Week of Crushing Immobility(part 1)

If I were asked by someone what my worst experience in Japan was, I would have to say that this week would come very close to being the winner. I spent the last week hobbling around in a leg cast, and it left me unable to leave my house. But it’s not quite as bad as you think. What happened to my leg? Here is my sad little story.

It all started innocently enough last Thursday.  I was to play a friendly game of a volleyball with the teachers of two of the schools I visit. It was a pleasent change from my afternoon elementary classes. All was going well. I teamed up with the elementary school and we crushed the junior high in the first game. Then, we switch sides for the second half of the match. This time, the junior high teachers were putting up a fight. The game stayed farily even, which caused everyone to start playing more ferociously, including myself. Well, I might have be a little too ferocious, as all I remember next is jumping up for a block, then coming down next to another teacher, twisting my right foot, falling down and and feeling an incredible world of pain.

My first instinct was to get up and shake it off. However, this proved to be difficult as it was throbbing like mad, so I ended up favoring my good foot. The other teachers immediately noticed my wobbling, and ushered me over to the wall. I sat down and winced. They asked me to take off my shoe an sock, and that is where things got ugly. What we found under that sock was a large, swollen mass of tissue. It was about double its original size and purple. I’d never seen my foot that swollen, and I’ve twisted my ankle quite a bit.

Someone brought a bucket of cold water and placed my foot in it. The gym wasn’t exaclty warm, and the cold water mixed with the air caused my face to turn blue. Then I started to feel sick. If this is what going into shock is about, then I was all about going into shock.

Of course everyone assumed that I was in a great deal of pain. In reality, the pain had subsided about 5 minutes earlier. I knew at this point, even if the swelling was bad, it was basically a sprain, and that no major damage was done. I was just dealing now with the effects of the cold water. I took my foot out of the water and started to feel better. Then, the school nurse turned to me and said, “Jason, I’m going to take you to the doctor.” My face tunred white. I couldn’t go to the doctor’s now. Besides, I never trusted Japanese doctors. They always overdid it with their treatments. I was now more terrified than ever.

I begged and pleaded and asked them to give me a few minutes to see if the swelling went down. I even stood up(to their horror) and walked around. “See, it’s not so bad”, I said. “I can walk and everything.” There is no way I could convince them. I was going to the doctor. That is when things basically turned to bullshit.