The Kicker

[diffrentcolours]

Last night I was having a relatively pleasant dream after a nasty anxiety dream. I was playing some kind of 5-a-side football match as a LGBT+ charity fundraiser. The referee was a drag queen, and the players were activists. I'm not very good at football even in my dreams, and my side were losing heavily. At one point I saw the ball coming towards me, an open goal in front of me, and I took the opportunity to level the score a little by kicking the ball hard...

...and woke up in agony, having just kicked the bedside cabinets really hard in my sleep.

I had an ingrown toenail on my right foot many years ago, which required surgery to correct, and it's always been a bit weird since. The kick pushed the nail up off the bed by about a centimetre, folding it back. There's a bleed under the nail which leaked out the side a little. As I sat up examining my foot in the phone torchlight (trying not to wake cosmolinguist), I considered going and getting a cool pack or similar to reduce swelling, but figured that having to walk downstairs would probably be worse overall.

It took me ages to get back to sleep due to the shock, and I didn't sleep well because of the pain. Today I've just been feeling slightly sick from the lack of sleep. The toenail is still sore, still bruised. I've trimmed it back to stop it catching on socks etc. I'm glad gym circuits class is cancelled due to the Bank Holiday, as I'd probably need to skip it anyway.

And I never got to find out if I scored a goal!

Comments

[cosmolinguist]

Oh that's what you were doing with your phone! I saw that and was like "I'm not sure he's awake yet, this is very odd behavior..." :) For future reference, the bedside light is not going to wake me up. And I am always happy to go get you an ice pack or something.

[apiphile]

Oh no, that's awful! I have a similar problem with my foot and absolutely just winced in sympathy. I'm choosing to believe you scored a goal so good you won the whole match.