Tuesday, May 5, 2009

A klutz's perfect Hawaiian day...


The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.
-Leonardo da Vinci


Earth Day (April 22nd) was both my favorite day of the cruise and the worst day of my vacation. Early that morning, the ship docked at Kona on the big island. It was a beautiful sunny day and as we rode on the tender from the ship to shore, the view was just like the Hawaii of my dreams. We rented eleven scooters and rode all around the city looking for a good snorkeling spot on the beach. I love, love, loved the scooters and kind of wish I had one of my very own...

As we began snokeling I had some trouble getting my mask on and while walking into the water stepped on something really sharp and poking. I brushed it off, went back to swimming, and was treated to the sight of some amazing fish. My foot was stinging pretty badly, so when I got out of the water and noticed all the little black dots on the bottom of my right foot, my mom suggested I go show the lifeguard. She said they were sea urchin spines and that there wasn't much to do about getting them out as they fall out on their own.

Then she mention that she would like to take a look at my other foot. I looked down to see a huge bloody gash in my left heel. I have no idea how it happened, because I didn't feel a thing, but it did not look good. We got back on the boat and went to the infirmary to have it looked at. The nurse said highly recommended stitches and I started to freak out a bit. I am not good around blood or medical talk (I fainted at the hospital while visiting my brother in pre-op). The nurse gave us an hour to decide and my mom and I headed up to our room. I was afraid of the needle more than anything else, but I knew the stitches were pretty inevitable, so I took two generous shots of Jack Daniels and was a tough kid as the doctor put three gnarly stitches in my foot.

Thanks to some fabulous painkillers from a generous family member, I managed to enjoy the rest of the trip, even as I walked around on the balls of my feet to avoid hitting the spines and stitches. I was able to walk on my right foot again when we got home, but I'm still nursing the left foot - my calf is getting huge! The stitches were taken out this morning and replaced with five little strips that are squeezing the two sides of the gash together. The stitches weren't as tight or as plentiful as my doctor would have liked, but it's healing a bit and hopefully I'll be able to walk normally again soon.

I can't wait to get a pedicure!


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Ouch.

Unknown said...

eeek sounds painful. hope you are feeling better. glad it didn't get you down while on vacation!