TOLEDO, Ohio - Ice and the city's First Lady have a thing going on - a thing she could do without.
For the second time in a decade, Amy Finkbeiner took a spill on a slick surface, breaking her arm. The most recent incident occurred Christmas Eve on the front steps of the South Toledo home she shares with her husband, Mayor Carty Finkbeiner.
The break, which she described as a distal radius fracture, has not healed well. Finkbeiner will have surgery Friday morning at the University of Toledo Medical Center, where she manages the Volunteer Services Department.
"It's pretty bad," she said during a telephone interview Wednesday afternoon from her office. "I'm in quite a bit of pain."
The incident happened around 5 p.m. on a day that had seen rain turn a week's worth of snow to ice on the city's side streets and driveways. Finkbeiner was about to leave for the Christmas Eve service at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Maumee when a family member called and said her husband needed her to bring one of his sweaters to church.
Recalling the sequence of events that led to the fall, she said, "It was one more thing to do. I'm trying to get out the door. There had to be a good inch of ice on the front porch and steps, but all I know is I was in a hurry, church is starting and I had gotten behind because people were coming over [the next day]. So I ran upstairs to get the sweater. I stepped out the front door, took one step down to our porch stoop, two steps down to the sidewalk, and that was it. The rest is history."
Finkbeiner cushioned her fall with her left arm, snapping the radius and causing other, unspecified damage. Undaunted, she continued on to church, driving herself in the family Jeep, where she delivered the sweater to her son-in-law. The mayor had yet to arrive. Finkbeiner, her arm swollen and in considerable pain, said she took communion and attended the post-service coffee hour in deference to her husband's family, who were visiting from Colorado and Florida.
"I needed to be there, so I was," she said.
At 7 p.m., two hours after the fall, Finkbeiner said she turned to Carty and said, "OK, I think I've lived up to my obligations. I have to get to the hospital. So that was it."
Finkbeiner drove herself to UT Medical Center with the mayor following her in his vehicle, she said. Her arm was placed in a hard cast. The following day, Christmas, she entertained her family in her home. Her sister, Lisa Zunk, came early to help out. "She did the mashed potatoes, the more industrious things. But I made it happen. They came at noon and we served dinner at 2."
Finkbeiner said she has been in constant pain since the accident: "The bones are not setting properly. They are growing in the opposite direction." During Friday's surgery, she said doctors will insert a metal plate into her arm. She'll wear a cast for 10 days, then have her stitches removed, after which the arm will be re-cast. She is not sure for how long.
Finkbeiner, 49, who is right-handed, has yet to miss work since the accident. "I told my boss that as long as I can walk and talk and use my right hand I guess I can perform my duties."
E-mail requests for comment about the First Lady's accident to the mayor's spokesman, Jason Webber, were not returned.
About 10 years ago, during her husband's first term as mayor, Finkbeiner recalled a bad spill while skating at a local rink on Martin Luther King Day. That fall resulted in a broken right arm. She still feels the effects of that injury during climate changes.
With her track record on ice, Finkbeiner is seeking a safer solution. A co-worker told her about some ice cleats she recently purchased. Is Finkbeiner going to buy a pair for herself?
"You better believe it," she said.
Reported by George J. Tanber georgejtanber@gmail.com
