ouch.

This morning I was awakened by the ring of the telephone a little after 6 am.

Forgetting that our answering machine had died, and thinking I only had four rings to get to the phone before the machine kicked in, I jumped out of bed and stumbled groggily and clumsily to the phone. On the way out of the bedroom, my foot jammed hard into the doorway. I yowled in pain, answered the phone, and when I hung up I yowled some more. I fed the cats and limped back to bed, where I lay awake for an hour feeling the throbbing in my toes (specifically, in my fourth left toe) grow bigger and stronger. Finally, I got up and made some breakfast, got dressed and prepared to go do a short receiving shift at the shop. As I slipped my left foot painfully into a sock and shoe, I noticed that the purpling had begun on my fourth toe. I opted to go multi-modal (bike-bus combo) both ways to ease the stress of putting weight on my toe.

I limped through my shift, wincing at the pain which was manageable but still very evident.
As the hours passed the pain definitely grew worse and by the time I left I was really feeling it. I got home, vacuumed the carpet because I'd promised to and wanted to get it done, sat down and took my shoe off to have a look.

Ouch.

As I type this I am sitting in a pair of sandals, the only shoes I can wear right now, because when I finished vacuuming and took off my shoes, I saw that my fourth left toe had swollen a bit and had turned an amazing combination of colors. It looks like a three-year-old found the markers and went crazy with blue and purple, adding a touch of dark red for that high-concept effect. I can bend it, but the top is extremely tender to the touch and if I put pressure on it it definitely hurts. I'd go without the sandals but then I'd bump my toe into something (I'd done it twice already before getting the sandals out).

Without health insurance -- that's still the story for at least thirty million of us, so no hand-wringing, okay? -- there's no way I'm going to the ER to have it X-rayed. For now I'll assume it's not broken (please-oh-please-oh-pleeeeease), just very badly bruised. Bruises can be very painful all on their own, right?

The thing is, if it IS broken that definitely delays my entry into the 2010 racing season. It also puts an overall cramp in my style at home and work and, well, I'd just rather not go there.

Color me bummed.