The ankle...

[fajrdrako]

I went today for an appointment with Dr Beaulé, the surgeon who fixed my ankle, at the General Hospital.

It took a long time, particularly waiting for the x-ray. When I was in the hospital with the ankle in March and early April, they would took me several times (in my hospital bed) to the x-ray rooms and I would see the crowd of people waiting for x-rays, with the bored, tired look of people who had to wait a while to be x-rayed. Obviously I, a patient with a capital P and fresh damage, not priority: I didn't have to wait at.

Seven months later, I had to wait. Thank goodness I had a book. Not random chance, of course. I always have a book.

An interesting thing happened. When I'd gone to the x-ray rooms, I'd noticed a woman lying on a bed waiting for an x-ray, one bare foot sticking out from under her sheets. Reading, I didn't notice what happened with her. But a while later, a confused-looking orderly was asking if anyone had seen what happened to the woman in the bed. A helpful person in one of the chairs said she'd got up and gone away.

"She couldn't have," said the orderly, with the stunned incredulity of someone who believes what he's saying.

"She did," said the witness. Someone else had seen her go, too, and they were able to point which corridor she'd left by.

The orderly proceeded to strip the bed, with the resignation of someone whose job is to take patients where they're supposed to be, not to tie them down or chase them along corridors. He was trying to trade shifts in the x-ray room with someone else; he got a taker by promising another technician that he'd tape Grey's Anatomy for her. It seems appropriate that hospital staff would be into the show.

So I was x-rayed again, and saw Dr Beaulé, who again said something about how very badly my ankle had been broken and how straight it had healed. He appeared to be rather proud of his work, and pointed out, in the x-ray, how one of the metal pins in my ankle had broken in two. I described my current condition as best I could - I can walk, with a limp; I can walk with increasing speed, but can't stand for too long without pain; there's still a fair amount of swelling. He said there was no need to remove the pins - that filled me with relief, because even though I don't much like bits of metal inside me, I don't like the thought of being cut open again, either. So unless something goes wrong, I shouldn't need to see him again.

I think that means I've been declared 'healed'.

I didn't realize I was anxious about the appointment until the relief and relaxation that came over me afterwards.

On the way home (it took three buses, and was raining) I was craving sweet cinnamon buns - as I have been, in fact, for days. I'd thought the coffee cake that auriaephiala brought over on Tuesday would end the craving, but no. I think it's because my period just started: some people crave chocolate, I crave cinnamon. I almost went to Loeb's on the way home to buy their yummy cinnamon buns, then realized I still wanted to do Pilates. Couldn't eat cinnamon buns if I was about to exercise. So I made a deal with myself: if I still wanted to trash my rotation diet and eat after doing Pilates, I could have cinnamon toast. My favourite snack. (Tied with popcorn. I'm not sure which I love more.)

So I did my Yogilates Beginner's Workout DVD and was a little shocked at the difficulty - but then, I haven't been doing yoga lately, and the Pilates is new, and not much like tai chi. I only lasted about twenty minutes into the tape, but I did my best, and liked it. Liked it a lot. Then I made cinnamon toast.

A beautiful, relaxing evening.

Comments

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

How does one make cinnamon toast? Is it just buttered toast sprinkled with cinnamon? No, seriously, I've never had cinnamon toast! I am a deprived Maltese. *sob*

PS Yay for your ankle being declared healed! And hopefully the pain and swelling will get less and Teh Foot will go on improving. ::hugs::

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

How does one make cinnamon toast? Is it just buttered toast sprinkled with cinnamon?

Ah: you have asked an expert. When I was young and callow (and not yet in high school) and I wanted cinnamon toast, I simply buttered toast and sprinkled it with sugar and cinnamon.

Then I started grade 9 Home Economics and our first cooking class was "how to make cinnamon toast". I was enlightened to the most delicious thing on earth, not nearly as crude as the ad hoc recipe above.

You take about 1 tbsp of brown sugar and about 2 tsp of butter - say, a walnut-sized bit of butter, preferably soft butter, and a little more brown sugar than that, maybe twice the quantity, and cream them together. Add lots of cinnamon - well, I like lots - say 1 tsp. (A spoonful.) Adjust to taste. I like to be generous in this. Cream these three things together.

Put 2 slices of bread under the broiler till one side is toasted. Take the half-toasted bread and spread it with the soft butter-sugar-cinnamon mix. Cut each piece of toast it in strips about half an inch wide (or approx. 1 cm). Put them on a pan or cookie sheet and broil them carefully till the sugar is bubbly but not burning. Then use a spatula to put the strips of toast on a plate - they'll be very hot. Let them cool a few minutes so you don't burn your mouth. Then eat happily.

Funny how some lessons in school are things you never forget. Funny how that never happened to me with math problems.

Thanks for the good wishes on the foot. Though I hardly perceive the changes now, they're so slow, I can tell I'm walking a little more quickly, and limping a little less. Still far from normal. I suppose I ought to be exercising more. Still. (Sigh.)

[rosiespark.livejournal.com]

I take it a broiler is a sort of grill, yes? Because - OH NOES! - I don't have one. ::cries::

Well, I do have something that calls itself a grill inside my oven, but it's just pathetic and fails at actually toasting anything. Though maybe, just maybe, it would be up to the task of melting butter. I rather doubt the mixture would ever reach the bubbly stage, though...

::iz disconsolate and cinnamon-toast-less::

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't have any kind of a grill. My oven can be set to 'broil' and that's what I use. It takes a while, but it does get the cinnamon toast to bubble a little. I'd say: Try it and see what it does to the sugar. The results can't be bad - it's worth a try.

Or come and visit me and I'll make you some. [g]