and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

I've said over and over that I live a semi-charmed life, and I do. It had been a long time since I had to wander into a hospital but this year - the only year I've been healthcare-handicap in my 27 short years - I've seen the emergency room twice, and could have gone more.

I'm the last person you'd see at the emergency room, too. I'm an anti-hypocondriac, and I despise over-medication (of the medical kind). I barely ever use ibuprofen or tylenol.

Last week, however, I had to suck it up and head on into my local healthcare facility to beat down a nasty infection brewing on my foot. I'd sliced/gouged/chopped the arch of my left foot open on a seashell in the dark in Jamaica and I was too stupid or lazy to track down someone in that country to figure something out, so I stuck the lame foot in a shoe and spent the next 15 hours traveling through the friendly skies, sitting in airports, and driving home.

By my second day home it was clear that this thing wasn't going to get better on it's own. All the torn skin around the wound had turned white and a rainbow of colors bubbled forth from my wound. Yellows, greens, dark reds, you name it. The area around the wound was tender and red, hot to the touch, and my toes were cold and clammy. During the night, I would wake up with cold sweats.

At the hospital I got an antibiotic cocktail in the ass, a prescription for antibiotic pills, and I was sent on my way. Within 4 hours a nice pink color returned to the skin around the wound and it stopped weeping. Here it is at that point:

At this point, a week after visiting the hospital, all swelling has disappeared, the wound itself is pink and healthy, and I barely notice it's there anymore. It never even hurt much but now I can walk normally on it and it doesn't feel uncomfortable or like I am tearing it open anymore.

I'm normally not much of a klutz. I'm far from an invitation to join the Russian ballet, but I'm no Kramer either. This year has been a rough one and, if life were a cartoon, I'd be a good laugh right about now.