A Sore Foot

Aweh, guys!

So, I was having a casual day at the AirBnB. I internetted and was accosted by my horrors for daring to open a can of tuna in their presence. It was starting to get late when Hubby sent me a text to notify me that he was on his way… and that he had hurt his foot.

No jokes but I kinda panicked. We had just arrived; we cancelled our medical aid in South Africa before we left, and we still had not signed up for the mandatory medical aid here. I sent him a text to try to gauge the seriousness of the injury. Was it swollen? Could he walk on it? And most importantly, what happened?

Turns out they were doing team building and were playing rugby and he stepped in a hole and rolled his ankle. I broke my ankle a few years ago and had to get surgery to fix it so I was on high alert. Luckily my parents are nurses and I was familiar with the RICE technique: rest, ice, compression, elevation. I searched the apartment and was happy to find a first aid kit, even though it was woefully understocked. Better a tiny bandage than none at all.

He finally made it home, limped into the flat and collapsed on the bed. He said it didn’t seem swollen, but it definitely was. I wrapped his ankle and shoved all the pillows under it I could find, including my own. We didn’t have a freezer so no ice. I gave him some paracetamol (the balm of the Dutch) and he fell to sleep feverishly.

He was wearing shorts

In my concerned state, I posted on a group called “Grumpy Expat” asking for advice. Almost 5 minutes later I got a call from a lady named Zoe who is also an SA expat in the Netherlands. She told me I could sign up for medical aid immediately online and it should be accepted and to do the REST technique. She told me not to bother going to an ER as they would just wrap it and give him paracetamol and scold us for wasting their time. I had done all that, minus the scolding. I thanked her profusely for calling at the late hour to assist and we followed her advice. I guess the only thing to do now is rest.