October 18, 2018: Aches, Pains and Fifth Act Frustrations!

I was stumbling back from the bathroom in pitch darkness when my shin connected with the bed frame with such force that I thought I actually moved the damn thing.  But no.  Akemi was still fast asleep.  Not a surprise.  She is, after all, a notoriously sound sleeper, snoozing through everything from doggy accidents to car alarms.  But the next day, she asked me if I’d run into the bed.  “Oh, you WERE awake,”I said.  Turns out, no. She just noticed the dried blood on the frame.

The impact had left a nasty bruise and slight indent that I treated with polysporin and hope, then thought nothing of it.  In the ensuing weeks, I did A LOT of walking.  To the writers’ room and back.  To the grocery store and back.   To the dog park and back.  And I started to notice a certain pain that I initially attributed to shin splints.  Further (internet) research suggested that what I had initially assumed to be a shin splint is probably a stress fracture, and the only way to relieve a stress fracture is rest.  I need to keep off it – which is, as it turns out, easier said than done.  This was made abundantly clear yesterday after, a day of meetings had sent me zigzagging across the downtown area, I returned home late last night to pain, swelling, and a girlfriend insisting I get it checked.

So, tomorrow, at noon, I get it checked out.  I’ve got a little over five weeks before my Tokyo trip and have to be fully healed before then.  I average around 25 000 daily steps on my Tokyo travels and I can’t afford to be hampered by a leg injury.  Unless, of course, Akemi is willing to piggyback me around Ginza and Akihabara.

I’m just going to consider that as a last resort.

In the meantime, I’ll try to make the best of things – and rely on my downstairs neighbor, Ivon, to help me out whenever I need to run errands…

I was assailed by another kind of pain this evening, that singular agony that comes from trying to crack a pesky fifth act scene.  Only six more pages and I’ll be free to catch a Halloween matinee.  So near and yet so far!

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