Monday, December 18, 2006

My Left Foot

I have a friend who has such a reputation for foot injuries, that her lovely and compassionate mother will burst into laughter at the suggestion that she may have once again injured her foot. I appear to have picked up a similar affliction.
The first I can recall was a while back I dropped the shampoo bottle on my left foot. In addition to hurting much more than one would expect a plastic bottle to hurt, I got a gorgeous purple and blue bruise over the top of my foot. I found one pair of sandals that had a wide top strap that covered the area – all the others in my closet covered part of the bruise, so that when I walked in dug in – and wore those. Since my workplace is mostly carpeted, I removed my shoes at work. And was promptly called on it. My pleas of, “I have a bruise” were not met with a lack of sympathy exactly, but they were countered with a strong request for me to put my shoes back on. (I do realize there are OSHA regulations about the wearing of shoes in the workplace, but that was not what was going on here.)
Cut to a few years later – I tripped. And while my little toe hurt like crazy I figured I had somehow stubbed it and it was nothing a good night’s sleep couldn’t fix. Except that, the next day it was black – well the outer half was. And the bruise went along the side of my foot and spread out over the top. The weird bit was that the bruise along the top always looked pretty good in the morning, but as the day wore one, it would darken up. I guess, it isn’t that weird when you think about it. I called the doctor and they told me I was welcome to come in to determine whether I had bruised or broken it, but the end result would be the same. They would recommend buddy taping the toe to the next toe, rest, and wearing closed toe shoes to prevent re-injury. If it was bruised it should be better in a few weeks, if broken a few more.
This occurred close to Thanksgiving, and my mother offered me a ride to my grandmother’s, which I accepted (gas savings and I had a manual car). My mother shared the story of how they told her the same thing when she hurt her toe, and she had demanded x-rays and an orthopedic surgeon consult. I asked her if that was the time that he fixed her tow with a pen. Actually – now that I think about it – maybe this is inherited. My mother dislocated a toe running into my brother’s crib in the middle of the night, and broke a toe playing soccer with a nerf ball (my parents discovered that night why the squishy balls were not so good for living room soccer). Hmmm.
So, cut to now. I went to see The Legwarmers (totally excellent, I highly recommend them) Friday. At one point a throng of people I have nothing nice to say about even though I don’t know them and have no good reason for this (well, one reason) were dancing enthusiastically in front of me. And one of them danced backwards - why do people not understand this is a bad idea? – onto my foot. She was wearing heels. Ouch. (She did apologize, but only after I pushed her off of my foot.) So now I have a bruise across the top of my foot. Again. The bruise has spread beyond the opening of the ballet style shoes I was wearing at the time of the injury. (Not the best choice, in retrospect.) So, I am down to a pair of rubber sandals that don’t press too much. They are super comfy.