Toe jam and Leslie

Well.  That was the shortest weekend ever.  Seems to happen every Monday - recognition of how fast the time has flown from Friday when I pulled out of my parking space at work until Monday morning as I navigate right back in.  I know that it's important to live fully in each present moment, but I have to say that Monday through Friday at 2:30, I'm on a mission to get to that TGIF drive home.  Not that I don't enjoy the week days, but especially when work is more annoying than a flock of gnats buzzing in my ear all night, which it has been lately, I do live for the weekends.  So sue me.

And the first thing that happened this Monday morning occurred before the famous butcrack of dawn....I woke up at 4ish, and decided to go downstairs and doze on the den couch for an hour before I officially began making my lunch and getting ready for work.  Once I wake at that hour, I am so squirmy that it's hard for hubby to continue snoozing, so being the endlessly loving and benevolent wife, I get out of bed and do something. 

Today I came downstairs into the living room where there is a lamp immediately upon entering we keep on at night to fend off burglers (in my mind only) or whatever.  As my MIL says, "They'd have to bring it in to take it out!"  I always turn it off the second I enter the room in the wee small a.m. hours. 

Bad idea.  This morning I crept through the freshly darkened living room and promptly rammed/slammed/jammed/crammed my right pinky toe into a solid heavy chest that we use as a coffee table.  Literally, I saw stars.

It was the kind of pain that makes you initially sick to your stomach and immediately starts throbbing, so it hurts like hell, interrupted by rhythmic worse spasms of pain with the throbbing.  OMG - I was writhing, cursing and flailing about...eventually I hobbled to the couch, got horizontal and put the foot up on pillows.  Usually when I've done a boneheaded thing such as this, the acute pain diminishes gradually over half an hour or so.  This didn't, and even the pressure of a light throw over hit caused me to hit the ceiling.  Finally I tried to walk on it, and as long as I deliberately focused weight on the medial half of the foot, it was okay.  But I got ice for it and then got it up again while I googled pinky toe drama to see what to do. 

I'm pretty sure I broke it, because it was really swollen, red and a little distorted looking.  But it had feeling, and good circulation, so all I read indicated that there isn't much to do for it besides ice, elevation, rest, and buddy taping it to the toe next door.  I already knew all of this, so iced it a couple times, kept it elevated, then got a shower so I could tape it up, "sock" it, and see how it felt in a shoe.  Also my favorite cure-all - 800 mg of ibuprofen.  Believe it or not, it feels okay.  I was afraid I'd have to stay home at least today, maybe get it xrayed, and see a doc.  But all the data said as long as there is no numbness and it stays warm (signalling good circulation), it's an injury that is unlikely to need intervention.  However, it will need some activity moderation perhaps.

And now, a good 7+ hours after the ram/jam/slam/cram with said toe securely taped and tucked into my loosely tied walking shoe, it still feels pretty good.  I'm shocked and GLAD, given how it started out.  I've only had a toe fracture one other time when I was on a trip in Europe the summer after high school graduation.  I was touring with a music group, and while in a hotel in Vienna, and rather drunk I might add, I slid across a wet floor in a water closet and ploughed the left big toe into a bathtub!  It swelled up ridiculously - so much that everyone on the trip called it my "potato toe".  It was a drag because we walked many miles everyday, but at the ripe age of 17, it didn't keep me down for long.  I cut a hole out of the big toe area of my way cool penny loafer and carried on.

I'm hoping this injury won't keep me down much either.  Rest assured I'll update as to it's progress.  I'm not going to do anything on it after I get off work today and hopefully it wil continue to feel okay.  It looked less swollen when I checked it out a little while ago, which is a good sign.  Maybe it isn't broken, but it sure had all the symptoms, included looking like a lumpy swollen version of its usual self.

Here's to a good food day for us all - my weekend was decent.  Not perfect.  It's okay.

Hot Tip for the Day:  *Wear slippers or shoes when traipsing around in the dark.*  See?  Something brilliant brewed.