The Foot

OK, so I'm laid up. To start from the beginning, last Sunday morning I went surfing at El Porto- it was almost a perfect day, the waves were a foot to 2 feet overhead, no wind, glassy conditions, and not too many people in the water. The waves were fast and dangerous, though; every wave I caught I ended up getting pounded, where the lip grabbed me and bounced me off the bottom before letting me up to the surface.

I caught a fantastic wave where I was midway between getting tubed (riding in the narrow corridor between the wave face and the curling lip) and coming out the end of the tube. That was so exhilarating, I can't even describe it. Then I decided to catch a wave in and get out for the day, I was done and exhausted. I paddled for a decent looking wave, the other surfers got out of the way to let me take it, and I wiped out on the face. My board was twisting around in the whitewater and managed to hit my foot really hard.

So, that was it, I knew it was time to go in, my foot definitely hurt too much to continue. As I was walking back to my car across the sand, I noticed that there was a large slice in my right booty, the foot that got hit, and bloody water was squirting out of it with every step I took. Uh-oh, not good. I limped over to the outdoor shower on the beach, removed my booty and began to shower my foot off and look at it. There was a deep, inch and a half gash on the top of my foot that had been done by the back fin on my surfboard. It was big, deep and wide, and I could tell that it needed stitches. Some nice people flagged down the baywatch lifeguard in his truck and he came over, cleaned it up, wrapped it up nicely, and gave me directions to the nearest emergency room. At that point I could still drive on the foot.

I went to the emergency room, where they proceeded to give me 5 stitches and some vicodin for pain. Everything seemed OK, so I drove home. My foot hurt a little, but not too much, so I didn't go fill the vicodin prescription right away. I got my friend Rich to drive me to the drugstore to drop off the prescription, as the pain was rising. They said they'd fill it in an hour and 15 minutes. Then, later, as I was laying on the couch, trying to elevate my foot, a wave of extreme pain hit me. It was hhoooorrribble, I mean excruciating. I called Edie to see if she could go pick up my medicine, and noticed that my foot had started to swell and turn red. Finally, after another hour of harsh pain, Edie came home with the drugs and things got a little better.

The next day I noticed that I was exhibiting the symptoms of fever, with sweats, chills, rising and dropping temperature, etc. I called the emergency room again, and they recommended coming in. So, I got Edie to drive me there at 8 pm on a Monday night, and there I find out that the original doctor had forgotten to give me any antibiotics for possible infection, and that was why my foot swelled up and I had had so much pain. So, they take x-rays, do a blood test, hook me up to an IV and give me fluids, antibiotics, and a heavy dose of dilaudid to kill any pain. I think that was to keep me from complaining about their screwup.

So, I'm stuck at home with my foot slowly getting better, but I'm very frustrated because this week is basically shot for me.