We return to the apartment around midnight. If I wasn't in so much pain, I think I would have fallen asleep on the walk home. Despite exhaustion I cannot, for the life of me, fall asleep. 1am. 2am. 3am. All the while, this blister is getting bigger and soon I realize it is full of blood. Out of boredom I decide it is time to MacGyver this myself. I take an earring and light it on fire to sanitize it and went to town in the bathtub. It didn't even hurt! I've been thinking about nursing a lot lately and felt totally in control of this situation. Problem: solved. (Yeah, right. We're just getting started.)
Jess and I arrive at Heathrow about 90 minutes before my flight. I'm not checking anything and I've already checked in online. Oh wait, now the kiosk won't print my boarding pass. After a minor panic, we cut the line and the lady makes some phone calls. She tells me I have to run to get to my gate on time. No worries!
Hobbling through security I realize my foot is now soaked in a sticky yellow liquid. GROSS. After about the first of 10 hours of our flight, I realize the blister is now filled with "drainage" (that's what the doctor called it anyway) and my foot is so swollen I cannot move my toes. Thank god I will only be on this plane for 9 more hours! Then have a 5 hour layover in Atlanta and get home to Nashville at midnight! I forgot to mention that there was this toddler that cried at least 6 and a half of the 10 hours. The British lady next to me said, "That mom should be glad I don't have a gun on me right now."
I get off the plane and beg someone at the counter to put me on the next flight. She sees me hobbling and puts me on the "disabled, children, and wheelchair" line. Score. I walked something like 20 gates in so much pain, but I got called for standby (I called Pop Leo and said "There is a God.") and the 32 minute flight to Nashville was fast and painless.
Kristie picks me up from the airport and says, "Welcome back to the US!" My response, "Any chance you want to go to the ER after dinner?" Only I would come back from the US hobbling.
Because our copay for the ER is $75 and the doctor is only $25, we waited until the next morning to see the doctor. She shot a HUGE needle into my foot and it felt as though she was shoving it over and over again. She tried to make me feel better and say, "Only one more minute!" OWWWW. After it was numbed, she pretty much cut one a one-inch chunk of skin off my foot. Apparently infection hides in calloused skin. Lucky for me, my feet are entirely calloused. She said she didn't think it was a staff infection but if it continued to harbor "drainage" then I would have to get ALL of the skin on the bottom of my foot cut off. Please say a prayer that I don't have to go through that. She told me no walking for at least 4 days, most likely a week and absolutely no running for a month. There goes all my training for the half marathon.
This is where the white trash part of the day begins. I wore flip flops there but after this minor surgery/removal of a chunk of my foot, clearly I couldn't wear those shoes home. AND she didn't give me crutches because she figured being a teacher and off for the summer, I didn't need to leave the house for any reason. WTF. So, Kristie helped me hop shoeless out of the clinic to the car. We then went through the drive-thru to get my prescription and Kristie figured I needed shoes so we hopped to Marshall's. They insisted I use the wheelchair. Thank you Kristie for being so supportive and capturing this moment.
We then hopped to IHOP for pancakes and around Walgreens. By this moment, an angel named Miriam said I could borrow her crutches and Kristie went and got them for me. Dr. Kristie Marotta has been taking good care of me this whole week! Cari and Annalise have also had to deal with me and they have been troopers and so helpful. We know how stir crazy I can get so I've been watching seasons of Project Runway. I will say Kristie did let me out of the house on Friday night. Tomorrow you'll hear about the adventures a girl on crutches has at the bar.
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