Tuesday, October 15, 2002
Here’s the story:
Leaving Spider House yesterday afternoon I stumbled and fell down on those front steps, the ones leading down the to street. I bit it. A guy following me down was kind enough to ask me if I was okay and to help me up. I could tell I hurt my ankle, but it didn’t seem like anything too major. Until I looked at it. I had this huge, lumpy, protruding bulge that scared the hell out of me. I’ve sprained my ankle many times, but never with such horrible visual results.
So. The kind man grabbed me a bag of ice. I asked him if he worked at the place (since he seemed to know everyone). No, he said, helping people out is just “what I do, buddy.” Cool. So, I got my parents to pick me up (I couldn’t walk back to the truck — I couldn’t even walk inside to get my own ice) and take me to the emergency room at Seton. I got looked at by a doctor and x-rayed. Nothing was obviously broken, but I’d clearly torn some stuff up. (The x-rayer even asked me about my other major left-foot injury, which left me in crutches two springs ago — those bones are apparently still out of whack.) So I got checked out again (which hurt like hell) and then some orderlies hooked me up with a plaster cast to use until I could see an orthopedic doctor to get the full story. While getting the cast ready, my dad and I noticed a nurse pointing me out to a group of nurses, my ankle looked so terrible. Very bad sign, we decided, when something looked so bad it impressed the people working at the hospital every day… Anyway, they sent me home with a vicodin prescription.
So. Now I’m here, after an uncomfortable night’s sleep. I’m still trying to plan out an approach to taking a shower, since I can’t put any weight on one foot and I’m not supposed to get the cast wet. No good ideas have come to me. I can’t drive, since I wouldn’t be able to push the clutch with my gimpy leg. So, I thankfully work sitting down. With my cellphone and computer I have a command center from which to run my life. But no telescope or binoculars.
And so far the neighbors don’t seem to be doing anything suspicious.
