Day 329! Well… my fears became a reality today. I didn’t get the news I wanted to hear from my trip to the ER. BUT it could’ve been a lot worse. Today I found out that I, after 26 and a half years, broke my first bone… well fractured one. Here’s what happened.

I woke up this morning at 8am, I decided I should definitely go to the doctor’s office today. I didn’t believe my foot was broken, it surely was just a bruise to the bone. It wasn’t purple or any color still… but the swelling had gone up a tiny bit. I think keeping it elevated the entire night helped with the swelling a lot.

But just to be on the safer side, I texted my friend Will and asked if he was still willing to take me to the emergency room (ER). He was, so I scarfed down my usual breakfast (which taking a picture of wasn’t on my mind) and waited for him to come. I hobbled around my apartment getting ready and Will arrived just before 9am.

We made our way to the Maclean Hospital, which was about a 30 minute drive from Yamba. We chatted the whole way there and then I hobbled my way up to the ER. Will was kind enough to hang with me the entire journey!

When I got there, I had to tell the office a bunch of info about me to get me into the system. Now, if I was an Australian resident, I’d get free healthcare. But since I’m not, the receptionist talked me through how much it would cost out of pocket, before I submitted my claim to insurance.

The price was insanely cheap in comparison to the US! In total, it was going to probably cost me around 350 AUD… not even USD. Happy with that, I waited a few minutes for the triage nurse. She took a quick look at me and said that I would need x-rays. So I left that room, was immediately called in for x-rays, and then went back to the waiting room. I waited a bit for my turn with the doctor, there were 5 or 6 people ahead of me… thankfully this wasn’t a terribly urgent emergency.

Eventually it became my turn and I went to the back for the check with my doctor. He pressed and prided on my foot and none of it hurt except at one spot. The doctor immediately said, “we’ll need you to do some x-rays.” To which I responded, “are these different from the ones I’d already done… turns out, no one showed him the photos. So he ran off to look at them.

Before he came back, I heard him ask someone where they kept the moon boots and my heart sank. Moon boots are a removable cast that allows you to put weight on a hurt foot.

The doctor came back and said, “I’m sure you can tell by now what the verdict is.” Turns out, I fractured my 4th metatarsal and there’s a bit of bone floating in the joint of my toe and metatarsal… so I was being referred to Grafton Hospital for an appointment with their fracture department to see if I’ll need the piece removed or not…

I wasn’t too thrilled with this news as it most likely meant 6 weeks in the boot and no surfing. But, with the boot, there was a silver lining. I was able to put weight on my right foot and the doctor said I would be more than able to continue working over the healing period. So that was great to hear!

Will and I made our way back to Yamba, where he dropped me off at home. Will has been such an incredible friend since moving to Yamba! I owe him big time!

Once I got settled, I FaceTimed my parents to tell them the unfortunate news. But we also chatted about our weeks. And to be honest, even with this inconvenience, it was a great week!

After facetiming my parents, I had another important FaceTime to make. One with my grandparents! So I called up my Bubbie and Zeidie and gave them the news as well. I gave them more updates and heard how they were doing too. Unfortunately I won’t be celebrating thanksgiving with them, but I’ll be able to FaceTime into the dinner and say hello to my relatives!

After wrapping up my phone calls, I made myself lunch.

This time I went over the top with my sandwiches and put avocado, Vegemite, mayo, and humus along with the tomato, cheese, and tuna. It was delicious!

Earlier in the day I had noticed that my manager had put me on the schedule for today. At first I sent him a text about me being in the ER and I might need to rest it. But after the doctor told me that I could work with the boot on, I sent him a text saying my foot is fractured, but I can still come in! He made sure I was sure, and I said see you at 4pm.

After that, it was time to get down to business. Since I’m not Australian, I’m not a part of the universal healthcare system. So I needed to pay for my hospital bills upfront. Luckily… it was only $352! Unheard of in the US… but I still needed to file a claim with my nomad insurance.

The website made the process very simple and I had the hospital give me anything and everything to supply to them. So hopefully this will be a breeze… but we all know how insurance can be… so now it’s a waiting game! Thankfully I could afford what I needed to pay. Might not be the case if I need surgery, but we shall figure it out!

I watched a couple episodes of bleach while I waited for work and then 4pm rolled around and it was go time! My roommate offered to drive me up the hill, which was very kind of him. But I wanted to make sure I could make the walk if he wasn’t around so I made my way out and up to work.

I gave myself plenty of time to make it up the hill and did just fine! It was a slower process but still was completely fine with the boot on.

Work was similar to the walk up the hill, slow and fine. There was a slow trickle of people between 4pm and 8pm. I served drinks and still was able to do all the other tasks like walking around and grabbing empty glasses, wiping tables, putting away clean glasses, etc.

A lot of the regulars were asking what happened and showed a lot of sympathy. Even to the point that more glasses were brought back to the bar!

Funnily enough, one of my coworkers has a wrist brace on after taking a tumble herself. So there were plenty of jokes about what caused the injuries and that you had to have an injury to work behind the bar. Also there was slight karma to my injury, because I did give my coworker some grief for her injury the day before my incident.

This coworker actually just started behind the bar with us, so I’m not the newest person anymore! Turns out she ended up choosing to work at the hotel (she had other job offers) because of the interaction we had before she started! Apparently the vibes I had were enough to sway her opinion to show her it would be a fun team to work on and place to work!

But we had a pretty crazy realization happened when chatting. It turned out we were the same age and I of course said “but I was born in May, so I’m probably older.” To which she responded, “No way, I was born in May…” I responded with “well I was born on the 7th!” And she said “no freaking way! I am too…” she even pulled out her ID to prove it! We were born on the exact same day of the same year, pretty crazy!

My shift came to an end at 8pm when I had my knockoff beer and I had ordered dinner as well to have after I finished work. The cooks, knowing it was my order, asked if they could “spice it up.” I of course said yes, but they ended up making my fish burger insanely spicy!

The habanero hot sauce they used was perfect, but they handed some chilis as well… turns out my spice tolerance has gone back down since SE Asia. I had to take a bunch of them off but I still very much enjoyed their little concoction and felt special that they wanted to make a nicer meal for me than what’s on the menu.

After work, Bella (not the one from the beach) my friend Paddy’s girlfriend, picked me up and then Paddy up to head to the shed to jam! We ended up jamming till around 11pm and we even started slowly putting a “set list” together. Our plan is to practice a few songs and keep growing our list!

I got dropped off back home, ready for bed. I took my boot off to shower and my foot has definitely swelled up more. I’m not exactly sure if it’s the use of walking around, but Google said the swelling will definitely continue for a bit and might persist a bit after the bone is healed too.

After my shower I put the boot back on and left it on all night. I saw mixed reviews online as what I should do, so I went on the side of caution and wore it.

We’ll see how sleeping with it goes!

It’s a bit disappointing that I in fact fractured my foot. But as long as I keep it healthy, I’ll be back in the water in no time and the boot should be long gone by the time my parents are here too!

An accident like this was inevitable with the lifestyle I have chosen and I’m lucky it didn’t happen sooner… especially with the healthcare system in some of the SE Asian countries!

– Elie