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April 4, 2008
Big Ol' Whine
How could a 4-day period with 23 half hour site presentations get any harder? With your leg bandaged so that your knee cap is immobilized, perhaps?
Yes, I have injured myself. I don't remember any knee cap trauma. Maybe I stepped badly off a bus and did invisible damage? Whatever happened, I woke up sore on Thursday morning and still did 4 presentation tours. The hobbling got worse. I stopped around noon and bought a pre-made knee bandage jobby at a pharmacy (20% off!). Today I did 4 before lunch (and church closing time) and 4 afterwards - I'm halfway home but if getting there depends on walking, that last half will take 8 times as long. And student presentations premised on site visits mean walking. Maybe I shouldn't have slogged up the ramp at Castel San Angelo? Maybe I should've gone to the emergency room earlier?
Well, the ER doctor assured me that the knee cap is not broken and that I didn't scream enough when he rotated the leg for him to believe any tendons to be torn - though his written recommendations include that I consider making an appointment with an orthopedist. Meanwhile, my left leg is almost immobilized, iced, and elevated. I've canceled tomorrow's 5 appointments and warned the Sunday folk that they may be next.
However, the group flight leaves Wednesday morning - if I want to stick to my plan I don't have a lot of leeway. Remember, I'm the kind of professor who thinks of giving students back the colds they give to me is better than missing class, so my immediate reaction is "why don't I just hobble along and make them feel guilty for every class they've skipped because they were hung over?" Then I realize that (a) some of them were occasionally really sick and (b) that they're 20 and they don't really notice when the middle-aged are in pain.
Oh - and I'm beginning to think that the injection he claimed was a pain killer was really sugar water.
Fun medievalist facts to know and tell: my closest hospital is Santo Spirito, which was founded in the eighth century by Saint King Ine of Wessex! Well, sort of - Ine retired to Rome after a tumultuous career and founded a hostel for Saxon pilgrims to Rome. That institution is the direct ancestor of the parish of Santo Spirito in Sassia - but I'm reasonably sure the hospital is an outgrowth of the pilgrim's hostel (and this article would suggest so, but it's the old Catholic Encyclopedia and the reference is an article from 1870 - possible). So it's vaguely appropriate for me to go there for Pronto Soccorso.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at April 4, 2008 8:49 PM
Comments
Ouch! You've finally done it, Michael--you've won my genuine sympathy. I'm sorry to hear about the knee, especially when what you need most (to rest the knee) is what you can least afford. I'll keep you in my prayers (is there a knee counterpart to St. Blaise?).
Posted by: Bruce at April 4, 2008 10:47 PM
eep! get crutches, if you must!
.....I'm thinking. Crutches are pretty hard to maneuver, tho - I might make do with a cane and taxis. --MCT
Posted by: Another Damned Medievalist 
at April 5, 2008 5:04 AM
I'm so sorry! But the doctor is probably right that it isn't broken, if you're able to move it even a little and you can't remember any trauma. When I broke my kneecap (fall during ice skating), it was horribly swollen and I couldn't bend my knee at all, because any movement was excruciating.
Posted by: Lara at April 5, 2008 3:28 PM
Well now, this entry answers questions of my. I hope you recover fully, sooner rather than later; nothing you do not already want. If you do not show immediate improvement, perhaps a detour to Lourdes? (I think that more likely for you than Fatima.)
Posted by: ThomBaptiste at April 6, 2008 5:00 AM