Dispatch from the couch:

It’s Day 13 since posting this fateful FB status update:

Here’s how it all went down:

At approximately 3:43pm while jogging at a light pace across the grass during the WOD I stepped funny with my right foot and heard a SNAP. I stopped. It didn’t hurt but I was unable to put any pressure on the ball of my foot. I limped back inside ACF and sat on the bench and Carmen brought me an ice pack. I sat there and watched the rest of the class finish the WOD, jogging in and out of view, and held the ice pack to my foot and thought, This can’t be serious. Can it?

I drove home. I elevated my foot and applied more ice. It will be better by morning.

Saturday morning the foot was hurting and I could not walk. You need to go to the doctor, Julie texted.

I don’t want to go to the doctor.

Julie offered to drive.

I can drive myself!

No, you can’t, not if your foot is broken! I’m coming over, she said.

The doctor took an X-ray. Julie and I sat in the examining room and waited and talked about our favorite topic, CrossFit.

Next time you’re going to hit DT at RX, I know you can. We’ll hit it together again in December, Julie said. She’s stronger than me. Her strength is matched only by her friendship and genuine desire to see others succeed.

We’ll see, I said, staring down at my swollen foot.

The nurse walked into the room. She sat on the chair next to the examining table and unwrapped a brand new black booty. You’re going to need this I’m afraid. The fresh velcro straps screeching one by one as she tore them free.

Julie and I looked at one another and we smiled. She knew I was bummed. I knew she knew but I didn’t want to show it. I wanted to be brave. I am brave. What did I do? I asked the nurse.

The doctor will explain, she said, smiling too.

You have a Jones Fracture, the Doctor said. He was young with black hair and tan and handsome. I looked at him and tried to process what it all meant for me and then wondered how it is he got stuck working the Saturday morning shift. He must be new.

What does this mean? I asked.

It’s one of the most common foot injuries there is, he explained. We see it all the time. Here’s the thing, this is a non-weight bearing injury. You cannot put weight on your right foot. If it does not start to heal properly we’re talking surgery, re-breaking the bone, a pin.

Can I walk on my heel?

No.

Can I drive?

No.

So, no CrossFit?

He smiled too.

Above all else I wanted everyone smiling. Why should the burden of my injury weigh on everyone else. It could always be worse. Always. And I would get through this like everything else. You just do. Everyone does. I wanted to leave the doctors office a better place than I found it, lighter and with a dash of humor. I wish I could leave every encounter this way; lighter, with a dash of humor. Inside I’m bumming. Of course I’m bummed! No shit. We’re stating the obvious here. But life indeed does go on. And people have grocery shopping to do, and BBQ’s and weddings to attend, and kids to be picked up after school.

My job is to go home and sit on my couch and put my foot up for now. Going forward I have to do my best to get through the days without walking, without driving. I have to get from room to room and showered and make coffee and still do my job and get up and down the stairs and cut vegetables and cook dinner and do laundry and let the dog outside and then back inside and feed him – all from the perch of a set of crutches. All without putting weight on my right foot.