MONDAY MUSINGS: EXTRA HOSPITAL VISIT

There's one place you really don't want to go to at this pandemic time and that's an unnecessary hospital visit.  All I can say is I tried ... A week's worth of avoidance crossing my fingers that it was the right decision.

You see a week ago a 5 pound exercise barbell weight rolled off my bed onto my bare foot. (No, I don't sleep with barbells nor have them on my bed usually but I had moved my late afternoon on line exercising into the bedroom since Natureman had already been subjected to a morning class.) 

The weight fell on the very same  previously broken foot that had 3 fractures. Let's just say, it smarted and yet, somehow I was able to put weight on it. After taking tylenol and icing it for the evening there was minimal pain. On that pain scale I'd say a 6)  The following days the bruising changed, covering a third of my foot. ( Natureman says that doesn't mean much since I have small feet) We continued our walks, me wearing shoes that weren't laced up. 

My hopes of recovery were squashed when the pain just concentrated on a visual 1/4 of an inch raised red area on a vein Friday night. Was it a blood clot/ something else needing medical attention. 

The thought of medical advice seemed the route to go. A nurse returned my call and told me blod clots are deeper and not visual. Her concern was that I had a fracture and should come in to have it checked out and x-rayed. 

Urgent Care was only open another half an hour which it would take me to arrive but would reopen at 7am . Opting for the early morning visit, I headed out at 6:15 Saturday morning and arrived a bit early. 

After being greeted by a masked young man, waiting on the receptionist who was away from her acrylic shielded area and another masked worker bee needing her also,  I was the only patient in the waiting area!  

The wait was minimal and I was ushered into a room. Another masked fellow did the triage, in came the sympathetic masked nurse who oohed at my bruising and then the masked doctor entered. 

Bottomline is that even if it is fractured, the mere fact I can walk on it was enough to indicate the injury is not a break and an x-ray would serve no purpose.  Nothing would change its healing. The raised area is probably a hematoma and the blood should be absorbed within the next week. That was that... Another masked young man came in with paperwork and the visit was over.  Total of 16 minutes and seeing 7 people, I left. 

Well, for my ease of mind it was worth checking it out. I disposed of my gloves once out of the building and removed my mask once back in the car heading to the End of the Rainbow Valley where Natureman was just awakening... A new day with maybe one less worry.