According to the doctor at the urgent care center, my foot is not broken. She had thought it was when she saw it, but she didn’t find anything on the x-ray herself…but she’s sending it to a radiologist to double-check. Because my foot did end up swelling a bit, a nurse wrapped my foot in an Ace bandage (these things close with Velcro now!) and I am to keep it elevated. I was told to continue using the crutches until I could stand on just my right foot without pain for thirty seconds, and the note I received for work purposes says “no driving until 11/9/05.” Her verbal instructions regarding driving, though, were “if it hurts, don’t do it!” So I am going to take tomorrow off work. First, that will give me time to figure out how the heck to get to work the next day, but more importantly, I will be staying off my foot which will hopefully speed the recovery process.

First of all, I sincerely appreciate all of the comments and e-mails I have gotten! It’s nice to hear so many people express concern. I made it through the interpreting gig without any major incidents; I had a nice chair (but high, like a stool) to sit on and I managed to keep going even though it was two hours longer than I was expecting.

We are presently at perigee and misia’s house; Peri’s dad seems really cool (this is the first time I’ve met him). We are spending the night here, but I think tomorrow we will go to either urgent care or the emergency room - both are operated by Inova. What I am mostly concerned about is what will happen on Monday…how am I going to get to work? Public transportation to my office building is really horrible, and it’s a long drive so I can’t ask anybody to drop me off and pick me up. And while I can drive short distances (a couple of miles) with my left foot, that won’t work for the entire trip to Fort Belvoir and back. So, yeah, I’m not sure what I’m going to do about work. Gah.

So, um, I think I just broke my foot. Or something. I was going down the stairs and on the next to the last one I slipped, hit my foot on the last one, heard a snap, and fell on the ground. I immediately began hollering; fortunately MK&R were awake so I didn’t wake anybody up. I was feeling nauseous and breaking out in a cold sweat, so A brought me a blanket and I lay down on the floor right where I was. I’m now sitting in a big armchair with my feet up on an ottoman, having hopped here with help. I have been given Advil (and my laptop) and we are waiting to see what happens. We are supposed to go to perigee and misia’s place today, and I also have an interpreting job - the Mr. Maryland Leather contest. We are going to see what happens to my foot over the next hour. It’s hurting in a very specific spot, and I really hope it isn’t broken but that snap scared me.

Added: It’s 45 minutes later. The Advil has taken the edge off considerably, so I am going to try to get ready to go to Baltimore. If, while getting ready, my foot hurts a lot, I will go to urgent care and get it x-rayed. If it hurts but not too much, I will go to CVS and buy some crutches (I think they’re something like $20 or $35?) and keep my weight off it and proceed with plans. And if it isn’t really bothering me much as I get ready, I will at least bring lots of Advil!

Friday was our last full day in Grenada. C had decided that in order to get any good snorkeling in we should go in the morning, so the three of us (:R: wasn’t interested) put on sunblock and rented equipment. I was amazed at how easy it was - I’d expected it to be much more difficult to breathe, but when I was in the water I just swam around and looked at the coral and the fish. It was a really cool experience! My mask was pinching my face, though, so after a while I treaded water and tried to fix it…but ended up loosening it instead, and even holding onto A for support I couldn’t get it back together. I was getting very nervous and panicky, so A patiently followed me as I doggie-paddled back to land; I’m very grateful to her for not sending me off on my own. I got out and stood on the beach for a little while, then fiddled with my mask and decided to go back in. I swam around a bit more and took some pictures with C’s underwater camera, then decided I’d had enough. While trying to climb ashore, I slipped on the coral and immediately felt sharp pain in my left ankle. I screamed (A later told me I’d worried some people relaxing on the beach), and had no idea if I’d cut myself or broken something. C was right beside me and was telling me to get out of the water; I was in a lot of pain and insisted I couldn’t, but he told me I had to. So I finally swam/crawled/hobbled along, clutching my left ankle, and what do you think happened then? Bingo! I slipped and cut my right ankle. I bawled again and dragged myself out of the water, barely remembering to make sure my bikini top wasn’t too revealing - it’s illegal to go topless in Grenada. I stumbled back toward the dive shack to return my snorkeling equipment (it was halfway around the resort from where I’d come ashore), and on the way I managed to peer at my ankles. I’d really done a number on the left one, which was quite bloody but hadn’t yet dribbled onto my water shoes. I paused to dab at it, and when I got to the dive shack and handed in my gear I asked if they had a first aid kit. The guy gave me the biggest band-aid he had (it wasn’t big enough) and some spray-on Bactine, but I had no freshwater to rinse it with. I sat in a chair outside the dive shack and patted it dry the best I could, trying to push the dirt out of the way. As I was finishing up, one of the braid ladies came up and offered to do my hair. I had been planning to get some braids done before leaving, but right then all I wanted to do was go back to my room and rinse my cuts a little better, then raid C’s first aid kit. The woman was very aggressive, though, and I ended up having my hair done on the spot. She did more than I wanted to - I’d asked for five on each side, which at $2/each used up the $20 I’d budgeted for having my hair braided - and I wound up with eight braids on the left and six on the right, a total of 14 for which I was charged $25. She’d promised to make the right side even with the left, so she cheated me out of two braids, but at least she made them even so it wouldn’t be too obvious. For dinner we went to the Brown Sugar Restaurant (which provided free transportation), which was wonderful. The prices were all-inclusive, which meant you got an appetizer, salad, main course, and dessert. I chose callaloo soup for my appetizer and ate my salad, but by the time my pumpkin ravioli arrived I was too full to eat more than one of them! They were delicious, I wish I had the recipe. I had the rest boxed up, of course. For dessert I chose what sounded like a delightfully unique cheesecake, only to find that the only dessert they had left was a chocolate cake I could have anywhere. I was grumpy about that, but got them to give me a free drink instead; I had another “Your Business Brown” which I think came in a bigger glass than the one I’d had at the beginning of the meal.