Anyone that knew my father also knew that he had a stiff right wrist. He couldn't move his wrist or his knuckles at all. This happened when he broke his wrist as a young man fighting over a girlfriend (my mom).
Somehow his injury became infected, causing all of the skin to come off the back of his hand and part of his wrist. As a result, mom said you could see the tendons clearly. Remember that this was in the late twenties/early thirties when this happened. There were no proper popsicles for this kind of an injury at the time.
He laid in bed, dealing with the pain as best as possible w/o pain medication. His hand/wrist finally healed up but it was bent, unable to straighten it out. After a while, his family took him to Oklahoma City where the doctors broke his wrist again and straightened it out. They couldn't make it bend again, however. This was the reason he didn't serve in WW2 but he did serve with the Civilian Conservation Corps, though. They built several key military installations in SE Oklahoma.
Up until he died, he did have problems with small pieces of bone that would abscess and come to the surface, requiring him to soak his hand in Epsom salts. Through all of this, he could hammer, lay bricks and play a guitar with his bad hand. This is why he is still my #1 hero.
Ray
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