Doctor, It Hurts When I Do This

The doctor bid me to take my clothes off and lie down on the examination table. I hesitated, but slowly complied, and explained how the groin pull two Fridays ago made it hard to lie down.

Looking at my thigh, he said "That's a significant bruise! It looks like you really hurt yourself! No doubt you tore some muscle!"

I replied that the bruise appeared about the same time as the groin pull, but I wasn't sure the two were connected, since it's so easy to bumble into furniture during a show anyway and get bruises. And besides, this bruise was eight inches away, or so, from the groin pull.

He replied, "Oh, there's no doubt the two are connected. It's called gravity. The torn muscle bleeds, and the blood runs down the inside of the leg and pools just below the skin of the thigh."

Oh!

I explained how I had continued doing aerobics despite the injury. Last night I felt like a shambles, huffing and puffing, and it hurt like Ow! Ow! Ow!, but I was still more active than the week before. Rather than cautioning me against the activity, the doctor said I was courageous to continue. He suggested heat compresses and said it would heal in eight weeks time.