Toe Jam, Ouch.
Yesterday (Saturday) was going great -- slept 10 hours, had a large iced hazelnut coffee, worked out, worked for 4-5 hours, watched the PC-Pitt game with my cousin and friends, and even caught a new JFK conspiracy documentary. As far as relaxing, productive Saturdays go, it was perfect.
Then I got greedy. At around midnight, I was goofing around with my kettlebells in the living room. Basically, you get into a push-up position, and maintain that posture for as long as you can. Works the abs in no time. Anyway, since I was experimenting, I pinned my feet against the wall and tried it for 25-30 seconds. I was only wearing socks, and about halfway through it, I let my toes curl up, so my body was being supported by my "toe knuckles."
Here's where things go south. When I was done, my left big toe was stuck in the curled position, and I just assumed it cramped up due to the sudden pressure on it. Figured it'd last a couple seconds and would be fine. The only problem was, it wouldn't go back to its normal position, and started to hurt a little. Couldn't put any pressure on the foot, and since it was curled down, I couldn't even have the foot lay flat on the ground.
Now I'm getting a bit concerned, so I go to Plan B -- Google. Started searching for "frozen toe". Got a bunch of hits on Alaska and frostbite, but nothing pertaining to me. C'mon, Google, hurry up with that personalized search feature.
Plan C -- send a text to Skeey buddy Dr. Drew, who I knew had nothing better to do on a Saturday night than stare at his cell phone waiting for a text message. Which turned out to be true, considering he called me back in two minutes. I told him what happened, and he said, "Yeah, it's dislocated. Will have to be popped back into place. If you were a pro athlete, I'd tell you to pop it back in yourself; otherwise, just go to the emergency room in the morning." Given the fact that I somehow managed to dislocate a body part during an exercise whose sole requirement is to stay motionless, I ruled out the notion I was a pro athlete.
Tried to go to bed, but only managed 4 hours of uncomfortable painful sleep. Woke up, swallowed some pride, and went to the emergency room.
The conversation with the admitting nurse was as follows:
Her: "Where did you hurt it?"
Me: "Living room."
Her: "Stubbed it against the furniture, something like that?"
Me: "Ah, no, much stupider."
Her: "I bet it's a really great story."
Me: "Umm....no, not really."
Then got sent to the triage room, where there were 4 of us each separated by a curtain. Which was funny, because 10 minutes earlier I signed a HIPPA privacy form, yet I now know the details of three other patients. Luckily, the guy to the left started quoting Seinfeld episodes and making fun of Wilford Brimley commercials, so it was just like another day at the office.
Had some x-rays taken, then got a shot to numb the pain, and finally the nurse grabbed the toe, yanked on it, then pulled it up. Heard a nice "pop" and it went back into place. Got some Vicodin, Ibuprofen and a podiatrist appointment to look forward to. And it still hurts. But very glad that the captain of the foot is back in charge.
The moral of the story: Well, there is none. Drew just wanted to be mentioned in the Weeblo. Ladies, check out his MySpace page!
Then I got greedy. At around midnight, I was goofing around with my kettlebells in the living room. Basically, you get into a push-up position, and maintain that posture for as long as you can. Works the abs in no time. Anyway, since I was experimenting, I pinned my feet against the wall and tried it for 25-30 seconds. I was only wearing socks, and about halfway through it, I let my toes curl up, so my body was being supported by my "toe knuckles."
Here's where things go south. When I was done, my left big toe was stuck in the curled position, and I just assumed it cramped up due to the sudden pressure on it. Figured it'd last a couple seconds and would be fine. The only problem was, it wouldn't go back to its normal position, and started to hurt a little. Couldn't put any pressure on the foot, and since it was curled down, I couldn't even have the foot lay flat on the ground.
Now I'm getting a bit concerned, so I go to Plan B -- Google. Started searching for "frozen toe". Got a bunch of hits on Alaska and frostbite, but nothing pertaining to me. C'mon, Google, hurry up with that personalized search feature.
Plan C -- send a text to Skeey buddy Dr. Drew, who I knew had nothing better to do on a Saturday night than stare at his cell phone waiting for a text message. Which turned out to be true, considering he called me back in two minutes. I told him what happened, and he said, "Yeah, it's dislocated. Will have to be popped back into place. If you were a pro athlete, I'd tell you to pop it back in yourself; otherwise, just go to the emergency room in the morning." Given the fact that I somehow managed to dislocate a body part during an exercise whose sole requirement is to stay motionless, I ruled out the notion I was a pro athlete.
Tried to go to bed, but only managed 4 hours of uncomfortable painful sleep. Woke up, swallowed some pride, and went to the emergency room.
The conversation with the admitting nurse was as follows:
Her: "Where did you hurt it?"
Me: "Living room."
Her: "Stubbed it against the furniture, something like that?"
Me: "Ah, no, much stupider."
Her: "I bet it's a really great story."
Me: "Umm....no, not really."
Then got sent to the triage room, where there were 4 of us each separated by a curtain. Which was funny, because 10 minutes earlier I signed a HIPPA privacy form, yet I now know the details of three other patients. Luckily, the guy to the left started quoting Seinfeld episodes and making fun of Wilford Brimley commercials, so it was just like another day at the office.
Had some x-rays taken, then got a shot to numb the pain, and finally the nurse grabbed the toe, yanked on it, then pulled it up. Heard a nice "pop" and it went back into place. Got some Vicodin, Ibuprofen and a podiatrist appointment to look forward to. And it still hurts. But very glad that the captain of the foot is back in charge.
The moral of the story: Well, there is none. Drew just wanted to be mentioned in the Weeblo. Ladies, check out his MySpace page!
