Medic!

Thanksgiving noon while I drove off to pick up her parents, Sue thought she'd take a walk around the neighborhood. She stepped into a pothole and fell. We thought she had a bad sprain, and wrapped it and heated/iced it as required, and that Saturday we went to my HS reunion in NJ. She wore a slipper-sock on that foot as it was still too swollen for a shoe, or even a sneaker.

Finally the next Thursday we took her in to the local clinic/emergency room (she has no primary care physician). They X-rayed, determined she had a hairline fracture at the end of the bone supporting the main bone (why she could stand/walk: the main bone was OK), and gave her a plastic splint/support and an appointment at an orthopedist.

The orthopedist pooh-poohed the splint ("that's for sprains") and gave
her a massive ski-boot-looking walking cast, with all sorts of velcro
straps and a Reebok-like air pump button. She was disallowed to walk
except for short periods. At work they tried her at register, jewelry
counter, and fitting room, all with a stool, but it was too awkward.
She had over 212 hours (!) of sick time (it accumulates) so they just
told her to go home. After the doctor (actually a PA first-named, no
kidding, Velvet) put her out for a month, they made her (me) do the
paperwork for a Leave of Absence under the FMLA. Now, after a
follow-up at the beginning of the month, she is out still until the
next app't on the 31st.

They did just get her a gizmo, an ultrasound bone-healer that she
straps over the fracture for 20 minutes a day and is supposed to speed
healing. She is going nuts sitting around the house all day. She can't
drive with the boot on, or stomp on the brakes if necessary if she
drove with it off. Her friends have been dropping by, and calling, and
taking her out, but even so she wants to get back to work.