Zinfoot!
My foot looks dipped in zinfandel at the heel, held by the toe - a reverse Achilles, if you will. A foot is not supposed to look like this. Friday, on my way out of the house I was distracted coming down the stairs (our San Francisco-living neighbor had come in late last night and the back of his Ford Ranger pickup truck was loaded with what looked like bags of concrete), and I managed to miss the last step. I went down hard. My first thought was reactionary and speaks to how living for three years without insurance can change your thought process - “It’s broken,” I thought. Then, almost as quickly, “It’s not broken. Get up.” And I did. “You’re going to go to work. You have to.” And this last reaction, as I hobbled to the car in a lot more pain than I really want to think about, is not true. I didn’t have to - even when I got to work and my coworkers looked at my swollen ankle (which had swollen to look like a tennis ball under the skin) they told me to go to the doctor and then home. I can’t do that. It hurt, yes. But, contrary to my initial thought, it was not broken and I knew that. During that hobble from the ground to the car in the darkness before the sun had yet risen, I knew how bad this could be. I knew what a broken (really broken) bone(s) could be. When I had broken my leg I didn’t walk unassisted for 8 months. This was a sprain, I knew that. I could walk.
I did go to the doctor - Kaiser wanted me to go to the emergency room, but I declined after learning it would be $50 for that trip alone. $10 co-pay, and $5 for my 800mg generic Motrin, and I knew officially what I suspected when I finally got into the car - my ankle was sprained; nothing broken.
It’s Sunday and it’s feeling loads better and looking loads worse. I’m okay with that disparity. As long as it works, it can look like whatever it wants to. It’s getting to occasionally aching, and that’s my sign I need another Motrin. Otherwise it doesn’t hurt nearly as much to walk tonight as it did just yesterday, and much less than on Friday.
So I, Zinfoot, am content to hobble until the pain of the ankle and injured pride fade.
I did go to the doctor - Kaiser wanted me to go to the emergency room, but I declined after learning it would be $50 for that trip alone. $10 co-pay, and $5 for my 800mg generic Motrin, and I knew officially what I suspected when I finally got into the car - my ankle was sprained; nothing broken.
It’s Sunday and it’s feeling loads better and looking loads worse. I’m okay with that disparity. As long as it works, it can look like whatever it wants to. It’s getting to occasionally aching, and that’s my sign I need another Motrin. Otherwise it doesn’t hurt nearly as much to walk tonight as it did just yesterday, and much less than on Friday.
So I, Zinfoot, am content to hobble until the pain of the ankle and injured pride fade.