, but it hurt for at least two months after that. No symptoms remain.
• Sunday, February 21st, 2010, 1AM: After a get-together with a group of cool guatemalans in Pittsburgh, I was running back to my office when I slipped on a patch of ice and skinned my left knee. I only have a scar to remind me of it now. And this pic.
• Tuesday, April 7th, 2010, 6PM: When trying to jump a long staircase around the UPitt campus, I failed and landed on the last step instead of after it. I sprained my left foot, but I was very happy that it was not a fracture. I'm almost completely recovered now, although I already run and jump with little difficulty (pics).
• Tuesday April 13th, 2010, between midnight and 1AM: Finger cut or burst just yesterday in Schenley Park, right next to CMU. It is now disinfected and bandaged, so it doesn't look as bloody as it did: pic.

These are the ones I remember. I'm sure there are more, but small injuries can be easily forgotten with time. Injuries fade away with time.