I've been fortunate enough to stay relatively healthy this year. Schools are traditionally havens for all sorts of cruddy germs, so I consider myself relatively lucky that I've not had any real illnesses. I have, however, had a medical saga of a different variety. What I initially thought not to be a big deal, has turned out to be a long lived battle of flesh and toenail.
In September, I developed an ingrown toenail. Gross, disgusting, uncomfortable - I know. What made it even worse was the toenail got infected. I'll try and save the gruesome details, but due to the infection, I had to have a piece of it cut out in the hopes of it growing back to normality. Unfortunately it didn't heal quite as planned, and my toenail returned back to its previous nasty state. I went back to the doctor and had the same procedure done again, only this time stitching the nail to the toe hoping that it would mend better. It started out promising, but again grew back improperly and had me and my doctor friend scratching our heads. He referred me to a local surgeon who took a look at it, and deemed it best to go ahead and have the whole thing removed. Basically after the infection occurred, my toenail wasn't going to be able to grow back correctly otherwise, so two days ago, I became toenail-less on my left big toe.
Needless to say, it has been sore. It has been difficult to walk, difficult to sleep and honestly difficult to focus on much. Because of this, I was very worried how this would affect my role as a teacher. I honestly feared that for many students, I simply appear to be an authority figure without feeling or emotion. I think it is easy to dehumanize teachers, especially if they don't allow you to do what you want, so I was nervous of what could come from my injury. In light of this attitude, I knew one of two things would occur: 1) my students would see the limp and feel remorse, sympathy, and compassion. They would recognize that I was literally limping around in pain and would try to make things as smooth as possible or 2) my students would see the limp as indication of weakness and try to take advantage of it in some sort of Darwinian/Lord of the Flies type way. It would be easy, pick on the gimp right?
I got to school, wearing the only pair of boots that I could fit my wrapped up toe into, and after limping through my morning routines, started class as normal. "What's wrong with your foot?" one of the students said after noting my new stride. "I'll explain in a little bit", I replied. Suddenly and miraculously, my first period was silent, waiting to hear the issue which was ailing me. I could have told them story after story of my run in with a mountain lion or my attempt to climb a Redwood barefooted, but instead I decided to keep to the truth. After I explained to them the nature of my limp, one blurted out, "Coach sit down, you don't need to be standing up like that", then another, "why you standin' up then, we can take care of passin' stuff out". Surprised and relieved, I found no fault in their argument and complied. Thankfully this was the sentiment that would last throughout the day. Honestly it was still a fairly miserable day because of the side effects, pain, and lack of sleep, but it could have been significantly worse.
The toe is on the mend and I'm told the soreness should be gone within a week. Luckily we've been testing the past two days, so I haven't had to walk or be on my feet as much. None the less, it is good to know all of my students won't kick me when down. Three cheers for Piggy!
