Story time

Mandi's been trying to rid herself of a nasty cough for the past few days, and it reminds me of a good time from my BYU days.

I was living in Park Plaza in Provo with my sports soul mate, James. I was working forty hours a week and pretty much watching sports the rest of my free time.

Behind the apartment complex was a city park. Students would play football or basketball or whatever back there sometimes, and one afternoon a neighbor stopped by to tell us soccer was going on there in 10 minutes.

I played soccer when I was a kid (along with every other kid from Utah), but stopped competing in organized leagues when I was 12. At that point, I started getting in basketball and only ever played soccer in gym class or whatever.

Anyway, I like soccer, so I decided to go play. I've picked up some bad habits from basketball; I box players away from the ball and probably get a little too physical at times.

At one point I was cruising for a loose ball (is that what it's called in soccer?) and collided, hard, with another player. I took the worst of the collision, and ended up flat on my back, gasping for air, the wind completely knocked out of me.

The next morning I felt like I had some broken ribs on the left side. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to sigh. It really hurt to cough, and sneezing was so bad I'd do the thing where you hold it in and it feels like you'll explode-- but that was preferable to the abuse the explosion took to my ribcage.

I called my mom, and she said even if I did have some broken ribs, there's not much doctors can do. These are the kind of broken bones I experience, I'm not one for casts, apparently... I've busted a couple toes, and there's nothing they can do. Just gotta wait it out.

So I figured I'd be tough and try to not whine as much.

Then the coughing started. Not just the occasional cough after inhaling some water. No, these coughs came every minute on the minute.

I coughed and coughed and coughed. And these weren't little dry coughs that happen up in your throat, either, these were the big hacking coughs that feel like they originate in your liver.

I remind you that coughing was already an unpleasant experience, but this was awful.

After three days of this, I was fed up. I went to the doctor, and was diagnosed with bronchitis and a couple cracked ribs. The bronchitis they could do something about, and I started taking antibiotics three times a day.

The ribs eventually healed on their own.

As my dad would say, the experience was extremely character-building. I recommend it.