Fun times at the hospital

The title of the post is supposed to be read with a bit of sarcasm. Hospitals are never fun, unless you enjoy waiting around in a room plastered with "aggressive behaviour will not be tolerated" signs and being greeted by overworked/overstressed nurses who are on the brink of aggressive behaviour themselves. The last time I was in a hospital was when Lil' D was born. Labour is not fun, and Sonia will tell you that childbirth was not fun (more specifically, she described as "being ripped in half", definitely not MY idea of fun). But the end result was positive. Weird....an experience that is not fun, or enjoyable, but has a positive outcome. Anyhow, I digress.

The injury saga continues. I went to work on Monday, and despite having crutches to keep weight off my leg, it was still effin' sore, and the swelling got worse. The swelling was pooling around my ankle, to the point that it looked about twice the size of the right. I finished my day at work, got my leg up, and then started to feel like crap. Swelling was worse, and I was feeling feverish...not good. Sooooo, off to the hospital again to go hang out in the emergency ward. I was equipped with a water bottle, snacks and the bike snob book to keep me going for the long haul. When I was finally seen by a doctor, blood tests and x-rays were ordered up. X-ray came back negative, good. Blood tests however, showed an elevated white blood cell count AND positive for blood clot. SHIT. NOT. GOOD. The doc did go on to say that a blood test positive for clots does not necessarily mean that there IS a blood clot, but they have to do an ultrasound to rule it out. Another test they ran was poking my knee with a needle and extracting fluid to rule out an infection. After drawing out the fluid, he noted that it wasn't "pus-y and septic looking", (love the diagnoses), so that was a good thing.

 Monday night. Check out the difference in size between the left and right ankles.

 The left knee is just "a little" swollen compared to the right. The band-aid is covering the site where the doc extracted fluid from the joint cavity.

Tuesday morning, back to the hospital for the ultrasound. After getting my whole left leg lubed up with gel, the tech started the ultrasound. After 15 to 20 minutes of investigating, another tech and then the radiologist, there was no sign of a blood clot (thank god), but there was definite trauma to the medial gastrocnemius (inner part of the calf). They decided I had a calf strain (what I figured out on my own Saturday), and ordered more rest, ice, elevation and advil.

So here I am at home, bored out of my skull, and I start my summer holidays this Friday. Good news is I have time off for rehab. Bad news is I'm spending my holidays doing rehab.