Update On My Unfortunate Incident

The toe and part of my foot are now turning a lovely rainbow of hues - and as much as I like to include visuals in some of my posts I'll spare you the photo op on this particular event in my life. It just ain't pretty. I mean - on a good day my toes are rather ugly and stubby all on their very own but this just takes things to a whole new level.

I had my doctor's appointment yesterday at 4:45 - by that time I had rested the foot enough that I was able to bear some weight on it so I left Rick to take care of the girls and their dinner and I drove myself over to the doctor's office. The nurse brought me in rather quickly and took my vitals and my complaints and then left me to sit in the exam room for almost an hour because the doctor was running behind schedule. She was involved in some kind of toe surgery on some other schmuck who I can only assume is even more "graceful and poised" than I am, considering their need for surgery. I was very glad that I brought along my book! I'm currently reading "March" by Geraldine Brooks and I was able to lose myself in it for a peaceful hour, so the wait didn't feel quite as long as it would have otherwise. In fact, because of that wait and subsequent reading time I was able to get far enough into the book that I hope to have it finished by next Monday's book club.

The doctor spent all of a perhaps minute and a half (and I'm being generous) in the exam room. She looked at the toe and foot and felt around to see where it hurt (ow) and decided to just order an xray. Of course, because of my huge wait to see her and the lateness of the appointment in general the xray offices were all closed. I got my written order and was told to go in this morning (luckily they take walk-ins) and have it done. I wonder what the charge was for a minute and a half of consultation and a written order for an xray? I'll find out when I get the report from my insurance company and I'm sure it is going to work out to something ridiculous like $100/minute for her services. Health care costs are stupid.

This morning's visit to the xray department was fairly uneventful. I am walking a bit better this morning, thankfully. It was getting rather old to use crawling or hopping as a mode of transportation around the house. The technician took xrays from about 6 different angles, including one angle where she had to tape my four other toes aside and lash them to the side of the table and then tape and lash my injured toe in the other direction - can you say OW!? She apologized gruffly and said it was the only way to get the angle the doctor had reqeusted. Niiice bedside manners.

Now I have to wait all day for the stupid, litigiously-handicapped health care system to get back to me because the xray information needs to go through at least 6 sets of hands before I am allowed access to my results. The tech told me that the radiologist will read them after 1:00 when he is expected to arrive at the local xray office. The tech is not licensed to read the films so she can't give me any answers. The radiologist is allow to read the films and state whether there are any broken bones but can't be the one to call me directly. Oh no. My DOCTOR (who I just met yesterday at the appointment) is the only one allowed to inform me of my results. Thus it goes tech to radiologist to receptionist (who is the only one allowed to fax results, I'm sure, given the stupidity of the system) to recpetionist (who collects faxes on the other end) to nurse (who is the go-between from the front office to the doctor) to the doctor. Then the doctor, who is already running behind for the day reads the results but is too busy to call. So, she turns back to the nurse and relays the results (the the nurse could have easily read all on her very own) and tells her to call me to say "Yup. You broke your toe and you're screwed since there really is nothing we can do about it." or perhaps "Yup. You broke a bone in your foot and you can wear a silly boot brace for a while if you want, otherwise there is nothing we can really do for you." It's all so stupid. I don't really even know why I bothered to go once I was able to bear weight again. I was going to cancel but Rick insisted I keep the appointment in case it was more serious than I realized. Yeah, okay. I suppose. At least it is feeling a bit better and maybe I'll actually hear "good" news that there are no broken bones and thus the recovery time will be reduced. I can only hope.

In the meantime, I'm hobbling, but able to get around a bit. I find it best to wear a sandal to give some support to the toe and the strap near my toe is adjustable so it is not squashing my bruise. This morning I managed to make some cookie bars for the Welcome Back picnic tomorrow nigh and I'm going to try to make it to the PGO meeting tonight, too. So, I'm getting some stuff done, just doing it a lot slower. Rick stayed home again today so he could do the pick-up/ drop-off at preschool and take care of stuff for another day so I can rest a bit more. My in-laws are due home tonight so I am hoping that I can lean on my MIL a bit and get her to do the drop-off/pick-up for me. I think I can handle the rest and that will allow Rick to get back to work. Affter being home these last two days I'm sure he's MORE than ready.