Well, I just got back from the surgeon's office (it only took half the day this time), and I have managed to Avoid Surgery. At first the doctor said that she would recommend it, and I said okay . . . but then she left the room, and I started thinking about it, and realized that I really did not want to face a general anaesthetic (or an epidural either, for that matter). Call me a wimp, but I think that a person ought to keep invasive medical practices to an absolute minimum; why stress yourself if you don't have to? (Not to mention complications, sepsis, and all the rest . . . )

So Emil and I were contemplating what might be the likely outcome of not having the pin put in (arthritis? I'll be at risk for that by virtue of having had a bone break, pin or no pin. The end of my marathon-running career? Hmm. No loss. Eventual hobbling as an 80-year-old?), and asking her about complications down the road. She suggested, if I didn't want surgery, that she first try to "reduce" the break (I guess it's called "reduce" from "reduce the angle of the break") by numbing up my toe area and - well, bending the toe back into its proper place. That sounded good to me ("good" is a relative term), so she gave me a few shots (right in the nerves! Not fun!), waited for my toe to be well and truly asleep, and bent it. To her great surprise and my immense pleasure, the toe assumed its proper shape immediately. She said this procedure doesn't usually work so well, which is why she didn't recommend it to begin with.

She sent me off for an x-ray, which confirmed that the toe is in very good alignment. So then she put a spacer between it and the next toe, taped it up, got me an "ortho boot" in lieu of a cast, and sent us on our way. This is about as good as it was gonna get, I think: I will be able to swim in Phoenix (if I'd had a pin put in I'd have had to worry about infection, so swimming would have been out), I didn't have to have surgery or any anaesthetic, and I can actually put some weight on my foot (she said I could put as much weight on it as it would bear), so I am not stuck hobbling around on crutches (which I tried yesterday, and which did not impress me).

What a great outcome! I saved myself grief, and saved the Health Machine from spending unnecessary money. Sometimes less truly is more . . .