I am such a klutz

So last night I ran into a cinder block with my pinky toe; it is now swollen compared to the other. Today, when the guy came to fix the air conditioning and I was trying to answer the door, I hooked my middle toe on a heavy barred waste paper basket. Now it's bruised, hurting, will most likely turn darker, and it didn't help that a 75-lb dog kept sitting on it under the table at dinner. I am a menace to myself some days. At least the beet juice all came out of my white blouse that I spilled on myself while eating dinner, which is amazing. Thank goodness they didn't name me Grace.

In retrospect

I was totally wrong about why my toe hurt last night. I had forgotten that I stubbed it on something. Last night it was red; today it's a little grey around the base where I have most certainly sprained it, possibly even broken it, although I don't think there's much to do about a broke fifth toe, except tape it and try to keep from hitting it or hurting it further. My toe doesn't stray very far from the fourth toe anyway, so I think I'll just wear my normal walking shoes rather than sandals for a few days and see if it heals up. Unfortunately the pain has spread to the outside of my foot into my ankle and up my calf part way, and it's real tender at the original point of injury. Still, it's a toe, and I'll be fine I'm sure, so I'm going to try not to let it slow me down.

I went by the pharmacy and delivered the medicine that I had to my friend. Now I have the rest of the day free to myself, as we're doing the store tomorrow. I literally clapped my hands in glee when I got back to the car. Mind you, I love my friends dearly, but I so rarely have a Saturday to spend any way I like. :)

I think I'm going to put my foot up for just a bit and take something for the pain so I can work on the house today. If I can get it together, maybe we can watch Saving Mr Banks over here tomorrow. Plus, I just want to get it all happily spring cleaned and comfortable.

You know, it's harder than you might think to wrap a toe in a Band-Aid

Listening to: 'I'm Not that Girl' from Wicked

Especially if you have stubby, unagile toes like I do. They don't like to separate.

In other personal medical news, assuming you care, I'm out of the wrist brace except for lifting. Dr Favetto saw me this time, and he said that a lot of the trouble with the elbow tendon actually stems from my shoulders and posture. He wants me to go to physical therapy and get back into yoga. I was virtually prescribed to go to the gym, since most people don't exercise well at home. He thinks that will help with the various joint pain and the fibromyalgia that I rarely think about but which is always in the background (I don't do acute pain well, but as far as chronic pain goes, I'm a trooper).

I checked and if I go to the downtown gym (not as close to me as Palumbo, but close to work) on Mondays or Wednesdays, I could take an 'urban yoga' class. (The downtown gym also provides towels and all sorts of amenities). :) And of course I do have my Rodney Yee morning yoga tape, which I'm pretty decent at doing once I get into the groove of getting up earlier. I'll have to move some book boxes out of the living room, but I need to do that anyway.

The only trouble with yoga class or physical therapy is that I'm working 34 hours at the store this coming week, for a total of 54 hours. Mostly it's at 3 pm, a half hour after I get off at the hospital, going to 10 pm or so. I may take off a couple of days at the hospital for some other appointments and work the physical therapy in then; I'm not sure yet. We'll see how I do. I've been abysmal at going to the gym and I really don't have one to go with for motivation.

PS I think my keyboard is not sensitive enough or something; it keeps skipping over letters when I push the keys. It's not very old. Oh, well. I just have to remember to go back and read over what I write.

I am soaking my foot

in epsom salts because I had in-office minor surgery to remove an ingrown toenail at the podiatrist's today. It was supposed to be numb and wasn't completely, but I managed to get through it with a stiff upper lip. It is interesting to see just how much even a fourth toe is necessary to your balance, for getting up, etc. Going up on tip-toes is right out. But ibuprofen's taking care of the pain and it's not too bad in any case. I have to soak it in the salts two-three times a day for 15-20 minutes and then pat it dry, put on Neosporin, and wrap in a Band-Aid. I thought it would be disgusting when I took off the bandage, but there's just some blood. I didn't look too closely at the nail this time though, I admit. There's also blood where she put in the needle around the base of the toe for the local anaesthesia. I go back in about 2 1/2 weeks for follow-up.

Tomorrow's my follow-up for my elbow. I'm still having trouble, even with the brace. Lifting at work isn't helping, especially on Thursdays when I put away the truck. Maybe we'll have an extra person who can lift the crates next time.

Sorry I haven't blogged

The night before last I just crashed by 9:30 pm, then yesterday I did the same after catching up on my Web 2.0 class. This time I had to set up a wiki and make changes on the class wiki. I set up two, one public one called Rabid for 2.0 and then a private one I'd like to get the game members into and doing some collaborative stuff (won't bother linking to that; you can't read it). We're using WetPaint in class and it's very easy, much easier to edit than the limited wikis I've worked on.

I was sad to see that Arthur C Clarke died. He'd apparently had post-polio syndrome for decades and died after suffering from breathing problems. Still, he was 90 years old, and had a long life. He will of course be known for 2001: A Space Odyssey, but I remember reading Rendezvous with Rama as a child, whereas I've only seen the movie 2001 (something I should rectify). I also enjoyed his Mysterious World series when I could catch it.

Well, I'm between jobs for the day right now, having had a crown put on at 3 after gettting out of work at the hospital. It's time to get ready for job #2, for truck night at the store. Overall I'm going to work the same amount of hours this week as usual, but not in the long stretch like I normally do on Saturday (10 hours at a time); I'm working 2 tonight, 4 Saturday, 3 on two of the weekdays. So I'm kind of looking forward to having a Saturday for a change.

I do seem to have broken my toe last Friday night. I stubbed it badly and although the swelling's a little better when I wake up in the morning, it hasn't really improved. I'm going to call the podiatrist tomorrow but my understanding is there's not much to do for a toe (especially the little toe) than put some ice on it, take some pain reliever like ibuprofen, and wait. The dark bruising has gone away though. It was feeling better this morning and then I propped a door open with my foot. Right, so I hadn't had my smart medicine today, okay? :)