Last Wednesday, I was walking back to the library through the small garden between the two main buildings when I took a bit of a tumble. I caught my toe on one of the paving stones, couldn't catch myself, and fell flat out, giving my head a pretty good bang on the raised concrete border of one of the flower beds. Needless to say, I was a bit "stunned"! I had a nasty headache (and it's a little bit tender even now), but I didn't break anything, not even my glasses. No concussion either! However, not surprisingly, my whole body ached for several days afterward. And I must have tried to break my fall with my right hand, because the palm at the base of the thumb was extremely painful. On Friday, I decided I should visit the doctor to find out exactly what was wrong.
We are lucky to have a good "bone doctor" in town, Dr. Elia. I've seen him a couple of times over the years for a variety of problems. And he recently oversaw the treatment of a broken leg for one of our staff (my assistant in the library). In fact, we've decided that our Arabic "word of the season" is "waqat" or "I fell"! Here's the view from his examining room:
And I was delighted with this typical folk art tableau above his desk:
He examined my hand, took two x-rays, explained that I had injured the second metacarpal, gave me prescriptions for medications and a gel to apply to the injured area, walked down to the pharmacy (!) to get me a brace, and charged me a grand total of 250 LE or $42.33! The prescriptions came to another 52 LE or $8.80, so the whole thing cost just over $51!!
Here's a photo of my x-rays:
And one of my poor hand in the brace:
Of course, I'm supposed to rest the hand and use it as little as possible, but that's not likely! I had to re-shelve 151 books on Saturday, and another 65 or so today. So the "mending" process will take a bit longer than predicted...
oh dear. take care of yourself and no more tripping. so good to get caught back up with you again!
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