Ouch

Last night when I was sparring with Brian, I jammed a toe. It hurt enough for me to hop around for a while, but I figured it was no big deal. I've jammed toes and fingers before, and it's not usually a problem. I just went back to sparring.

But by the time I got home, my toe, the middle one on my left foot, was black and blue. Not swollen, but certainly sore and nasty-looking.

I iced it. That's all I could remember of the advice I've gotten on jammed digits before. And I didn't walk around too much. Bruce took pity on me while I lounged on the bed with an ice pack on my toe.

"You never hurt yourself like this in ballet," he pointed out. This is true.

This morning, I was able to walk OK, but that's not saying much as that middle toe doesn't really do too much. It was still black and blue.

I'm lucky when it comes to athletic injuries. Our college has a new program in Athletic Training, and the clinic is just downstairs from my office. I decided to take advantage of the expertise and stop by for a free diagnosis, to see if I needed to make a doctor's appointment.

Holly, a student studying from an anatomy book at the desk there, told me that "the certifieds" were out at games, and that she wasn't allowed to diagnose without them being there. But she looked at my toe.

"How could I tell if it were broken?" I asked.

"Flick the end of it. If it hurts, it's definitely broken."

I flicked. It didn't hurt.

Holly told me that even if that toe was broken, it wasn't likely that a doctor would do anything about it. "It doesn't move much, so it doesn't need a cast or splint to heal," she told me. "It will just take time, no matter what happened. You can be active as long as it doesn't hurt."

I'm glad about that. I would be really bummed if I was going to have to spend a few weeks in a cast, or with crutches. Of course, there would be the fun of telling people I'd gotten hurt sparring :-)

Still, this is really untimely! With only 5 days left until the tournament, I'm not sure I'll be in shape to compete.