First trip to the doctor...

Well, on Monday I went to the doctor for the first time since moving to Turkey 2.5 years ago (not counting trips to the dentist). I was slightly surprised to walk out of the office with a cast on my left hand.

Here's the story...I have a hairline fracture in my left hand (slightly below my pinkie). I wish that I could say that I fell out of a tree while trying to save a cat or that I did something heroic or at least interesting...but the reality is, I was just being my clumsy self. Last Thursday I was running late (as usual) so after getting off of the metro I decided to run up the escalator while also carrying a couple of bags. While running up the escalator, I tripped and fell onto my left hand. I got up right away and continued running up the escalator but soon after the fall I noticed that my pinkie seemed to be "attracted" to my ring finger. Even when my hand was just hanging, relaxed, the pinkie seemed to be slightly bent towards my ring finger. My hand started swelling and turning black and blue, but since I could bend each finger I figured that I probably hadn't broke anything.

I went out of town for the weekend and when I got back my hand was still pretty black and blue so I decided to finally go to a doctor. My friend Virginia went with me and it was so nice to have her there. Pretty much the whole appointment took place in Turkish which made things even more interesting and funny. The doctor looked at my hand, asked me some questions, took two x-rays and then diagnosed me with a hairline fracture in my left hand. He then proceeded to put a cast on my left hand which I will have the joy of wearing for the next month.

Fortunately I walked out of the office laughing...it all makes for a good story. I think that the Lord might want to teach me some lessons on patience and humility in the next month: Patience since everything takes me longer to do now with basically one hand (maybe 1.5 since I can still move the fingers in my left hand), humility as there are things that I could normally do on my own that I now I have to seek help for and for the fact that now I stick out even more than I did before. I went from being a foreigner walking down the streets of Istanbul to a foreigner IN A CAST WITH A SLING walking down the streets of the city. So much for blending in. I'm grateful for my roommate who has already washed my hair for me once and also done a lot of dishes this week, my friends who are always willing to help, and to the really nice lady who gave me her seat on the bus the other day once she saw my cast. Never a dull moment...