Sometimes I’m like a little kid. I get really excited about something and run off to look at it.

I’ve learned this about myself and I’m always aware (now) to let others know I’m wandering off. (Actually, I think Carrie compensates now for my wandering off nature. But I also think I’m better at telling people I’m wandering off than I was when I was 10 years old (when – on the same family vacation, 2 days in a row, I got separated from my family in the San Diego zoo for 2 hours, and at Disneyland for about 30 minutes)).

I also am always aware of my surroundings, particularly as we travel.

However, I missed something while running to play on the playground at the high school in Oulu, Finland, and that is how I learned the Finnish word for X-Ray: Rontgen.

As I was running to the spinning swing thing, something grabbed hold of my shoe and wouldn’t let go.

And so I went from running full-force, to falling forward in one fell swoop. I protected the camera by putting it out in front of me, but that also meant slamming into the ground hands first, then knees.

In something of a couple shock, I laid there for half a second and then realized how much my hand hurt. I got up off the ground quite quickly to check the camera.

Camera = good.

Then a mental check…
Hand/wrist = questionable.
Knees = banged up, but okay.

Turns out, someone had bent the bike rack (seemingly by riding a motorbike or car over the top of it, and a piece of metal was left dangling off the side.

That metal had gotten hidden in the mulch of the playground, and as I ran forward, the metal caught (and ripped) the toe of my shoe, and stopped me cold in my tracks as I ran.

I waited a week to go and get the Rontgen (X-ray). My hand, wrist, elbows, knees, and shoulder were, after all, getting better day-by-day. But I was fairly certain I had broken my third metatarsal (the middle finger bone in your hand), and after the swelling was still there and I’d spent a whole week icing it, I decided it was time to make sure things were going to continue to improve (without getting a cast).

Anu had a doctor friend call in the order for the X-ray (Thanks Anu!) and we found out it was going to be 72 Euros (about $100).

After the X-ray, I expected to receive some kind of film viewing… you know… where they stick the oversized x-ray film up on a wall and flip on the light behind it. But that was silly of me to think.

Of course these days, X-rays are digital. In exchange for my 72 euros, I got a CD with three pictures on it.

That was a bit anti-climactic actually.

But the nice thing about them being digital is that I can share them with you easily.

I still have some soreness in the tendons of my hand (four weeks later), and some soreness in my shoulder.

However, it didn’t need to be casted, and out of this, I got to have an experience with the Finnish hospital and the Rontgen.

All-in-all, a pretty small price to pay, both in wear/tear on my body and in the cost for the X-ray itself.