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| View from Roof of El Andalous |
I can’t say that living with a broken foot is my idea of “living the dream”.
With the new bandage I am now pretty much housebound. And then I used up my internet allowance and I couldn’t extend online. So now I had limited mobility and no internet. At least it gave me a chance to progress my New Year’s Resolutions for Dogs book (first draft now completed) and my Arabic.
I thought about getting a taxi to Senzo to renew my internet subscription, but the more I thought about it, the more convinced I was that I would collapse before being able to walk all the way from the taxi, through the mall, find the shop, and then all the way back again.
On the off-chance, I sent a message via facebook to one of the other owners to see if they could go to the Mall for me and renew the internet subscription, but I got no reply all day, probably because it was the day of the Russian court case and I knew they wished to attend.
However, the fear that they may come round at any time was enough to make me attempt to clean – I dusted my lounge table so that it looked presentable and swept parts of the lounge and bedroom floor where the dust gathered like a new smooth coating. My foot tingled after all that exertion, so I’m not sure it was such a great idea.
I had already looked up how people coped with a broken foot on the internet in case there were any good tips. To my huge relief, some of them commented that they were exhausted after walking only short distances with their leg immobilized, even if they previously did a lot of exercise. Others reported needing to rely on someone else to do their shopping for them. I felt less of a failure now for wondering how to cope.
These findings permitted me to contemplate asking the taxi driver to do my errands for me. Although hiring the taxi driver would be an additional expense (money is flowing through my fingers), I needed the internet and I would start to run out of food in the next four days, so it was fairly unavoidable.
The taxi driver very kindly agreed and arrived at 8am (but I get up early these days anyway). I wasn’t sure when he’d return, but it looked as if he wouldn’t be back until the evening. For once, I have to say, THANKFULLY I had the phone which enabled me to check my own emails for anything urgent, so I wasn’t completely cold turkey.
As it turned out, the taxi driver returned around midday.
It’s strange having someone buy your stuff for you. I ended up with a different brand of water (I hope it’s OK!) and he managed to locate some canned tomatoes – I’ve no idea how, although they were very expensive (around 12 EGP a can). He found a huge box of cornflakes, so large it won’t actually fit in my cupboard. And rather than getting me butter, he got me Flora, probably picking up on my request for skimmed milk etc.
Anyway, he did a great job. He handed it over to me, said it wasn’t a problem to do it, gave me my change and left. When I looked at the receipts for the dongle top-up and the groceries, he’d not actually charged me anything at all for going there and getting it. He’d done it as a favour. I’m not sure whether this was an act of goodness on his part, whether he forgot to charge me, or whether I’d given him more money than I’d realised. Whatever the case, I was extremely grateful!
In the evening, a neighbour knocked on my door to ask if I was OK since she hadn’t seen me for a while and urged me to join her and her husband if I got lonely being stuck in the flat on my own. Like me, she was astonished that I could have such an injury just from coming out of the water. It was good to feel that I already have people who are looking out for me. The bandaged foot is at least getting me known round here!
So that was today, my second full day with the new bandage. This morning I felt my good leg, well, thigh, aching after taking on its extra responsibility the day before. My frozen shoulder hurt more last night than for a while, probably because I am forcing it, too, to support me at times. No doubt it was also aggravated by me reaching further with my left arm than I would really like whenever I pick something off the floor (whilst my right arm keeps my balance). However, to my relief, my frozen shoulder isn't worsening with me not swimming and it might even be becoming more flexible. I am trying to exercise it gently a little each day in the most difficult directions to improve it.
Washing is awkward and not very satisfactory – I would love to be able to unzip the plaster and wash my foot. It must be sweaty and stinky in there! At least my toes poke out more in the new bandage, so I can clean them more easily. However, when wiping my good foot I worry that I will fall, because I rest on my bandaged foot and have only my frozen arm left for support.
To my encouragement, my toes show me that the swelling has gone down in my foot with the increased dosage of anti-inflammatories. With my foot up, I sit comfortably and I can almost feel that bone healing as I watch (or so I like to convince myself). I can completely understand how my mum used to forget that she couldn’t walk any more. Every now and then I also find myself standing up, being surprised at the bandage on my leg, and having to rethink my next actions.
My biggest fear is having a mosquito trapped under my plaster.
Meanwhile, I guess will have to wait just a bit longer until I can live my dream.
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