Toe Be or Not Toe Be

Tuesday was a rather good day for me, in actuality. Class was going well and I had just found out that I had made a really good grade on my Engineering Chemistry exam. Work seemed to be going swimmingly as well. I was in such a good mood, I decided to move the empty boxes from the print room at work to the front of the computer lab where we stack them to eventually get picked up or handed out. Usually I have to get told to do this.:) Well, on the way back to the print room to get more empty boxes, I decided to take the shortcut back to the print room. You see, I could either go all the way down to the hall, go about 20 feet down the hall, turn left into Resource Desk, and then walk into print room or I could walk into where the students come to pick up their printouts and hop over a short counter-top and what used to be a swing-door that is now bolted shut. I decided to take that shortcut and when I hopped over the little swing-door, I landed on the other side right on one of my wittle bitty toes!:-0 Now just think about that. You've got about 145 pounds landing on one single toe. Something bad is bound to result.

At first I just had a sharp pain where the toe is. I went about my business, but about 5 minutes later the pain was getting so bad that I could hardly walk. I called from my station downstairs (because I was in Print 2) to my supervisor, explained what happened, and asked him what to do. He told me that I had to come down and fill out a work injury report. While we were filling that out, I asked about Worker's Comp. and he said I didn't qualify because I was just a student worker. I found that rather odd. I had called dad first when my toe was hurting really bad to get his advice and he told me I should get some form of Worker's Comp. to take care of everything.

I had two choices: since the "Quack Shack" (the Texas A&M Univ. clinic) had closed right after the incident, I could either go to the ER or wait until the next day and go to the "Quack Shack." I decided to do the latter (the cheaper route) and suffer through the night. I made it through the night decently. I got up early, called the "Quack Shack", and made an appt. When I was seen, I was getting ready to get X-Rays when one of the nurses told me that I could use Worker's Comp. if I went off campus. I told her my supervisor said I didn't qualify for it. Her eyes got wide and she said, "Oh yes you do! Either he is not wanting you to know or he hasn't kept up with the latest e-mails regarding policies."

So, I voted to leave the "Quack Shack" and go to the hospital to get checked out. Since I did indeed qualify for Worker's Comp.(confirmed by Human Resources) , I wouldn't have to pay a thing! So I went, got x-rays, and was informed by the doc that I had a possible fracture in that particular toe and one of the bones was visibly out of place. That being the case, he got a nurse to "buddy wrap" my toe with the toe next to it so it didn't move much and then put me in one of those annoying blue shoes that have Velcro straps. In addition, I was not to swim in my swimming class for two weeks :-\ and I was also to get a handicapped parking permit!!

So now, I have to hobble all over campus for my classes, but at least when I go out somewhere I can park in the blue handicapped parking spots!!! My toe does seem to be doing much better, but that may be because I'm taking 800mg Ibuprofen 3 times a day, which about twice the max dose on a regular bottle of Ibuprofen.:D I just can't wait to get that blasted shoe off and wear a normal shoe.