Toeing the Line

Today I went to the doctor.

My goal was to get him to tell me that the break is not that bad and I should be up and running in about two weeks.

Before the appointment I even worked out in the basement for an hour- weight lifting, no cardio.  I did not even sweat.  The workout was good, but I definitely was missing that post run burn/high.

By the time I was in the office and filling out the paperwork,  I had almost convinced myself that the initial X-ray must have been wrong.  No way was my toe actually broken.  And even it was, so what, it's just a toe.

My name was called and I made my way down the hall to the exam room.  On the walls lining the hall were ribbons, awards and metals indicating that the doctor was a fellow runner.

Ha! This is in the bag,  He will see we are kindred spirits and say, "Broken toe? Pashaw. Run Nikki. Run!"

Instead, when I told him I too am a runner he responded by saying, "Pashaw. Not for the next 6 to 8 weeks you aren't."

He said not only did I have a transverse fracture, but the one side was compacted leaving my big toe pointing at a 15 to 20 degree angle.

"We can put a pin it in to straighten it out." He tells me.

"No.  No surgery for a toe, unless it is to replace one that has been severed or something." I explained.

He informed me that my toe could not remain in it's current condition and needed to be straightened.  My other option was Novocaine (3 shots) and then he would manually reposition the toe.  Right there.  At that very minute.

Ummmm.

I screamed, loudly for the first shot that burned like hell.  Seriously like the fiery pits of hell. The doc encouraged me to, "Let it all out."  Thankfully, I did not actually scream any more.  The nurse was very nice and started telling me some story about her 3 month old son.

My toe is now straight.  Perhaps straighter than it was before I fell.

However, I left the office in a boot that comes half way up my calf and a prescription for a fistful of painkillers, maybe two fistfuls.

I am not allowed to run anytime in the near future.  He said he did not want to even see me on a bike for 3 weeks.  Finally, almost as an after thought he said, "You may want to head straight home because when that numbness wears off, that toe is going to really hurt...See you next week!"

Truth be told he was super nice.  The entire staff was super nice, friendly and gentle.

Now, if you will excuse me, I need to go look up low impact, geriatric chair work outs from the early 1970's.