One day of crutches and I am done with them.
I got my appointment with the orthopaedic specialist this morning and they gave me a walking boot, also known as an air cast.
I arrived at Baseball America more than an hour early today, because the people from the doctor’s office said they were going to call me first thing in the morning and I had given them my work phone number. They called soon after I arrived, so I was glad that I got there when I did.
The same guy I had spoken to yesterday was the one I was talking to again. He informed me that he had confirmed that they could not take my Canadian insurance, after speaking to someone at the international patients’ office. Since I knew that was going to happen, when he asked me if I still wanted to make my appointment I said of course. He told me they could get me in to see the doctor in an hour if I could be there a half hour early to check in for my appointment. That was fine by me, and I was sure that no one at BA was going to mind.
I took off for the orthopaedist and realized that their office was a lot closer than I had anticipated. I was even earlier than they had asked me to be. I filled out a couple forms and they sent me to talk to someone who dealt with foreign patients. She was very nice, and told me that she could finish filling everything out with my information and that she could get me into the doctor right away.
It didn’t take very long for me to get through the nurse and the doctor and then to head to an x-ray room. They took the pictures from three different angles, all of which were extremely uncomfortable, because that seems to be how they have to do things in hospitals and doctors’ offices, and I was quickly back in the exam room waiting for the orthopaedist once again.
He came back and showed me my x-rays. He explained that there was some inflammation and he thought I might have a stress fracture because I am still having trouble putting my weight on my injured foot. He didn’t see a fracture in the x-ray, but he said sometimes they don’t show up until they are healing, which I think is ironic. Because of that, he wanted me to come back in a week to get it checked again. Unfortunately that won’t be possible because I will be in Mexico. It would be nice to try and get in with someone while I am at home, but there’s no chance of me getting in that quickly.
The doctor told me that since it is possible it’s not a fracture, I might be able to still run in the Goofy challenge. I have to keep the cast for at least a week and then I can gauge my level of exercise on my pain. If it still hurts, I can’t run. If it doesn’t, I can. And he said in the meantime it wouldn’t hurt me to swim, so if I want to keep up my training, I can do it in a pool. I think Mexico will be perfect for that, so that sounded good to me. Well, it was the best news I could get in my situation.
From the doctor’s office I went back to work, without my crutches, because I hate them and they are now spending their time in my car. The doctor said if I still have pain I should use them, but I can keep their use limited.
I went back to working on my bios until lunch. Editor 2 had gone to his daughter’s school in the morning so he wasn’t going out for lunch. He did bring back with him a paper doll from his daughter though. The doll is supposed to be passed along to people to travel around.
Someone takes the doll, and writes about its journey and sends a postcard from the place it traveled to. So I now have her doll. I will be taking it to Pittsburgh on Sunday, when I drive home with my mom, and then to Buffalo, where we will cross the border. The doll will get to come with us to Canada, and then will be making the journey to Mexico. I am also thinking I could keep her and take her when we go to Disney World and then give her to my friend from class who is heading to Kazakhstan to work at the Asian Winter Games. I think we can help this doll travel to some pretty awesome places and I look forward to it. We are also going to take pictures of her in the various locations, and I will send them back to Editor 2 and his daughter.
I went with Conor and Jim to lunch. Jim has the cubicle next to mine, but is notorious around the office for being a pretty quiet guy. He just doesn’t join in on that many conversations, and that is probably the reason he hasn’t come up before.
We went to one of the barbeque places, and it was good as always. It would be my last quest for barbeque, and I think I made the most of it. Conor paid for it, and free lunches are always better. It was really nice of him, and a pleasant surprise.
After lunch I came back to finish up my bios only to find out that the Hall of Fame had sent us guidelines to follow. After I had completed 500 words on 30 different players, they decided to let us know that they wanted them done in a specific way. Since none of mine have been done that way, I had to start going back and changing them.
That took up the rest of my work day and I’m sure will take up all of my last day at BA as well. I left work in time to head to Target though, but this instance was for work purposes.
I guess every holiday season the BA office gets money together to help a family in need. They buy them Christmas presents and wrap them and take them to the family. One of the women in the office had come over to my desk earlier to ask if I wanted to join in and I thought it would be really fun. I wasn’t so much looking forward to it when I was using the crutches, but in my walking cast I thought it would be okay.
I headed to Target and met up with some other people from the office. Conor and Nathan were there with their wives, and the other people were colleagues that I hadn’t spent much time with. We got to go through the store picking clothes and toys for an eight-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy, and we got towels and washcloths for their mother. It was fun, and tomorrow we will wrap the presents and one of the women in the office will take them to the family.
When they were counting the money that the office had gotten together for the gifts, I mentioned that I hadn’t contributed anything but that I would like to. Even though I don’t have any of my own money anymore and I am running on the funding of my mother, I think she would be okay with me giving $20 of it to someone who needs it more than we do. Soon enough I will have a job and I will be able to pay my mom back for all of it, so I don’t think I was really taking her money and just giving it away anyway. I’ve told her before that I was interested in sponsoring a family for Christmas, but the whole BA office doing it together is a much better idea than us doing it on our own, so I am glad I got to be a part of it, and I am sure my mom will be happy that I was too.
Tomorrow we will be wrapping, and I can bring in the leftover paper, ribbon and tags that I have in my apartment from the presents for my mom and cousins. I didn’t think I would have room for it in my luggage or car anyway, so I am glad it will be used, and it will definitely be put to good use!
From Target, I went home to finish making cards for the people at the office that I want to give them to, and I also completed my final report for school about my internship. Even though it’s not all the way over, I am pretty sure I can answer the questions required. I had to write about how effectively I worked with my supervisors and colleagues, and I would rank that as great.
I also had to talk about the most important thing I learned on the job and I think that was just that I really do have a love for writing. Before I came here I thought I wanted to be in a PR department for a team, and now I think I just want to write about baseball, which is what I got to do while I was here.
I had to include some school-related stuff in my report too, and get it to somewhere between four and six pages, but I had some help with that from the line spacing that I used. I added the report to the binder of things I am going to leave behind at BA. I’ve put together my journal entries, my report, all the work I’ve done for BA, the drafts of things that I have worked on, and letters from me to the editors. It’s in a binder and I am ready to leave it behind so they remember me. I also just want them to know how much the internship and everything that I did meant to me.
So tomorrow is my last day. I remember writing my first journal on day one, and now I am heading into the final day. It’s hard to believe how quickly time has gone. It’s been great, but I will be sad to leave. I hope I’m not too sappy or sentimental tomorrow. I made cards and a binder, and I hope they save me from getting emotional or anything.
It will be hard to say goodbye. I’m not looking forward to it. I’m also not looking forward to leaving.
It’s not going to be easy.
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