By design

Wednesday, after a fun lunch with the colleagues, I was getting into the back seat of a van to go back to the workplace. My friend who was driving, slammed her door shut.

A shout, and an opening of the door later, my hands were free. The three fingers that had been caught were slightly bruised, and paining a little bit. I was new to getting into vans. And had my hand around the part between the front and rear doors. Stupidity - yes.

Close/open - check; stretch - check; bend - check. Phew. :)

But, Pain also check :(

"Did the door really fully??" "Yes", came the answer. "That is scary" said another.

Two ice packs, and an Ibuprofen. Home. And a call. At urgent care to see if it were a fracture.

"In all the cases I've seen, unless it is black and blue, swollen, and can't be bent, it has never been a fracture, if it is a car door", the doc said. She also said that it was going to get much worse for the next couple of days before it would get better. I would need lots of ice almost continuously, and 3 ibuprofens 3 times a day. Now, that scared me more than anything else! Two more ibuprofens that night.

Next morning, I woke up, and had forgotten all about it. There was absolutely no pain! And no swelling. One bruise was barely visible, and the others, not at all! Our bodies heal so well!

And someone devised the car door that way! The contact areas were mostly rubber, and there is comfortable finger space in there! The initial pain was possibly only because it was shut with force, and the shock.

Whoever you are, designer of the car door of the Honda Odyssey, and all the engineering that went into it, a lot of thanks for my happy hand!