Well, yes. There have been a number of Segway Events over the past few years resulting in a broken left fibula, broken right radius, three broken fingers, and four broken metacarpals, not to mention that face plant from which i got my only selfie, in all modesty, a good one.
So this last one the other day seemed pretty minor since i didn’t even go down all that hard. Better yet, i don’t think there were any witnesses although i’m not sure because i was back onto the Segway in a flash and outta there in case somebody came running to help.
Got home and discovered an extensive scrape on the top of the right ankle, which i prudently washed out with soap and then dressed with topical antibiotic and gauze. See, i’m a very cautious individual.
Well, except that my ankle kept hurting and i had to limp, which i just hate. I mean, for some years there i was able to make my walking disability look like an insolent slow swagger although by now it’s turned into an old man shuffle, but limping? Oh please.
Still, i just pressed gaily forward through the pain because after all, at my age something is always hurting and by now i’ve just turned it into background noise.
But yet, the pain got worse. You can ignore the pain during the day and distract yourself with going about your life, but who can sleep at night when he’s hurting? so i had to take a couple of hoarded hydrocodones.
Got up the next day, strapped on this elaborate ankle brace i’d kept from a previous incident, and went about my business around town. The pain worsened, so in the afternoon i took off the ankle brace to allow better circulation. That didn’t help, and i had to break out the leftover crutches to get around the house that evening and resort to more hydrocodones to get to sleep.
The next day i needed to get groceries and do a number of critical errands, mainly to straighten out the nightmare of getting pharmacy coverage up here because i’d made the mistake of telling my health insurance people i’d moved, so they’d immediately cancelled my insurance and forced me to spend an entire horrible day on the phone setting up a new plan since i’m no longer in San Francisco County and thus not allowed to just easily drive back to all my wonderful doctors in the city, which i had been touting as one of the advantages of moving here.
So i strapped on the ankle brace and then, on top of it, this elaborate heavy duty plastic and Velcro strap pump-up boot splint left over from breaking my fibula. Ta da. Got through the day without much pain although the foot was throbbing like mad at bedtime, so i had a third hydrocodone night.
Yesterday i wore the brace and splint boot all day long and didn’t leave the house, and the foot responded to this kindness by hurting so little that i didn’t even need hydrocodones to go to sleep. So it’s looking like i won’t have to go to all the hassle of finding a new doctor after all. But don’t worry, Becky, i was planning on turning myself in the very moment stuff started oozing out.
Meanwhile, this is a good place for a photo of one of Petaluma’s major Segway attractions, the pedestrian bridge over Highway 101 at McKinzey Drive. The steel cage is there to keep you from plunging onto the freeway if you miscalculate a turn, so you can go ahead and take them at full speed.
2 Comments
Shoulda gone to the doc anyway, dude.
You are, of course, right. A tiny bit of hyperbole snuck into that post, and if i’d been here long enough to have a doctor i’da probably gone immediately but just couldn’t quite bring myself to hunting down an ER. By trial and error i’m determining that i really do need to wear that damn splint boot all day long and minimize activity. If i do that, the pain resides, which i’m taking to mean that it’s healing.