Alright, it’s been a couple weeks since my post about May Term, and enough is enough. I can’t say that everything about May term was absolutely fantastic. Or maybe I can. But I really can’t. But I kind of can. Here, let me explain…
Two weeks into May Term, I went for a walk with a friend. Upon returning to my dorm, I noticed my left foot hurt a little bit. I took off my Sperry and looked at my foot. The first word I could think of was “gross.” The veins were puffy, my foot was swollen, and the top of my foot was reddish-pink. I called my mom, who told me to go to the Health Center the next day to figure out what was going on.
Guess who didn’t go to the Health Center the next day?
Yes, you guessed correctly. Me.
I told myself that my foot didn’t hurt that bad (keeping in mind that my tendonitis cream and Tylenol didn’t help at all, and my foot continued to swell.) For the next two weeks, I went to the Dow for workouts, walked to a lot of places with a lot of people, and practiced my longboarding skills for at least an hour each day. I moved myself out of my dorm by myself. I drove six hours back to my home in Iowa.
… I was home on a Friday and throughout the weekend I hung out with some friends, who told me my foot looked kind of weird. I woke up on Monday and could barely walk.
THEN I decided to go to the doctor. And what did I find out?
I have a fracture on my 2nd metatarsal, stress fracture on my 3rd metatarsal, and a foot sprain. And I walked on that for two weeks without knowing it was broken at all.
I’m not entirely certain of how I broke my foot, but I think exercising, longboarding, and jumping out of my bed are combination culprits of this particular situation.
Now, I told my mom that I must be “One tough gluten-free cookie,” but honestly, I might just be stupid. (I call myself that very lovingly, but c’mon, Soph… you were already at the Dow for your workout, why not just go to the Health Center while you’re there, too?)
Moral of the story: If your foot does not look normal, please go to the Hope College Health Center. They are very caring and will help you with anything you need.
But after all, it’s called Summer “Break,” right? While some are spending summer on their longboards, I have a pretty cool scooter I ride around. My scooter, or “Swaggin’ Wagon” as I like to call it, creates lot of conversation with the elderly people I meet on the street. Apparently, most of them have used one too. And lots of people hold the doors open for me when I use my crutches, so that’s been pretty nice. My main goal is to see how great of a “boot tan” I can get by spending time in the summer sun. I’ve been in the boot for five weeks so far, and I’m hoping I’ll be out of it by the end of July.
Here are a couple of my Summer “Break’ adventures so far: