If you've read any of my posts on here, you'll notice that I have a pattern of being a walking disaster. A functional, walking disaster, but a walking disaster at that. Well, after a rugby injury a couple weeks ago I became just a disaster.
Picture this, I'm at rugby practice, business as usual, and doing a drill I've done hundreds of times before. Hit the pad, place the ball, get up, repeat. On one of the hits I could feel one of the toes on my right foot take the brunt of my weight as I fell to place the ball, but I figured it was just stubbed. Stuff like that happens all the time in rugby. My cleats are tight so I continued practicing as usual. But as I came down from the endorphin rush of practice I noticed a stabbing pain going up my entire leg.
I powered through and headed to my next obligation: work. Luckily, the job I hold in the evenings, I am able to sit down for the entirety of the two hour shift. So I forgot about my foot pain and helped some students with writing appointments. And then I walked back to my room, well walk is a strong term for the limp-like thing I was doing on the way back to my dorm.
I got back to room and took off my shoe to investigate. And on the bottom of my foot I discovered the point of my pain. The bottom of my conjoined toes (a story for another time) was as black as the coffee I drink every morning with a jarring red line striking its way through the middle of my toe. I was very confused: had I not just stubbed my toe? But as I really looked at my toes I noted that one was noticeably larger than the others and that I didn't have feeling in any of my toes on my right foot besides my big toe.
I did the obvious thing when a college student finds themselves in this situation: I texted my parents. Initially they thought I was just being dramatic, and honestly I had the same thoughts. They told me to keep an eye on it, ice, elevate, and repeat. And that I did.
But as the days passed I noticed that I truly could not walk. Instead of the five minutes it typically took me to walk to class, it started taking me fifteen minutes. The hill up from my dorm seemed more like a mountain than a small hill. By the second day of struggling just to make it from my futon to my bed, I figured it was time to throw in the towel and head to the doctor.
I started at my college's health services and pretty much got the news I was expecting to hear with a fun lil twist: I did something to mess up my foot and I would have to wear a walking boot for the time being. I would have to get an x-ray from the Mayo Clinic in Mankato.
To be honest, I thought that treatment was little dramatic seeing as it was just one of my little toes that I had hurt, but I went along with it. I recruited my bff and doctor's appointment buddy Molly to take me to the x-ray (fun fact--you can't drive when you have a boot) and got in pretty quickly--a major feat for the Mayo urgent care system. And then the doctor gave me some gross news: I would be in the boot for at least two weeks (which means no rugby, weight lifting class, or conditioning class as usual) and was expected to go back in for a follow-up appointment.
Well, that follow-up appointment is tomorrow and I can confidently say that my foot is pretty much better. I do get a dull ache and some sharp pains up my foot when I walk on it for a prolonged period of time, but I can make it from my futon to my bed with ease. And for this college student, that's enough.
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