Broken Foot* ( *Toe)

Is it a rite of passage in Ashtanga to break a foot (or a toe) jumping through?



If so, I am a woman now.



Yes, yesterday, I caught my pinky toe on the sticky, tacky rubberized eco-Manduka. Damn eco-friendly rubber. It was all well and good until I laid a beach towel over the damn thing to roll around in Garba Pindasana, and then moved the towel off the mat for Setu Bandasana. When I jumped through, I was expecting the mat to be as slippery as it was before. Well, damn, if rubber doesn't wipe up fast. It was as dry as dust, and as sticky as, well, as rubber can be. And it caught my lazy right toe as I tried to skim it through on the jump through.



Twang.



What?



Oooooh! CRAP!



NO, this cannot be happening the day before my kids leave for camp, also known as the day I begin to do whatever I want whenever I want for however long that I want.



Ah, but it did happen.



Nevertheless, I finished my practice, and even had a pretty delightful, albeit cautious practice (never has my chest been as open in backbending as when I'm fixated on not letting my pinky toe touch the ground), which left out Bakasana B (I just did A twice), which involved no further jumping of any kind and no dropbacks. But my backbends were so delightful, so open in the chest, that I did about six from the floor, each one held longer than the last, until I was up to about 15 breaths. That is definitely a record for me.



Not that we keep track of such things in yoga.



No.



Came home, went about my business for a little bit, soon decided to go to the Rexall for some tape so that my toe wouldn't be hanging off of my foot, which kind of exacerbated the pain, and my pharmacist took one look at me, shoeless, breathless, a bit disheveled and said, "Get yourself to Northern Westchester Hospital, NOW."



I argued with him: I don't wanna get an X-Ray. I don't wanna wait to be seen. I don't wanna be told I have to stay off my foot.



Needless to say, I lost the argument, and off I went. An hour later, I had a splint and a pair of crutches.



I will be at practice on Monday though. New York Yoga with the Good Doctor. Broken toe be damned.



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