Australian Medicine

For the second time on this stay in Oz, I got to experience the local medical establishment up close and personal. The first time around, I had a friendly visit with a GP regarding an inner ear infection. Nice guy at the local office who took all of 5 minutes to look in my ears and to tell that both ear drums were being nicely distended. A 10-day round of antibiotics cleared it all up. Kind of interesting to go to a doctor's office and not see a single nurse in the process. And to only pay AUS$60 for the visit total. And to not have my blood pressure and temperature taken.

This second time around is turning out to be a two-step process. Today x-rays, later this week consultation with a foot surgeon. Looks like my right foot has a slight fracture in the third toes' proximal phalange near the metatarsophalangeal joint (how's that for a mouthful). Darn windsurfing.

This happened late in the day on Sunday April 6. The wind was letting down, and so was the sun, and as I came into shore to finish up the day I stepped off the board in shallow water. Right onto a small rock. Right under the middle of my foot. It didn't even register that I hurt anything at the time. But as I was derigging, I noted swelling and a burning pain. At first I thought it might be a sting from those humongous, ugly jelly fish that were out and about that day. Seriously, those things were beastly and there were lots of them. I must of turned a dozen of them into sushi with my fin. Every time I reached out into the open bay from the beach area, I could feel a slight thud as I passed though their swarms. Kind of distressing at the time and it kept me keen on staying upright and avoiding falls out there. Which I mostly did; and the few times that I didn't, I opted to quickly squirt right back out of the water and skip practicing my water starts and do on old uphaul instead.

Anyways, the pain really set in as I hobbled home, towing the windsurfing rig behind me. All last week it was bugging me pretty bad. Riding into the city for work, a 45-minute endeavor each way, was preferable to hobbling to the train station and walking the city streets to the office.

Ben took a look at it last night and wrote up a doctor's order to have an x-ray taken. Which, by the way, was on a walk-in basis, took all of 25 minutes, and only cost AUS$80 out of pocket. Ben will now be handing those pics off to a foot surgeon friend of his. We'll see what that brings...

Updated on April 15 - Heard back from the doc: I won't die from this and if I wear a supportive shoe for the next few weeks all will be better. Nothing to do for it otherwise.

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