Launching Over Japan

As you might recalled from my last post, I twisted my ankle while playing a volleyball game at school. I begged and pleaded with the staff to let me walk it off, but given the size of the swelling, they insisted I make a trip to the doctor, and prevented me from walking on it. This is the continuation of that post. Please enjoy.

I was promptly loaded into a teacher’s car and driven forty minutes south to the nearest clinic. During the trip, the health teacher kept asking me if my foot was in pain. I told her that I was fine. It didn’t hurt at all. She didn’t seem to believe me, as she kept asking that same question over and over again. Another teacher followed us in his care to assist me in walking. At this point I wasn’t even sure I was able to walk, because no one had even given me a chance to try. Given that my foot wasn’t in any pain, I was fairly sure I’d be able to walk on it.

We pulled into the clinic just as the snow was starting to fall . This was the first snow of the winter. It was perhaps the worst timing I could have asked for. Getting out of the car was my first chance to prove to them I could walk. I got out of the car and they pulled up a wheelchair. I think this is where I might have lost my cool. I refused it outright and placed full pressure on both my feet as I stood. There was no pain. However, my actions caused both teachers to scramble and grab me to make sure I was able to adequately hobble to the waiting room. That was more agony than any pain.

So we get inside and I have a seat. I guess since we were teachers, we got fast-tracked to the front of the line. I didn’t like having to bump so many infirm and sickly looking people but they insisted the doctor take a look at me. He took a quick look at my leg and declared it was swollen. No shit, Poindextor. He then shuffled me off to have it x-rayed. I was opposed to this at first, but I thought it might be a good idea to have it looked at just in case. After a round of x-rays, I was asked to wait amongst the other patients. It was quite a rag tag group. There were a number of older people and some students. Both groups just kept gaping at me as if I were Santa Clause, come to bring them their Christmas desires. I didn’t even want to imagine what injuries they had. I tried my best to doge their eyes, and just as I was starting to have some success, the nurse came out and asked me in again.

I sat down and the doctor showed me the x-rays. The good news was that nothing was broken. The bad news was that he could not pin down what could be causing my ankle to swell so badly. He thought it was either a sprain or an elongated ligament. He said to me there was a specialist in from Iwate University that day and he would also look at the damage. So the teachers shuffled me over to yet another office. This time the doctor took a good look at my leg. He moved it around in a circular pattern and asked me if it hurt. Each time I responded that it did not hurt. I was waiting for him to find the angle that would cause me to scream out. It never came. Then it press in on the swelling. That is when I felt the pain. He said that the swelling was being cause by internal bleeding and that for it to heal as quickly as possible, it should be put in a cast for one week. My jaw hit the floor I asked him why a cast was necessary when there were no broken bones. As hard as I tried to convince him otherwise, there was no going back. My leg was going in a cast. Outside, I could see the snowfall was quickly turning into a blizzard. To be continued….