Date: 2014-08-23
From: Day Off

To: Yellow Deli Hostel
Miles today: 0.0

I woke up early at the Inn, about 6:00. I stayed in bed until the bathroom was available and then went in to soak my feet one last time in the tub with Epsom Salts. I'm not sure if it will make a difference but I am willing to try anything at this point. I got dressed and finished loading my backpack, hopefully for a few days of hiking. I went downstairs and walked around outside and tried to get loosened up but my left foot is still hurting. Then I went to breakfast with Puzzle and No Rush. The Inn treats you to a real good breakfast that is part of your room rate. After we ate No Rush and I walked the .8 mile to the trail. It only took me about half of that walk to tell me that I will not be hiking today. I broke the news to No Rush and told him I was going to cross the road and catch the bus when it stops at Pico Resort. He said that he would go into town with me, that is the kind of hiking partner that everyone should have. We caught the bus into Rutland, at least the bus is free on Saturdays. We went to the Yellow Deli Hostel to get a bed for the night. I was trying to decide if I should go to the hospital or look for an urgent care facility. With my HMO I knew that both were going to cost me for a visit. Now that I am retired I need to switch to an insurance plan that is good anywhere that I am traveling. I found an urgent care clinic in town, now I needed to find the right bus to take me there. Clear Choice MD is new in town and the bus dropped us off pretty close. The people are very nice and I didn't have to wait very long to see a doctor. It was going to cost me $100 dollars for my visit but that is cheaper than my deductible for an emergency room visit. I am paying a large portion of my pension for health insurance and it is worthless when I leave the coverage area. Maybe that would be a topic in a later journal. The other thing that bothered me is that I will be paying someone to tell me something that I don't want to hear in the first place. When I got up on the examination table I took off my sock and some pus was running out of my popped blister. I looked at the nurse and we both knew that it was more serious than I thought. The doctor came in and the next few minutes just reinforced my worst fears. He wanted to take a culture and was squeezing my foot to drain the wound. I told him that it hurt really bad when he did that. He agreed that it was probably painfull but continued with a few more squeezes and I tried to block out the pain. I told him about getting Cellulitis in my right foot this spring while hiking and he told me it is very possible that it is now in my left foot. He said that he would put me on a couple of antibiotics and that I should really take 7-10 days off from hiking. This would let the drugs work their magic. The infection could spread into the bone or could cause a high fever. He also said how things could go bad really fast on the trail and could become life threatening. The foot is one of the worst places to have an infection because it is warm and damp. My macho side is ashamed to admit that I broke down a little bit from his advice. I had a plan that would get me into Maine by early September and now I have to take more time off. It did make more sense now why it was hurting so much to put weight on my foot. It was going to continue for a little while longer because I had to walk to a pharmacy and then walk back to the hostel. When I calmed down a bit I tried to decide where I would spend the next few days. I thought about going to western Pennsylvania and spend some time with my wife Paige and my mother-in-law Fredi. I wasn't looking for sympathy but I haven't seen my wife since mid May when I returned to the trail. I checked into car rentals, buses, and train tickets. The car rental places were closed until Monday, the train schedules didn't work out to get me going in the right direction, and for a bus ticket I had to be able to print out the ticket. Frustrated I decided to just stay in town and see how things went. In the past I have always healed pretty fast and just maybe I can resume hiking in a few days. No Rush said he would wait here for a couple of days so that made me feel better. At least the hostel is a nice place to stay and the people all make you feel like part of the group. The group observes the Sabbath from Friday night to Sunday noon and is open 24 hours a day the rest of the time. They invited hikers to join them for dinner this evening, we had turkey and noodles, salad, and broccoli. It was all very good. The rest of the evening I talked with family members and told them what was going on and hopefully I can continue hiking soon. It was Saturday night and the bar across the street was really busy and noisy until well after midnight. My bed was right by the window but I did manage to get some sleep.