March 20

Well, this has certainly been an interesting day. I woke up with a searing pain in my right ankle/foot. The day before, my friends and I stopped at a park near our house and played on the swings. As I was swinging forward, my foot was pointed downward and it crashed with the ground. I don’t really know how else to describe it-like an airplane crashing, or jumping into a pool and hitting the bottom with too much force. It kind of hurt at first, but didn’t afterwards, and I was able to walk home and get around ok. The morning after though, I woke up and my foot hurt really bad. We told our Señora and she gave me some ice. It really didn’t do anything though, so I decided to go to the clinic. The one we have to go to (because of a special relationship with the insurance through the school?) was far away, so we had to take a taxi. I have not found it is very hard to hail a cab as it is made out to be in the movies J Amanda (my roommate) carried me to a place we could call a cab, and we took it across town. We got dropped off, but we not as close as we had thought, but thankfully some nice Sevillan walked us to the clinic. Fortunately there was no one in the clinic, so I was helped right away. I was nervous because I was not sure if I would be able to communicate my problem to the doctors, and because I have never really been to the doctor by myself. I first saw a doctor who examined my foot and told me I would need some x-rays. I then went into the X-Ray room (and had some flashbacks from breaking my arm!) where I got two X-Rays. After they were developed, I went back to the same doctor who told me nothing was broken, but that there was a problem with my ligament. I assume I tore it-I couldn’t fully understand what he said, but understood “ligamento”. He wrote me a note for the Farmacía for a sleeve to go around my ankle, some ibuprofen and cream for my foot. We hobbled over to the Farmacía and got the prescription. It was a funny experience because in my Spanish for the Health Professions class, we just learned how to give out prescriptions (take with food, take every 6 hours, 1 teaspoon etc.). I guess it was a good thing I stayed in that class J I have to wear the sleeve for 5-6 days. My foot is already feeling much better and I am so thankful I did not break anything. Now I have a cool X-Ray of my feet to take home! Oh-and I almost forgot! Doctors everywhere have the same illegible handwriting