War Wounds

WARNING: The photos are not for the weak at heart. Not pretty.

The first day after my injury, my foot started feeling better. I continued to elevate and ice it and didn't notice much bruising or swelling. Then for some reason I woke up a day and a half later and noticed my foot was more swollen, cold and numb due to the lack of circulation caused by the swelling. This worried me. The swelling should be going down not getting worse. I called around trying to find a doctor. Most couldn't see me until next week. The hospital was going to charge me $700 just to be looked at not including x-rays, so I went back to a doctor I saw eight years ago.

I'll call him Dr. Dumb Shit. I have absolutely no confidence in this doctor as during our previous appointment I told him once a month I was getting incredibly sick with symptoms of severe dizziness, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, migraines, shivering, respiratory problems and passing out. I was being poisoned. (It was the water.) He prescribed headache medicine. Really? Do you think that will help with the passing out? This was after his assistant told me it was probably all in my head, or psychological. When I sent them payment for my co-pay I wrote a letter complaining about the incompetence and I said clearly although it was only $20, it was not worth it. Oops! Nothing like burning my bridges....

Well, where else am I supposed to go? No other doctor in the area could get me in until next week. His schedule seemed to be wide open. (That's a clue!) And he's close by and since I needed to drive using my left foot to get there, I didn't want to be traveling for too long. I just needed some x-rays to see how bad this was.

As I sat in the waiting room I watched a video on how women ignore their health issues. Yep, that's me. I'd do nearly anything to stay away from a doctor.

Dr. Dumb Shit is really nice and personable, but like I said, I have no confidence in his ability to know anything. He's incredibly obese for starters and known around town for his daily visits to McDonald's. That says it all. Not many people have confidence in him. The justification for my first visit was I had hoped he could tell me if other people in the area were experiencing the same once-a-month illness, or, was it an environmental problem? I didn't notice any stink then, but today, whatever he was wearing burned my lungs. It might have been toxic deodorant rather than cologne because it was mild enough only to cause discomfort. I just wanted to find out if my foot was broken or not.

When I was transferred to the exam room and sat waiting under the glare of florescent lights I saw my foot for the first time. GOOD GOD! Where did those bruises come from?? They covered both sides of my foot! And the swelling seems to be getting worse.  I suddenly remembered I had a camera with me. Oh, how fun! Documentation!

Above is what it really looks like. There is little bruising on the top since I kept icing the top, but I failed to ice the sides adequately. You can definitely see the swelling at the ankle even though that's not where the pain was. Later the doctor said my foot actually looks really good compared to the ones where the person didn't elevate and ice and the whole foot turns black. The next two photos are side views and I think the angle of the camera distorted the foreground making it look like my leg and foot are about to explode, but you can see the bruising around the ankle.

 

I swear my foot doesn't look like that last photo. My cheap camera must have distorted the view. It's pretty horrifying, but entertaining.

I did not break any bones. In fact, I have never broken a bone in my life so I really didn't think I did, but x-rays showed chips in the bones so slamming it into cement did create some damage.

Dr. Dumb Shit said to continue icing, elevating and take Advil. Nothing new there except it cost me lots of money to hear I should continue doing what I've been doing.  He said if it doesn't get better I am to get one of those post-operation shoes to walk in. Or maybe wear tight shoes for now. Hmmm...I hope that's just him feeling confident in my ability to heal rather than ignorantly failing to prescribe adequate treatment. Then he said if it doesn't improve I am to go to a specialist. Well, there you have it. He's already claiming lack of knowledge, and if my confidence could have gotten any lower than it already was, it would have. But hey, I don't want to see a specialist! I've already spent all my vacation money on this injury.

I'm trying to stay off it as much as possible, but it's not like I have someone to run errands or cook for me. My dirty dishes are piling up because I don't want to stand to wash them. What a huge inconvenience! Spring is finally here and I was just about to start some fun projects. And I've become addicted to jumping around on my rebounder and I won't be able to do that for weeks. Damn.

Please send me some positive healing energy my way so this will go fast!