Monday, September 24, 2007

Something's broken


So i went to the student health area on my campus and told them about an ankle i sprained in April. That's about six months ago. It's still giving me problems, i didn't go to the doctor because i don't want to pay people to tell me i should just "walk it off." I tell the nurse how long it had been since my injury. She gives me this look that suggests that i'm stupid. And i do feel ashamed to have to tell her the truth. I want to say that i did this stupid thing a week ago.


"what were you doing?" she asks.


"i was rollerblading."


she smiles and shakes her head. She knows i know what she's going to say about that. So she lets it slide. She asks me what my symptoms. I tell her:


"whenever i've had a long day of walking, it hurts. By the end of the day, it's usually swollen."


She asks me why i'm just now coming to the doctor. I don't have a decent answer. Sometimes i can put stuff off for so long, in the hopes that they just get better on their own. I tell her something to that effect. she shakes her head again.


Eventually, that day, i got x-rays and that was kinda fun.


When i get the call back to in and review those x-rays, i'm almost sure that it's good news. "With a few more months, of just walking, your ankles is going to heal itself quite nicely."


That's not what i got, i find out that i actually fractured it. This was told to me by a bemused doctor who examines my x-rays with a furrow in her brow. "You're going to want to go to an orthopedic surgeon." What!


And this is six months ago! i've been walking around on a fracture for half a year and i'm still calling it a sprain. i think i'm still going to call it a sprain. i just don't believe my luck. I peeved about the possibility of surgery, but somewhat relieved that this problem has a name. It's called a "Fracture of the Distal Fibula."


whatever, it's still a sprain to me.

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