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Wednesday 2004-07-14 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Good news and bad news
To the radiology department in the nearest hospital in Amsterdam to have an X-ray taken of my foot; camera around my neck which I plan to deliver at the photographer’s to be thoroughly cleaned after all the desert dust it had to deal with: you can never completely clean that out with a little “blow brush”.
I have to wait to hear how the picture has turned out. When it’s done the assistant tells me the good news is the picture turned out well — but she has bad news, too: my foot is broken. I’m gobsmacked! I walked on it for four weeks, and never suspected that — a crack is the worst I considered.
She sends me straight on to the emergency ward, where the doctor takes a look at the X-ray, and tells me “If you’d come here immediately we’d have operated”: the bone parts aren’t even joined up properly! In fact, there’s a gap of over 4 mm. My mouth drops open: it certainly didn’t feel like that. He sends me on to the “plaster room” to have a walking cast fitted. An hour later I’m outside with my foot in a (walking) cast, and still a little dazed: I had never believed it was broken! The emergency room arranges an appointment with a surgeon in hospital for next week.
After waiting for my cast to harden completely, I go straight home, and call the photographer’s shop to say I won’t be bringing the camera today after all. Then I call my parents: I won’t be over this weekend after all: a disappointment to my mum whose birthday it was last Monday.
Now, I need to learn how to walk with this stiff thing at the end of my leg…
