Now that's a big foot, 6 Feb 13

So on the 5th I got an MRI and they gave me the films to take to the doctor. This was after I overheard the receptionist having a long conversation with the patient ahead of me about why they wouldn't give him his MRI films. I'm pretty sure neither party got what they wanted out of that conversation, so I was sort of surprised when they handed me a giant envelope with my MRI images. Which they also emailed to Dr. Castricum. Just in case of a technology fail, I hauled those films home and back again to his office the next day. Completely unnecessary, and mildly aggravating since the films were many, and heavy, and, as I've mentioned, his office is in the black hole of Melbourne Public Transport, which is particularly annoying for a girl with a bad foot.

Dr. Castricum turned off the lights and took me for a spin through the films. Xrays are cool, but MRI film is AMAZING. "Do you ever get tired of looking at this stuff?" I asked. "It's so cool!"

"I don't. It is really cool."

The verdict: Stress fracture. The solution: Boot for 2 weeks then weaning off it for a couple more. No running. No biking (fine, since my long awaited bike didn't have pedals anyway). He wrote me a prescription for the boot, and then sent me off to a small office in the next suburb over where I could get one.

"How far is this place?" I asked the receptionist.

"Not far," she said. "Maybe five minutes."

"By car?"

"Yes."

I love that the "not far" answer is always about how far something is by car. So I got out my trusty map on the phone and walked 25 minutes to the boot house. It basically looked like a counseling office - a little store front shop with a waiting room, and patients disappearing and reappearing from the back. A guy on crutches and his wife were there, he got a cast. A kid and his mom were there, the kid got one of those stiff, molded, wrist braces. Then the tall, lanky, cast maker who looked a bit like Lurch came for me. I sat down in his chair in the back, he read the prescription, had me take off my sandal and said, "Now that's a big foot." I managed not to comment, but it was difficult.

My reward: a one-month rental of a cam walker, plus my very own inflatable liner, just in time for the hottest streak of weather since I moved to Melbourne and a trip to Manila to spend time at the Australian Embassy. Nothing completes the government-job-business-suit look like a moon boot.