Hand Injuries and Lunch Choices.. Yikes!

Every mall has different food choices, and especially when I think about comparing Canadian choices to American... but the basic selections are the same, even if the company names/brands and ethnicities tend to vary a little.  I dread food courts, quite honestly.

This afternoon I was scheduled to see a physiotherapist at a hand clinic.  !!  Weird, huh?  Well,  about three weeks ago, The Captain and I set out to play golf one morning.  We stopped at a driving range and hit some balls, then went to a golf course that has an awesome practise area to putt and chip a few, before planning to carry on to yet another course up the road to play.

While The Captain was chipping and pitching, I threw a few balls into a nearby sand bunker and proceeded to smash some awesome shots up to the same pin he was aiming at.  Afer the 6th really good shot, I felt a twinge in my right hand and noticed a bruise quickly forming around the base of my right index finger and I felt a real sting.  I quit hitting shots and walked out of the bunker and when I picked up the rake to tidy up my shoe prints in the sand behind me, I felt acute pain at the base of my finger where it meets the bone at top edge of my palm.  Swelling, pain, bruising.  I was done for the day.  I got to watch The Captain hit golf balls for another hour but at least it was sunny and I had a huge cup of coffee to keep me company.

Well, fast forward three weeks... the swelling is gone, the bruise is gone, but the pain remains and I now have an angry little red bump on the spot where the impact occurred.  Of course I am right-handed and am constantly aggravating it.  I guess I could stop picking up dumbbells and my kettlebell, and avoid using kitchen utensils....  NOT likely.

Hard to see, but believe me it HURTS!



So, I nipped in to a walk-in clinic yesterday while The Captain was checking on the boat. and the doc that I saw there told me she thought it was probably due to the impact, but that it might be a ganglion cyst and gave me a referral to a hand clinic.

A hand clinic.    I had no idea such a thing even existed but when I got home I made an appointment to go there this afternoon at 1:40 p.m. and there you have the beginnings of this story.

This morning I went to a Weight Watchers meeting - great topic by the way, which I shall share soon, and it ended about 10:30 a.m.  The Captain had been wandering around the small shopping centre where the meeting centre is located, doing some shopping for me,  and then we got in the car and drove to a different, much larger mall, near the clinic. I though we could amuse ourselves there until it was time for my appointment and have a bite of lunch.

We wandered the shops and looked at clothing and at books and games and groused about the fact that the stores are already displaying Christmas decorations even though it is not yet Hallowe'en, and yes, we did eventually have lunch.

The food court in this particular mall is extremely busy.  The mall is undergoing a massive renovation and the food court was abustle with constructioin workers, students from the nearby college and high school, mommies out on shopping excursions, elderly couples, and who knows who else.  Busy.

I knew before we arrived that The Captain would be selecting his lunch from Fortune Wok. There are a few dishes there that he loves and this is the only place he ever has them.... me, I have such a hard time making a decision in this food court that on past occasions, I have actually taken my own lunch along, just to avoid the decision and the food that I perceive as junk.

Yes, it looks just like this.

Going from one kiosk to the other there is: Starbucks, Dairy Queen/Orange Julius, NY Fries, A&W (hamburgers again), Taco Time, McDonalds. Benny's Bagels, Shogun (Japanese), Opa Souvlaki, Fortune Wok, Tim Horton's (donuts).   I had California rolls once from the Japanese place and they were pretty awful.  I have eaten food from Fortune Wok and it tasted great but it is enough calories for 3 days of lunches.  I opted for Benny's Bagels as the least of the evil options.

I selected a veggie burger (based on mushrooms) on a gluten-free toasted bagel with all the goodies... cream cheese, alfalfa sprouts, tomatoes, avocado, a bit of mozzarella cheese, green peppers and red onion slices.  Wow! It was delicious, but I am sure it would have fed us both.

Something like this.

 



We did a bit more walking and then finally went to the hand clinic... where I saw the nicest, kindest, young male physiotherapist, who assured me, after questioning me thoroughly and examining my hand, that the painful lump at the base of my finger is non-functioning and non-essential torn tendon tissue and that the inflamation and pain will go away, eventually, altough the lump likely never will.  He gave me some options for relieving the pain and annoyance factor while it heals.  Nice guy, happy solution for now, hurray!  I was feeling pretty good about that finally.

But that lunch stayed with me till about 5 p.m. when I started to finally thinking about making us a small dinner.

What do you do when faced with making a food court choice?   What kind of meal do you select?

Do you ever take your own lunch to a mall food court?

Have you ever heard of a hand clinic?