Cold Spaghetti

As I left the kids’ room after giving Will a good-nap kiss, I walked a little too close to the right side of the door frame. The majority of my foot went left, through the door. The little toe missed — it went right, as it direct turn, spread, and SLAM into the corner of the frame. I’m pretty darn sure I heard a distinct *crack,* like the sound of splitting balsa wood. Not wanting to upset Will (i.e.: give him an excuse for getting out of bed), I hopped into our bedroom and announced, “I may have broken my toe.”

Just then, the phone rang. It was a family I have helped out with translation and other tasks for over a year — she was at the Zoo, trying to find the Children’s Hospital because her twin baby boys wear very sick and could I come help? I told her to stay put; I was on my way. I figured the toe would be fine and I slipped on my trusty 7+ year old clogs and limped out the door.

The boys were sick. Mom had tried to take them to the doctor on Friday, but she couldn’t communicate well enough with the doctor’s office to get them seen. There is no “on call” with this clinic where she can reach a pediatrician to ask what to do; so after a few days of treating a 103 temp with Motrin, she decided to go to the ER. I have no idea how Children’s deals with Spanish speaking patients and families, because if anyone there had even a word of Spanish, I didn’t see them and no one made them known. (I can get the job done… but I’m in no way fluent… I heard myself ask, “When you give birth, how many weeks pregnant?” and had to stop myself from groaning at my own limitations. It speaks to the desperation of our need for bilingual professionals when one must rely on gringa me to get good medical care! But more on that in another post.) It was about 2 1/2 hours in the hospital with them, and at some point I looked at my toe — which was aching non-stop, causing me to limp worse and worse, and clearly swelling in my shoe. Big, swollen, purple. Ouch.

If you’re easily grossed out, forgive me. I seek advice.

Is this thing broken?
It looks much more purple in real life (big flash) — and the purple is a stripe across the toe. But I can move it. I can spread it wide (the same direction it went in the door frame, I think) and curl it a bit (this hurts after I do it but not so much while I’m doing it). Walking is very uncomfortable. Standing is okay if I don’t put weight on it. While I can’t pretend I didn’t hear a *crack,* when I hit the door frame, I don’t think it’s broken (if it was, wouldn’t it be impossible to bend?) At least, I really really really don’t want to believe it is. I want this to go away quickly.
How can I do standing poses in Yoga?? Even some inversions could be out of the question. And seriously, I need my Iyengar right now, baby. Especially since walking in the morning, something we’ve been lax on due to our recent sleepless nights, is currently out. We don’t have a primary care doctor here (I know, I know, if I could only find someone that comes with a good recommendation in our system) so this might be an ER thing if I need an X-ray. In other words, I really want to feel like I *have* to go. There are actual people here with problems bigger than a little toe… I feel silly trying to make this a priority. So would you get this seen, or just wait it out a few days and see what happens?