Departure day?
December 26 was Plan A, but that didn't work out. The evening of December 24, I tripped on an uneven sidewalk in the dark, and while doing an oh-so-graceful dance to keep myself from falling, I twisted my left foot, and not just a little bit. The pain was immediate. I could barely put any weight on that foot.
The thing about injuring your foot on the evening of December 24 is that the only option for finding out whether anything is broken until December 26 is the emergency room. My foot did not even come close to meeting my criteria for an emergency room visit, so I got myself home and as immobile as I could with my foot elevated and wrapped with the cold packs from my freezer.
I waited. I watched TV. I read. I had a whole day, for the first time in months, when I had to give myself permission to sit and do nothing. My cousins dropped off a delicious smoked turkey dinner for me. I waited some more. I watched lots of TV.
I couldn't realistically imagine finishing packing up my van by the 26th, so I gave up on my plan to leave today. And I started to think about what I actually wanted to do. Free now from all obligations, was my plan to hightail it to Arizona really what I most wanted to do? It's not a question I'd allowed myself to ask lately. It was my goal and I'd been pursuing it without question for months. But was it really what I want?
I actually don't know the answer to that question. I know I want to hit the road. I know I want it to be open-ended. I know I want to be able to see and spend time with a few people I've talked to about this trip. But maybe I don't actually want to keep the focus of my trip on getting to Quartzsite, Arizona for the entire Rubber Tramp Rendezvous. Maybe I want to start relaxing and enjoying myself immediately.
This morning I was on the phone at 8:02 asking for an appointment to see the doctor. I hobbled in to the clinic at 11:00 a.m. for my appointment, only to learn that their x-ray technician wasn't in today. I would have to go out to the hospital for an x-ray. So I drove out to the hospital and hobbled up to the reception desk. From there I was able to ride a wheelchair around the hospital. It was a slow day in the imaging department, so the nice young man who took my x-rays put on his jacket and wheeled me all the way out to my car. I drove back to the clinic to hobble in and get the verdict: nothing appears to be broken or dislocated, it's just a sprain.
I told the doctor about my planned trip and asked him how long he would postpone going if he were me. He said that 2-3 days of taking an anti-inflammatory and babying my foot should probably do it.
I've looked at the weather forecast, and Friday, December 29 looks like a perfectly good day to plan to leave. So that is now officially Plan B.
I will let you know how that works out. :^)
Karen
The thing about injuring your foot on the evening of December 24 is that the only option for finding out whether anything is broken until December 26 is the emergency room. My foot did not even come close to meeting my criteria for an emergency room visit, so I got myself home and as immobile as I could with my foot elevated and wrapped with the cold packs from my freezer.
I waited. I watched TV. I read. I had a whole day, for the first time in months, when I had to give myself permission to sit and do nothing. My cousins dropped off a delicious smoked turkey dinner for me. I waited some more. I watched lots of TV.
I couldn't realistically imagine finishing packing up my van by the 26th, so I gave up on my plan to leave today. And I started to think about what I actually wanted to do. Free now from all obligations, was my plan to hightail it to Arizona really what I most wanted to do? It's not a question I'd allowed myself to ask lately. It was my goal and I'd been pursuing it without question for months. But was it really what I want?
I actually don't know the answer to that question. I know I want to hit the road. I know I want it to be open-ended. I know I want to be able to see and spend time with a few people I've talked to about this trip. But maybe I don't actually want to keep the focus of my trip on getting to Quartzsite, Arizona for the entire Rubber Tramp Rendezvous. Maybe I want to start relaxing and enjoying myself immediately.
This morning I was on the phone at 8:02 asking for an appointment to see the doctor. I hobbled in to the clinic at 11:00 a.m. for my appointment, only to learn that their x-ray technician wasn't in today. I would have to go out to the hospital for an x-ray. So I drove out to the hospital and hobbled up to the reception desk. From there I was able to ride a wheelchair around the hospital. It was a slow day in the imaging department, so the nice young man who took my x-rays put on his jacket and wheeled me all the way out to my car. I drove back to the clinic to hobble in and get the verdict: nothing appears to be broken or dislocated, it's just a sprain.
I told the doctor about my planned trip and asked him how long he would postpone going if he were me. He said that 2-3 days of taking an anti-inflammatory and babying my foot should probably do it.
I've looked at the weather forecast, and Friday, December 29 looks like a perfectly good day to plan to leave. So that is now officially Plan B.
I will let you know how that works out. :^)
Karen
Ouch. Glad nothing is broken. But a soft tissue injury can be quite debilitating. Hope you're feeling better soon. *Do* please keep us posted.
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