I Tell Ya..............

This morning I got out of bed and took a shower-and then put on a clean nightgown. The ankle is better but still not where it should be and wanted to shower while other people were still at home on the off chance the darned thing decided to give out as I was stepping in or out of the shower. Fortunately I had no issues-but it still hurt like hell.

I had intended to try Silver Sneakers completely sitting or else do half an hour on recumbent machine-but with my foot pain, I decided to put that off at least one more day-since even seated, Silver Sneakers requires kicking and bouncing the legs and so on. Which still sounded like more than my leg can handle. So I spend the morning slowly and leisurely doing some household tasks that needed to be handled.

After lunch I went to meet some friends at the Tuesday five dollar movies (there I go again), where we watched Motherless Brooklyn. Wonderful if I do say so and I would go with the public rating on this and not the reviewers. Lots of interesting previews as well. 

After said movies I drove over the the church to check on the homeless food service and then left everyone to continue on their own (if there is a silver lining in this ankle pain is that I am finally getting people to realize that they are fine, we are a well functioning machine, and they don't really need me there from five to eight the entire week!) and went home.  Somewhere about halfway through heating up the quiche I purchased, I broke.

The pain was throbbing, I didn't remember hurting myself, my ankle was swollen to twice it's size and I was hurting like hell..........So I grabbed my keys, turned off my oven and headed out to the local urgent care. Somehow thinking that I would get checked out, maybe possibly get a wrap or a brace, and then head home to drown my pain in-whatever.

Naturally my friends, this was not to be. The PA on duty listened to my story, looked at my ankle, probed my ankle, and turned me away with a referral to the Emergency Room.  Why?  Because as part of our general conversation I mentioned that I had driven across the country (a full month before mind you) in a car by myself, and she was afraid my swollen ankle meant I had a blood clot. I was very much NOT HAPPY at this point-but she refused to treat me and I wanted to figure out what was wrong, being in pain and mainly injury-less. So off I went.

Praise the Lord, said ER was not crowded this evening. I was checked in, examined by a nurse, and examined by an intern and then the supervising doctor in no time. In all three cases, they were kind of like "Now, why did they send you here from Urgent Care, again?".  Eventually in what I guess they call an abundance of caution, I had three x-rays of my swollen foot.

The final diagnosis? Not an injury, but an arthritis flare up and one that could happen again-and be even worse (remember that leg degeneration in the ankle and thigh I have?  It's gone to the next level).  And yes, they are as sure as humans and machines can be that I don't have a blood clot in the soft tissue of my ankle.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to know that I didn't whack said ankle in my sleep, that doing simple ankle circles did not the pain cause, and that I'm not so far gone that I don't remember spraining my ankle from day to day. And it's nice to know how to treat said ankle and that I need to get back to an orthopedic doctor pretty quickly.  I just wish those urgent care folks had bothered to check my history and maybe do a quick Xray on their own machines before sending me to ER hell. And ER pricing.

I now have instructions to ice and elevate my foot. I have prescriptions for triple dose Ibuprofen and about six Hydro-Codone. And plans and instructions to stay mainly in bed and keep that foot elevated.

Instructions that I am more than happy to follow. A pillow for my foot, books on my kindle, a notebook and knitting by my side and I'll take that bed, thank you very much!