The art of medicine consists of amusing the patient while nature cures the disease.
- Voltaire

"Expect the unexpected" is a phrase that really makes no sense. You can't know everything that is going to happen and therefore you can't really prepare for it.

There we were enjoying the gorgeous weather in Sarasota, while others much farther north were experience brutal cold, snow, ice and high heating bills. It could almost make one feel guilty, almost.

If you believe in some sort of divine retribution, what happened next might seem like punishment for our feeling so good about our circumstances. My wife, the Traveler, stepped down off a curb that was slanted into a ramp for the handicap and misjudged the distance to the street. Afterall, she was gawking around at the stores, the decorations, the architecture and the people as I was.

I had just started to take a picture of something, I don't remember what, when Carol disappeared. Actually, she dropped from sight like falling through a manhole cover. She didn't really fall through a hole. She turned her ankle as I was looking slightly away and dropped down. I thought she had just stumbled and offered my hand to assist her up. But she couldn't stand.

I felt like an idiot afterward. My wife had fallen, and rather than be concerned, I was being very nonchalant about it. An unknown woman came up and offered assistance. We didn't get her name, as the Traveler and myself were worried about looking foolish. To that unknown woman we say, thank you very much for your assistance. Sorry we didn't say something then.

What you do in life comes back to you. Her offer of assistance will come back to her in a blessing.

The Traveler's right foot swelled up like a cantaloupe. For those of you wondering what to do when you sprain an ankle, use the RICE method. That's rest, ice, compression and elevation. Rest the foot - don't keeping walking on it; pack ice on it - not directly on the skin. Use a cloth to protect the skin. Don't keep it on any longer than 20 minutes; keep the ankle compressed with an ankle wrap; and of course, keep the ankle elevated.

We couldn't expect that she would turn her ankle, but we did have some money in a medical savings plan that we hoped would cover any doctor's bill that might come up. We waited about three days, three days of missed work, before we went to a doctor.

He looked at her foot, recommended X-rays, for which we had to go to a nearby hospital to have it done, and sent us home with instructions to take acetaminophen for pain and use the REST method. We were to come back the next day for the X-ray results.

That's enough for now. More next time. In the meantime, think about this:

Why don't penguins in the Antarctic get frostbite on their feet?

You'll get the answer next entry.

'Til next time, Happy trails, travelers!